Key Takeaways
- With a target of 1080p lowest settings and no ray tracing, Cyberpunk 2077 can be played on a $450 gaming PC.
- The RX 580 8GB and Ryzen 5 5500 work great together to deliver an average 50 FPS performance with the help of FSR.
- A B450M motherboard, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and 500GB SSD can be used to keep the costs as low as possible.
In 2024, Cyberpunk 2077 might not be the most demanding game to run, but it’s still used by many as an unofficial benchmark to test gaming PC performance. Even without its heavy ray tracing effects, the game is seriously punishing on any hardware. While it’s always exciting to talk about the only GPUs you should buy for Cyberpunk 2077’s path tracing mode, I thought about indulging in a fun experiment that tackles the other extreme.
How about building the cheapest gaming PC possible, with all new parts, that is just able to run Cyberpunk 2077 at playable framerates? I’m talking 1080p low settings, ray tracing disabled, upscaling enabled, and a target of 50 FPS on average (if not more). These are obviously not the ideal conditions to experience a game like Cyberpunk 2077, but the aim here is to see if we can get somewhat playable performance by spending as little as possible.
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Building the cheapest gaming PC for Cyberpunk 2077
With my target being budget minimization, current-gen components are immediately out of consideration. Any AM5 or 13th/14th Gen system with, say, an RTX 40/RTX 30/RX 7000/RX 6000 graphics card can run Cyberpunk 2077. But, to truly build a dirt-cheap gaming PC, we need to look at even cheaper options. Let’s see what I’ve come up with.
The CPU and motherboard
For the foundation of this build, I’ve picked the Ryzen 5 5500 from AMD, a 6-core processor that’s regularly available for as low as $90. While it’s not as powerful as the Ryzen 5 5600 or 5600X (which were favorites for budget builds), it doesn’t need to be. For our purposes, it fits nicely as a CPU capable enough to support the GPU we’ll be choosing for this build. Plus, it comes with a decent stock cooler.
The compatible motherboard I’ve chosen for the 5500 is the ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0. This board is nothing special, but it can easily handle the Ryzen 5 5500, and the best part is that it’s quite cheap at around $60 (which is what we want at this time). So, for $150, we’ve covered both the CPU and motherboard for our dirt-cheap gaming build.
AMD Ryzen 5 5500
$88 $98 Save $10
The Ryzen 5 5500 is a low-end AMD CPU that has six cores, 12 threads, and 16MB of L3 cache, half that of its higher-end but more expensive counterpart, the Ryzen 5 5600. But, it’s still capable enough for a cheap gaming PC.
ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0
$60 $80 Save $20
TheASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 is an entry-level B450 motherboard compatible with Ryzen 3000 and Ryzen 5000 processors. It features PCIe 3.0 M.2 NVMe support, Gigabit LAN, and is a good pick for extremely low-budget builds.
The GPU
Coming to the most critical component in a gaming PC, I’ve picked the humble RX 580. This non-RTX card might not be winning any awards for performance in 2024, but as it turns out, it’s surprisingly capable of driving a demanding game like Cyberpunk 2077 at low settings. And while DLSS support isn’t there, it can make use of AMD’s FSR 2.1 to help boost FPS.
Launched for $229, the RX 580 can now be had for only around $130 on sites like Amazon. During sales, you could see it drop even lower. Its 8GB VRAM is definitely a plus if you want to raise the texture quality in-game, and the overall performance is not too shabby. After all, the RX 580 was a champ that was preferred by many budget games even years after its initial launch. Including the GPU, our current total is now $280 (not too bad).
XFX Radeon RX 580
$120 $130 Save $10
TheXFX Radeon RX 580 is an old but still-capable graphics card for low-budget gaming builds. Its performance exceeds that of some newer and pricier GPUs like the GTX 1650, and it’s more or less equal to the costlier GTX 1650 Super.
The RAM and SSD
For a cheap DDR4 build like this one, you don’t need to think too much about memory. The sweet spot for DDR4 RAM would be a 16GB kit rated at 3,600MT/s and CL18. The TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z DDR4 RAM is one of the best DDR4 RAM you can get at its price. It provides great performance for any budget DDR4 build and comes in a great design too. For under $40, you’re getting 16GB of fast DDR4 RAM, and that’s a great deal.
I strongly wanted an SSD for this system despite wanting to minimize the budget as much as possible. The TEAMGROUP MP44L 500GB Gen4 SSD is one of the best SSDs for this build (despite the motherboard supporting only PCIe 3.0) since it is the same price as competing PCIe 3.0 SSDs. If you upgrade to a new PCIe 4.0 system, you could make use of the enhanced speeds later. I could have picked a 1TB SSD, but again, I wanted to keep the costs at a minimum.
The total now stands at around $360.
TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z DDR4
$37 $47 Save $10
You can find a 16GB, 3600MT/s, CL18 kit of Teamgroup’s T-Force Vulcan Z DDR4 memory at an affordable price. It’s one of the best DDR4 RAM you can buy for a budget gaming PC.
TEAMGROUP MP44L 500GB
$38 $44 Save $6
The TEAMGROUP MP44L is a value-focused SSD that provides impressive Gen4 performance for gaming without costing a lot. The 500GB variant combines affordability and performance in a package that’s more attractive than many similarly-priced Gen3 SSDs. You can still choose it for your Gen3-based system, as you can access the extra performance when you upgrade your motherboard down the line.
The power supply and case
A gaming PC with an RX 580 and a Ryzen 5 5500 doesn’t need more than a 450W power supply. The EVGA 500 BV is a good 80+ Bronze-rated, 500W power supply for gaming, which is more than enough for this build. It comes with 3 years of warranty, silent operation, and EVGA’s reliability. It’s a non-modular unit, but at around $45, that’s no concern.
Finally, for the case, I’ve picked the trusted Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L, a highly dependable micro-ATX case with plenty of airflow, component clearance, and a tempered glass side panel. It also has magnetic dust filters, and for only $40, you can’t ask for more. A PSU shroud would have been a nice addition, especially since our PSU is non-modular, but esthetics certainly won’t be a priority in this build.
The final total comes to approximately $445.
EVGA 500 BV
$40 $50 Save $10
The EVGA 500 BV is an 80+ Bronze-rated, 500W power supply that is ideal for budget builds that don’t need a whole lot of power. The 80+ Bronze efficiency coupled with the 3-year warranty makes for a decent unit that can power most entry-level gaming PCs.
Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L
Cooler Master’s MasterBox Q300L is a budget PC case for micro-ATX motherboards, featuring a tempered glass side panel, a 120mm rear fan, and magnetic dust filters.
How does it perform with Cyberpunk 2077?
Now, we come to the big question — how does it perform? As I said, my target here is 1080p low settings with ray tracing disabled and making full use of FSR 2.1. It turns out that the RX 580, supported by the Ryzen 5 5500, can actually deliver around 50+ FPS on average at the Low preset with FSR Quality. You can even turn the texture quality to High and still get these framerates.
Turning FSR from the Quality to the Performance mode will net you even more performance, but the visual trade-off might not be worth it. Obviously, there’s no ray tracing to be had here, but I think this PC successfully completes the mission of running Cyberpunk 2077 at playable framerates at Full HD resolution.
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The case against budget PCs
Even though you can technically cut costs (and corners) and build a gaming PC for under $500 to play games like Cyberpunk 2077 at the lowest settings, this is something you should avoid if you can. You lose out a lot in visual quality and fidelity once you drop below a certain performance class in gaming PCs. Of course, if the budget is strict and the aim is just to enjoy eSports games and even AAA games at low settings, one can’t argue against building a dirt-cheap PC.
Another approach could be to keep saving money to build a PC with a better budget down the line. If you can’t wait, go ahead and build an entry-level system, or maybe just buy a console. At the $500 mark, it’s tough for a gaming PC to beat a console in hardware chops. Whatever you decide, ensure you’re honest with yourself about your expectations, consume as much content as you can on this topic, and then make a decision.
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