Key Takeaways
- The RTX 4060 Ti 8GB was always destined for failure with 8GB VRAM and a non-existent gen-on-gen uplift.
- The RX 6500 XT with 4GB VRAM and laptop-grade internals is just a bad joke.
- Nvidia just stopped caring about budget gamers by the time the RTX 3050 came out.
- The flagship RTX 4090 is overpriced and largely unnecessary for the vast majority.
Graphics cards can be a touchy subject for PC gamers. Whether it’s the best gaming GPUs on the market or the worst GPUs of all time, people will always have conflicting opinions. However, most of us can probably agree on is that some graphics cards are either objectively poor products or simply unnecessary for the vast majority. Companies like Nvidia and AMD aren’t helping either by always adding new entries to the worst GPU deals you’ve ever seen.
If you happen to be hunting for a graphics card upgrade or building a new PC entirely, I’d advise you to stay away from some particularly poor-value GPUs. Most of these GPUs should never have seen the light of day, while others need some massive price cuts to become remotely sensible purchases.
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7 RTX 4060 Ti 8GB: It’s a “Ti” at least
Latest-gen GPU, but not really
The RTX 4060 Ti had a slim chance of being anything other than a dud — an 8GB GPU barely faster than the RTX 3060 Ti. In fact, the RTX 3060 Ti managed to beat it in many scenarios, making things even worse for this “budget” Ada Lovelace card. At an MSRP of $400, it’s disappointing to see this level of performance, which is further hampered by the dismal 8GB framebuffer. Nvidia’s VRAM problem was nothing new at this point, but it hurt particularly badly in the case of the RTX 4060 Ti.
If you’re shopping for a relatively affordable graphics card in the $300-$400 segment, you have much better options in the $400 RX 7700 XT with 12GB VRAM and around 10-15% higher rasterization performance. Even the similarly-performing, previous-gen RX 6800 is a great option if you can find it for cheaper than the 7700 XT.
6 RX 7600: No man’s land
This could have been a great budget card
AMD has delivered some standout offerings in the mid-range segment, offering some respite from the scourge of overpriced GPUs — the RX 7800 XT comes to mind. But with the budget-focused RX 7600, the company royally dropped the ball on what was otherwise a solid entry-level 1080p gaming GPU. Built on the older 6nm TSMC process, it doesn’t feature the benefits of the 5nm node used on the other RX 7000 series cards.
The 8GB VRAM wasn’t the biggest issue at the card’s intended 1080p resolution, but everything else was just baffling.
Plus, it comes with virtually the same specs and performance as the older (and cheaper) RX 6650 XT. The value proposition takes a dive when you consider the RTX 4060 provides significantly more performance and better upscaling for only $30 more. 8GB of VRAM wasn’t the biggest issue at the card’s intended 1080p resolution, but everything else was just baffling.
5 RTX 3070: One of Nvidia’s worst
A great card crippled by poor VRAM
You’ve probably heard the discourse on this card by now. Everyone and their grandmother have slammed Nvidia for outfitting this frankly powerful 70-class card with just 8GB of VRAM. The results of this blunder are fairly obvious — the card suffers from frame drops and improperly loaded textures once its VRAM runs out. Low VRAM is an issue across all GPUs. But for a card of this caliber, it’s painfully more so.
You should rather go with the RTX 4070 , which costs only around $50 more.
For those who bought this GPU and encountered poor performance a few years down the line, it turned out to be one of the worst purchases they ever made. If you’re considering it in 2024, you should rather go with the RTX 4070, which costs only around $50 more in the current market but brings all the generational improvements of the Ada Lovelace architecture along with Frame Generation for those sweet FPS.
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4 RX 6500 XT: Was this a joke?
4GB GPU for $200, anyone?
AMD launched the RX 6500 XT a full year after its flagship SKUs from the RX 6000 series, and it is the definition of an afterthought. The problems with this one are numerous: Confusingly high price point, laughably bad 4GB VRAM, a 64-bit memory bus, and a mere 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes. It wasn’t even faster than its predecessor, the RX 5500 XT or the generations-old GTX 1650 Super.
If reports are to be believed, the RX 6500 XT was designed to be a laptop GPU, which was later shabbily transformed into a budget desktop product. The RX 6600 XT and the RX 6650 XT at the same price bring double the performance and VRAM, and are the only ones you should look at if your budget is fixed at $200.
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3 RTX 3060 8GB: Just buy the 12GB
New and improved? You wish
When the RTX 3060 12GB first launched in early 2021, it was viewed as a decent upgrade over older Pascal cards like the GTX 1060 or GTX 1070. It had a generous framebuffer for the era and performance was mostly okay, albeit not a big step up from the RTX 2000 series. But, the “new” RTX 3060 variant which arrived in late 2022 was so much of a downgrade that you’d hardly believe it was the same GPU as the 12GB variant.
The RX 6650 XT or the RX 7600 are easily the better choices.
It had a reduced 128-bit memory bus and 240 GB/s bandwidth, compared to 192-bit and 360 GB/s on the 12GB model. Suffice it to say that the performance was significantly lower, and the price difference didn’t make up for that. Even today, you can get the RTX 3060 12GB for just $30 more than the disappointing 8GB variant, and that’s exactly what you should get if you absolutely want a sub-$300 RTX card. Otherwise, the RX 6650 XT or the RX 7600 are easily the better choices.
2 RTX 3050 8GB: Nvidia stops caring
There’s no case to be made for it
The RTX 3050 was supposed to be an affordable performance upgrade for people waiting for a budget RTX 3000 card. What it ended up being was an overpriced graphics card even at its $250 launch price. It is handsomely beaten in raw performance by cards like the RX 6600 and even Intel’s Arc A580. It couldn’t even beat the GTX 1070 Ti or RX 5600 XT.
Both the 6GB and 8GB variants of the RTX 3050 proved that Nvidia had finally stopped caring for the budget gamer.
Nvidia probably hoped that in the midst of the GPU pricing nightmare, people would grab whatever GPU they could find, and an affordable $250 card with the RTX branding would prove to be enough. But, both the 6GB and 8GB variants of the RTX 3050 proved that Nvidia had finally stopped caring for the budget gamer.
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1 RTX 4090: Overkill for almost everyone
Even nearing end-of-life, it’s still overpriced at $1,800
Being the most powerful graphics card in the world, the RTX 4090 offers performance ahead of everything else. Launched at an MSRP of $1,599, it was definitely not for everyone. Even if you wanted uncompromising 4K gaming in all the latest titles, you could do just fine with the RTX 4080 — and now, the RTX 4080 Super. While the RTX 4090 buyer won’t care much about value for money, saving around $500-$600 and getting a simiilar experience never hurts.
Even a $1,500 price tag for the RTX 4090 would be hard to justify, but still somewhat palatable for a halo product.
The Nvidia flagship was soaring at around $2,500 a few months ago. But even today, it’s overpriced at around $1,800. Being 25% faster than the $999 RTX 4080 Super, even a $1,500 price tag for the RTX 4090 would be hard to justify. Until we see any sort of price cut, it’s best for most consumers to stay away.
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Don’t make the wrong GPU choices
In a market devoid of impressive mid-range graphics cards, there are still a number of sensible options. You can splurge a grand on an RTX 4080 Super or RX 7900 XTX, and get nearly flagship performance. You can also pick an RTX 4070 Super for around $600 for a killer 1440p Ultra or a decent 4K gaming rig. Or you could go for an RX 7700 XT for $400 to get some solid 1440p gaming. Lastly, there are a lot of great budget options I mentioned above that offer impressive value for money.