It has been a long time coming, but affordable graphics cards are finally here. But here we want to focus on the details of a handful of those budget graphics cards so that you can choose the right one and get the most for your money.

You might be surprised to learn that GPU shipments are now historically low after a surge in graphics card demand completely outpaced supply for the majority of the entire GPU generation. Indeed, this is a bit of a problem for AMD and Nvidia. But this Black Friday is playing right into our hands, as PC builders can get substantial discounts on most graphics cards.

This means that we are in something of a buyer's market for graphics cards, but to make the most of your budget and get the best graphics card for your machine, it is very important to really consider your options. AMD's RX 6000 series and Nvidia's RTX 30 series are head-to-head in performance per dollar, and past conclusions about which is best are often not valid today.

The truth of the matter is that "AMD's free-for-all. The Red Team's RDNA 2 graphics cards are now priced well below MSRP, which has changed my impression of most graphics cards. Cards that were at best second best to Nvidia's RTX 30 series are now the best value, like the RX 6650 XT and RX 6600.

The Radeon RX 6600 is probably the cheapest graphics card I can recommend right now. I included it in this guide when it was at its lowest price of $210, and it has since dropped to $190. It is a 1080p graphics card, and at that resolution it delivers the all-important 60 fps that modern games demand. At a minimum. When running really well, it can even match the output of a 144 Hz 1080p monitor.

The RX 6600 XT was originally released as a $329 card, but it didn't quite live up to its price; the RX 6600 lacked the pace to compete with Nvidia's similarly priced RTX 3060 12GB. With more memory and better ray tracing capabilities, the RX 6600 was my personal preferred green team GPU when I reviewed both. But all that has changed now; the RTX 3060 rarely sells for anywhere near MSRP, if ever. The RX 6600, on the other hand, currently sells for just over $200.

Simply put, the RX 6600 is the graphics card to buy this Black Friday if you cannot stretch your budget any further.

For more detailed statistics, see our AMD RX 6600 Review (opens in new tab).

1080p Performance

For a little more money than the RX 6600, you can buy the improved RX 6650 XT, which has 14% more shader cores (stream processors) than the RX 6600 and a frame rate of 1080 This is a great value proposition for the p-gamer's egg.

The RX 6600 XT could have been featured here, as the card is roughly the same price as the RX 6650 XT. It is slightly slower, however, and since the RX 6650 XT seems to be in generally good supply, there is no reason not to go for it (availability varies by region). [Read our review of the AMD RX 6650 XT (opens in new tab).

1080p Performance

When I say that my opinion of AMD's inexpensive RDNA 2 cards has been completely turned upside down, there was one GPU that I thought wasn't half bad when it first launched. That's the Radeon RX 6700 XT, a not-quite-as-intense competitor to the RTX 3070 that offers excellent 1080p/1440p performance and ample memory. It is quite a step up from the RX 6600 series as it uses a completely different GPU.

The price is much lower than when this card was first released. Today, the RX 6700 XT sells for around $400, and a slightly inferior version, the RX 6700, sells for around $350. Importantly, this is cheaper than the price of Nvidia's RTX 3060 Ti (opens in new tab).

The RTX 3060 Ti is probably one of the RTX 30 series cards that I still view relatively favorably. While not necessarily cheap, as it still sells for MSRP ($400 (open in new tab)), this card was always the best value among the 30-series GPUs. At least until its successor arrives, which may still be some time away. Currently, we feel that AMD has the edge over Nvidia in terms of price, but if you really don't want to switch to the red team, the RTX 3060 Ti is your best bet today.

See our AMD RX 6700 XT review (opens in new tab) for more details.

1440p Performance