There’s a common misconception that only rich people can afford high end HD gaming. Let me tell you that for playing games of your choice at resolutions as high as 1080p, you don’t necessarily need a high end graphics card. Moreover, there’s a wide variety of low budget graphic cards which can easily run games at ultra high settings. Such graphic cards aren’t very difficult to find, you just need to be aware of a few factors that I’ll tell you about in this article.
Here I am equipping you with a catalogue of latest graphic cards that cost less than 150$. Using any one of these, you can easily run games like FIFA 16, GTA V or Witcher 3 at 40+ frames per second. These cards are best suited for you if your gaming build budget is around 500$.
#1. Gigabyte Radeon Rx 460 Windforce OC 2GB
RX 460 is the latest of AMD’s recent creations. It can be purchased for prices as low as 100$ and is both DirectX 12 and Vulkan compatible. For an entry level card, this one is better than all the previous graphic cards produced by both Nvidia and AMD in the following price category. Including the Nvidia GTX 750 Ti and the AMD R7 360.
I personally recommend replacing any of these with the new Rx 460 for improved performance. The top feature of this graphic card is its low power drawing ability. Its power intake sits at 75 watts which is exceptionally low as compared to its competitors. This also means that Rx 460 will draw power from the PCIeX16 slot by default and an external power supply won’t be required.
When it comes to dealing with excessive heat, the Rx460 Windforce utilizes its dual fan cooler which as orange Windforce edition made especially for this model.
Specifications:
| Memory | 2gb Gddr5 |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit |
| Core Clock | 1354Mhz/1455Mhz boost clock |
| Cuda Cores | 640 |
| Architecture | Pascal |
| SLI | No |
| DirectX | 12 |
| Outputs | 1xHDMI 1xDVI-I 1xDisplay Port |
My Verdict: With 2gbs of memory and 128 bit bus width, this card is your best option for HD gaming at a low price.
#2. Gigabyte Radeon Rx 460 Windforce OC 4GB:
When it comes to graphic card storage capacities, the sweeter the better rule shall be applied. Above mentioned Rx 460 2gb is a very good card in low price but it still doesn’t put you up with the required memory size for HD gaming. The standard of memory set by Nvidia and AMD for 1080p gaming is 4gb. There isn’t a lot of special stuff about this model except the increased memory size that will help you in running games like Fallout 4 and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor at ultra graphics.
Specifications:
| Memory | 4gb Gddr5 |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit |
| Core Clock | 1015Mhz |
| Memory Clock | 7000Mhz |
| Architecture | Polaris |
| CrossfireX | No |
| DirectX | 12 |
| Outputs | 1xHDMI 1xDVI-D 1xDP |
My Verdict: You may opt for this card if spending $50 on 2gbs of graphic memory seems reasonable to you.
#3. Zotac Geforce Gtx 1050 2Gb Gddr5
Nvidia has followed its classic pascal GP107 architecture here. Many experts believe that Nvidia certainly released this model to cope up with the AMD Rx 460 as this also runs at 75 watts power consumption. There’s no 6 pin power port as well, which means you won’t be able to over-clock this device with the Zotac.
The card has had to suffer its fair bit of criticism for not having any Gpu boosting option because these entry level graphic cards are often over-clocked by users to improve their working potential.
Yet the Gtx 1050 still beats both its predecessors Gtx 750 ti and Gtx 950 by a fair margin. The Gtx 950 is expected to be completely useless in the market soon because of its higher price.
Specifications:
| Memory | 2gb Gddr5 |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit |
| Core Clock | 1354Mhz/1455Mhz boost clock |
| Cuda Cores | 640 |
| Architecture | Pascal |
| SLI | No |
| DirectX | 12 |
| Outputs | 1xHDMI 1xDVI-I 1xDisplay Port |
My Verdict: This card is a good option as it allows you to play all games with ultra settings at around 50 fps in less than 150$.
#4. Zotac Geforce Gtx 1050 ti 4Gb Gddr5
In case you don’t want to compromise on the graphic quality at all, get increased Vram in this enhanced version of Gtx 1050. It comes in handy while playing games like Fallout 4 at ultra graphics as i mentioned before.
Gtx 1050 ti succeeds its older version Gtx 1050 by 20% faster work rate and double graphic memory. Although AMD’s 4gb version of Rx 470 is much faster than this but the Gtx 1050 ti is still worth the cash according to me.
Specifications:
| Memory | 4gb Gddr5 |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit |
| Core Clock | 1303MHz/1417MHz boost clock |
| Cuda Cores | 768 |
| Architecture | Pascal |
| SLI | No |
| DirectX | 12 |
| Outputs | 1xHDMI 1xDL-DVI 1xDisplay Port |
My Verdict: Go for this card if you are an Nvidia fan and can spare a little more cash than 150$.
For now, this is our list of the best budget graphics cards under $150. We will be updating our selections as newer models are released. Meanwhile, please feel free to share your feedback by commenting below.
