I remember the days when buying an Nvidia Geforce2 was such a big deal, but now, thankfully, graphic cards have become much more affordable and gaming isn’t something relegated to people who can shell out big bucks.
Over the years both Nvidia and AMD have made their GPUs more accessible to the masses and gaming on 1080p won’t break your bank. If you’re one of our budget-friendly gamers looking for entry level graphics cards under $100, you’ve come to the right place.
In this post we are sharing our latest selection of the cheapest graphics cards you can get for under $100 and still play games on your PC.
#1. Gigabyte AMD Radeon R7 240 DDR3 2GB – $55
Possibly the cheapest graphics card you can buy for gaming under $100, the AMD Radeon R7 240 is reliable for gaming at around 720p. The card comes in two varieties: one of them has a GDDR3 built and 2GB VRAM while the other one has 1GB VRAM but supports GDDR5 which makes it faster than its previous version.
The version with 2GB of memory still lacks behind the GDDR5 version because it isn’t about the memory only. Memory isn’t the main focus here because let’s face it, the card won’t be supporting any high end HD gaming after all. However, this shall suffice for playing any game at medium graphics and for the money, it is definitely worth it.
Specifications:
- OC Edition – Core Clock: 900 MHz (Std 780 MHz)
- Powered by AMD Radeon R7 240 GPU
- Integrated with the first 2048MB DDR3 memory and 128-bit memory interface
- The vendor SKU for this item is GV-R724OC-2GI
- GIGABYTE custom-designed 10 cm cooler
- Ultra Durable 2 Series
- OC Edition – Core Clock: 900 MHz(Std 780 MHz)
- System power supply requirement: 400W
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#2. EVGA GeForce GT 730 2GB DDR3 128bit – $68
This is another cheap graphics card which gives fair gaming performance at 720p. To further cut costs, we’ve picked the low-profile version but we chose the 128-bit memory bandwidth version over the 64-bit, which gives a noticeable difference in frame rate for very little extra cost.
Other than that you have a standard entry level card with PCI-E 2.0 and a base clock of 700 and memory clock of 1400. Don’t expect any miracles with this, but it will allow you to start low level gaming and play games from a couple years ago fairly well.
Specifications:
- Bus Type: PCI-E 2.0
- Memory Detail: 2048MB DDR3
- Memory Bit Width: 128 Bit
- EVGA’s 24/7 Technical Support
- Base Clock: 700 MHz
- Memory Clock: 1400 MHz Effective
- CUDA Cores: 96
- Memory Detail: 2048MB DDR3
- Memory Bit Width 128 Bit / Memory Bandwidth: 22.4 GB/s
- Recommended PSU: 300W or greater power supply (Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 20 Amps.)
- 240Hz Max Refresh Rate; Max Analog : 2048×1536;Max Digital : 2560×1600
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#3. ASUS AMD Radeon R7 250 2 GB GDDR5 – $80
Put in a little more cash and that’ll get you an upgraded version of the 240 – AMD’s R7 250. This card is built to perform 20-30% faster than its predecessor and when you compare bang for buck for this card and the last one, this one is the clear winner.
So we strongly recommend you to chip in 25 more bucks and go for the R7 250 if your budget allows. 2GB video memory allows you to run all games at 768p, some can run smoothly at 1080p as well.
Recommended for you: Best Budget Gaming Graphics Cards Under $150
This card can comfortably run games like Bioshock Infinite, Fifa 16 and Battlefield 4 at 768p on medium settings. High settings can also be tried with tweaking some options here and there. As for more demanding games, you may need to do with low settings, but the card delivers what you paid for.
Specifications:
- Memory 1gb GGDDR5
- Memory Interface 128-bit
- Core Clock 725Mhz/925Mhz boost clock
- Steam Processors 384
- Architecture GCN
- CrossfireX Yes
- DirectX 11.2
- Outputs 1xHDMI
- 1xDVI-I
- 1xDP
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#4. EVGA Nvidia GT 740 SC 2GB GDDR5 – $91
NVIDIA’s GT 740 comes in a lot of variants, including DDR3 and DDR5 VRAM chips in 2 and 4GB configurations. However, we don’t recommend the DDR3 VRAM model because it’s not as powerful as the DDR5 one, and the price difference between the two is negligible.
This graphics card is faster than both AMD’s versions mentioned above and gives good performance at 768p and medium to high settings. You can easily find this card for a price around $90 in the market. Its 1GB version can be purchased for $10 less but that isn’t worth compromising 1GB of video memory.
The unique factor about this low budget card is that alongside regular games it can also run popular high intensity games like Witcher 3 on medium settings with ease. On the other hand, playing Battlefield 4 and GTA V at 1080p full HD and 30+ fps is an easy job for this graphics card due to Nvidia’s optimizations.
Specifications:
- Memory 2gb GGDDR5
- Memory Interface 128-bit
- Core Clock 1085Mhz
- Memory Clock 5000Mhz
- Architecture Kepler
- SLI No
- DirectX 11
- Outputs 1xHDMI
- 2xDVI
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#5. Gigabyte AMD R7 360 2GB GDDR5 – $100
AMD’s R7 300 series graphic cards feature an excellent balance of performance on a budget. The R7 360 has 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM and is DirectX 12 compatible. It can run games at resolutions as high as 1080p on medium and high settings and can easily give 40 fps in most new games.
The R7 360 competes quite easily with the stock GTX 750 and you’ll be able to get decent performance form this card, well worth the $100.
Specifications:
- Memory 2gb Gddr5
- Memory Interface 128-bit
- Core Clock 1050Mhz
- Stream Processors 768
- Architecture GCN
- CrossfireX yes
- DirectX 12
- Outputs 1xHDMI
- 1xDVI-I
- 1xDP
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#6. ASUS GeForce GTX 750Ti SC 2GB GDDR5 – $90 (after rebate)
Editor’s Favorite
The Nvidia GTX 750Ti is now in our list of graphics cards under $100 after rebate. While the GTX 750 was a decent card, this super clocked Ti version goes a step further and provides good value for money. At this price range it’s now competing with the R7 360 and RX 460 and in my opinion, it becomes a matter of preference now.
I for one am biased towards Nvidia, and if I had to choose one of the three cards for my personal use, it would be the 750Ti. You can easily play most new games on medium settings and even tweak and mix medium-high settings for 768p and 1080p gaming at 40+ fps.
Specifications:
- Memory Detail: 2048MB gddr5bus Type: PCI-E 3.0
- PCI Express 3.0
- Memory Bit Width: 128 Bit
- EVGA GTX 750 Ti cards give you the gaming horsepower to take on today’s most demanding titles in full 1080p HD.
- EVGA’s 24/7 Technical Support
- Base Clock: 1176 MHz / Boost Clock: 1255 MHz
- Memory Clock: 5400 MHz Effective
- CUDA Cores: 640
- Memory Detail: 2048MB GDDR5
- Memory Bit Width 128 Bit / Memory Speed: 0.4ns / Memory Bandwidth: 86.4 GB/s
- Recommended PSU: 400W or greater power supply
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#7. XFX Radeon RX 460 2GB GDDR5 – $100
The RX 460 from AMD is one amazing low budget graphic card you can get for $100. This has 100% compatibility with both DirectX 12 and Vulkan and falls into the top tier of entry level graphics cards.
This card along with other RX companions, gives enhanced performance when it comes to games like Hitman 3 or Doom. The card’s is also power efficient with a TDP of only 75 watts, which means it won’t put a lot of pressure on your power supply.
The card comes with a very nice built in heat sink to avoid any heating issues while playing high intensity games. Alongside the 2GB VRAM, this one runs on a 128 bit memory interface making it able to run 1080p games at high settings and still give above 40 fps. If you have a hundred bucks and need a nice, but cheap graphics card, this is a very good bet.
Specifications:
- Memory 2gb Gddr5
- Memory Interface 128-bit
- Core Clock 1220Mhz
- Stream Processors 896
- Architecture Polaris
- CrossfireX No
- DirectX 12
- Outputs 1xHDMI
- 1xDVI
- 1xDP
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This is all for now guys. We hope you like our updated list of the best graphics cards under $100 and the cheapest gaming options you can find on the market right now. While there are always going to be performance differences due to specification variations in all these cards, at the end of the day, you will get value for the money you decide to spend on a GPU.
Most people believe the more you spend the better, but that’s not entirely true. We believe in making prudent choices and finding the perfect balance of value for money, and that’s what all the fun in building your own gaming rigs is about. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to comment below.
