If your gaming PC is in desperate demand of a GPU upgrade and y'all want to salvage every bit much money as possible, strap yourself in, this is the guide for you. For the past weeks we've been gathering data for almost 80 AMD and Nvidia graphics cards. We've tested them all in 3 representative games using 2 quality presets each, and for the sake of our sanity, limited testing to 1080p performance.

It's not our first rodeo, and because nosotros've been doing this for a few years, we tin can confidently call this the ultimate second-paw graphics card buying guide. Our promise is to amend equip you to snag a great value deal on a used graphics carte. This feature also happens to be quite timely this yr with many of you lot trying to save money, while trying to proceed youselves entertained indoors at the aforementioned time.

For the concluding two installments nosotros tested with 3 games at 1080p using medium quality settings. Nosotros'll repeat that procedure, just in addition we'll too provide some high quality preset results. The bulk of the analysis will still rely on the medium quality data, every bit we're more focused on previous generation GPUs.

Moreover, the electric current generation of GPUs are constantly benchmarked across the web in all the latest games -- including our ain benchmarks -- so finding that data is easier and more readily available. In fact, if you want to buy a new graphics carte, we take an up-to-date dedicated guide for that here.

Our focus today instead is in the harder to find comparisons. For case, how the GeForce 900 and 10 series perform relative to Radeon 200, 300 and 500 series GPUs, and then to go the total picture we've included all the newer GPUs for reference.

In choosing the right games we tried to avoid testing titles such as Doom Eternal, which can run poorly on older hardware due to a lack of driver optimization... optimization which hopefully will eventually arrive with future commuter updates. Nosotros're also sticking to DirectX eleven every bit this API is meliorate supported past older GeForce GPUs. Finally, we chose to test using Battlefield 5, Ghost Recon Breakpoint and F1 2022.

We're using our standard GPU test system featuring a Cadre i9-9900K overclocked to 5 GHz with 16GB of DDR4-3400 retention. That volition ensure no GPU related bottlenecks are observed. Let's get started.

For all of the analysis we're looking at the 3 game average information. Anything that can't deliver an boilerplate of at least 40 fps under these exam conditions, nosotros immediately deem non worthy of your attention or money.

Looking at the Nvidia GPUs, that ways from the GTX 760 down nosotros'll be dropping xi of the GeForce GPUs. While some of the GeForce GTX 600 serial did make the cut, we'd exist cautious of buying any graphics card with just 2GB of VRAM in 2022. 4GB is the bare minimum now, and then keep that in mind as nosotros movement forward.

The older Radeon GPUs seem to fare a chip ameliorate with products such equally the Hd 7870 making the cut despite just packing 2GB of VRAM -- though again nosotros'd avert that unless your intention is to play titles such equally Rocket League, CS:Become and Fortnite with competitive settings. Grabbing something like the Radeon R9 380X or R9 290 with 4GB of VRAM, for example, would exist the wiser move. Equally for the more modernistic Radeon GPUs, annihilation in a higher place the RX 470/570 still has plenty of fight left in information technology.

With the high quality preset enabled, the GeForce GTX 670 drops below 40 fps on boilerplate while the GTX 680 and GTX 770 but skate by. About of the GPUs below the 40 fps threshold are limited to a 2GB VRAM buffer. Simply pushing over 40 fps nosotros have GPUs such as the GTX 1050 Ti, GTX 780 and GTX 1650. Once nosotros reach the GTX 1060 3GB nosotros've almost reached 60 fps on average and the 6GB 1060 and GTX 980 get u.s. in that location.

On the AMD Radeon forepart, jumping to the high quality settings sees everything below the R9 380X unable to exceed forty fps on boilerplate, and for these settings you'll ideally want a Radeon R9 290/390, or better. The Radeon RX 570 is a great option here and information technology's available with either a 4GB or 8GB memory buffer. We tested the 4GB version which did fine with this game option, but newer games will require you to tweak the texture quality settings if you have less memory at your disposal.

In total, 43 graphics cards made the cut. The margins seen in the graphs between the various AMD and Nvidia GPUs are what yous'll typically notice across a widespread of games, simply once more there are some newer titles that punish some of these older GPUs and we'll get to that in a moment, for at present let's motion onto the price assay.

Cost Per Frame

This graph contains a few unlike data points. Forth each graphics carte du jour's name, followed in brackets is the number of items sold since the start of the year on Ebay and side by side to that is the average selling price of the last 12 successful listings. The blue confined show usa the resulting price per frame and in orange the average fps.

So if you take the boilerplate selling price and divide that by the frame rate, you go the cost per frame. With this information you could also conform pricing to your region and work out which graphics card will offering you the most value. Remember, this is the average sale price, and then ideally you don't want to pay more than this and with some patience or luck there's a run a risk you tin come up in under that price.

In guild to streamline the option process we disregarded GPUs that have seen less than 40 sales since the first of the yr and we've done this because your chances of landing a Radeon R9 Fury 10, for instance, at a reasonable price is very slim and finding 1 for sale is even slimer. We as well ditched all Kepler-based GeForce models since we tin can no longer in good conscience recommend them given how poor they perform in a number of new titles.

Removing all those GPUs, we're left with only 32 viable models and rather than sort past price or cost per frame nosotros're going to stick with frame charge per unit as we experience that makes it easier to weed out the best options in each operation tier.

Winners: From least to most expensive

The outright cheapest options (when comparing the boilerplate sale cost) is the Radeon R9 270X and R9 380, both averaging out at $47. If y'all're on a tight budget we'd propose keeping an eye out for an R9 380, but make sure you become a 4GB version. Of all the GPUs tested, the Radeon R9 380 offered the all-time cost per frame. The merely consequence with that is that less than 100 of them have been sold this year, so finding a 4GB model at the right price will be harder than finding a GTX 960, of which 355 have sold although that's generally a tad more expensive for about the same performance.

If you lot have a petty more coin to play with the Radeon RX 470 is an amazingly skillful deal. Information technology'southward selling on average for but $72 and that sees it come out at a similar cost per frame to that of the R9 380. You get a little over 40% more than operation and that leads to a much better gaming experience at 1080p.

In that location'south also the RX 570 which is available in significantly higher volumes, already over 1000 of them have sold on eBay this twelvemonth and at $86 it'southward a keen good deal. Yeah, the toll per frame for the average selling toll is higher than the RX 470, only your chances of landing one for a good price are much higher.

Nvidia'south GTX 1060 6GB however makes out quite well in today's latest games, but the boilerplate auction toll for this model is only too high at $148 and we're surprised only 350 of them have sold this twelvemonth. For that level of operation you're far better off going subsequently an RX 480 or RX 580. The RX 580'south currently sell new for around $170, so grabbing 1 second-paw for around $130 is a decent saving. There's as well an insane amount of them available on the used market.

Side by side we'd turn our attention to the GTX 1070 and Vega 56, both good options for effectually $200. We recently revisited both in a head to head comparing and although the Radeon GPU is ~x% faster, we favored the GTX 1070 because there are loads of more quality AIB models, opposed to nearly none for Vega 56, and the models that do be are mostly loud and hot.

There take also been just 306 Vega 56 graphics cards sold this year, compared to a whopping 1611 GTX 1070s, so your chances of landing a quality GeForce carte for a good toll is significantly higher. Having said that, if you can find a quality Sapphire or PowerColor Vega 56 graphics carte shut to the average selling cost, that would be the mode to get, but know your chances are going to be slim.

For those able to spend around $300, both the RTX 2060 and GTX 1080 are great options and the 2060 is selling for a little less on average. Given the architectural improvements of the 2060 this would be our choice. You lot can purchase these new for around $330 though, the small discount does not justify dealing with the potential pitfalls of second-mitt shopping.

Across that, at the high end, the GTX 1080 Ti is the only selection worth because. There are plenty of them up for auction -- already 1,222 have sold this year -- the average selling price is reasonable for the resulting performance, and there are enough of quality AIB models to pick from. Paying ~25% more for a second-hand RTX 2080 for ray tracing support in a handful of games and the promise of DLSS 2.0 in a handful more just doesn't seem to be worth information technology. The Radeon Vii is also a poor pick for gamers. When spending under $200 on a used graphics card, Radeons are the manner to go, and for over $200 y'all're by and large meliorate served past a GeForce GPU.

A few closing notes. If pricing in your land or region is different, use the frame rate results every bit the best guide. Just divide the electric current asking price past the average frame rate and that volition give you the cost per frame so you can easily compare a few models in your price range. Alternatively, you can enquiry what is available for your target price point and check here to encounter which GPU offers the all-time performance. For lower-finish models that come in 2GB or 4GB versions, brand sure you get the 4GB version equally 2GB cards are going to exist a fleck of a disaster moving frontward.

We'd also be wary of buying Nvidia GPUs older than the GeForce x series. Driver optimization for Maxwell-based 900 series in upcoming games is probably going to suffer. For now they're still decent investments provided y'all can snag one for well under the boilerplate selling price. As usual, the Radeon GPUs have continued to age well, but if you want something a little more high-finish than an RX 580, for now at least the all-time options are all GeForce based.

Shopping Shortcuts:
  • GeForce GTX 1660 Super on Amazon
  • GeForce RTX 2060 on Amazon
  • GeForce RTX 2080 Super on Amazon
  • GeForce RTX 2080 Ti on Amazon
  • Radeon RX 580 on Amazon
  • Radeon RX 5600 XT on Amazon
  • Radeon RX 5700 XT on Amazon