Key Takeaways
- GPUs like the RX 6500 XT, RTX 3060 8GB, and RTX 3050 are easily outshone by cheaper alternatives.
- The RTX 4060 Ti was dead on arrival, while the RTX 3070 aged poorly due to its 8GB VRAM.
- The RTX 3090 is handily beaten by the likes of the RTX 4070 Ti and the much cheaper RX 6950 XT.
Buying a GPU for gaming is a big investment, considering the prices of not just the high-end but mid-range and “budget” graphics cards today. When you look at the current market and the slew of GPUs you can buy (excluding refurbished and used models), it can get slightly overwhelming to choose the best graphics card for your needs.
What makes things even more complicated is the number of GPUs that should not even be considered — either due to being a terrible product or no longer a good value due to newer offerings. Before you end up regretting your purchase, have a look at 10 such GPUs that you should not buy, and what you should buy instead.
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10 RX 6500 XT
I’m not sure who the RX 6500 XT was made for, or what AMD was even thinking when it launched it. Perhaps the company wasn’t thinking and just wanted to pass off a completely useless product to make some quick cash. After all, in early 2022 when the GPU launched, we were still in the middle of the GPU crisis and desperate for affordable GPUs. But even at its relatively cheap $199 price point, it was dead on arrival.
The result was a disappointing product, to say the least, which couldn’t even outperform the likes of the RX 5500 XT or GTX 1650 Super, which were three years older at that point.
Firstly, the RX 6500 XT was mostly designed to be a laptop SKU, but AMD later fashioned it into a desktop GPU. What’s more, it shipped with just 4GB of VRAM and a dismal 64-bit memory bus (the 8GB model wasn’t any better). The result was a disappointing product, to say the least, which couldn’t even outperform the likes of the RX 5500 XT or GTX 1650 Super, which were three years older at that point.
If you’re really after an entry-level GPU, the Intel Arc A580 for around $159 is miles better than the now $139 RX 6500 XT 4GB (or even the $179 8GB variant). There really is no case to be made for the RX 6500 XT.
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9 RTX 3060 8GB
Makes no sense against the original
The original RTX 3060 12GB was one of the most affordable RTX cards (at MSRP) when it launched. Even though a lot of units were scooped up by crypto miners and inventory issues remained for a long time, the GPU was still a decent one. But, what Nvidia launched two years later was a cut-down variant of the RTX 3060, which had more issues than one.
What was more troubling was the weaker 128-bit memory bus instead of the 192-bit on the 12GB variant.
Firstly, the 8GB VRAM was just at the borderline. But, at 1080p, even that can be overlooked. What was more troubling was the weaker 128-bit memory bus instead of the 192-bit on the 12GB variant. This resulted in 33% less memory bandwidth on the 8GB variant for not a lot less price. Suffice it to say that the RTX 3060 8GB was a pointless product.
You should just get the RTX 3060 12GB for around $280. Even if you could find the 8GB variant at a lower price, you’ll barely be saving $20 or so for a significant performance downgrade.
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8 RTX 3050
Scraping the bottom of the barrel
Source: Nvidia
The RTX 3050 is currently the lowest-tier RTX GPU you can buy. But, even at the $179-$189 price point (depending on the variant), there’s very little to be said in favor of this SKU. Considering its performance, it’s an RTX card only in name, as you’ll not be doing any meaningful ray tracing on it. Using DLSS, you can get by with medium settings in games, but the resulting experience is very underwhelming.
Nvidia simply launched this product to tick the box of adding a cheap RTX card to its RTX 30 lineup.
Launched at $250, there was little reason to consider it against the competition from AMD and Intel. Nvidia simply launched this product to tick the box of adding a cheap RTX card to its RTX 30 lineup. But, it couldn’t even justify its relatively lower price point.
For what you should buy instead, the RX 6600 at around $199 or even the Arc A580 (which is actually cheaper) would both be great options.
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7 Arc A770
Not enough to sway gamers
Although Intel’s re-entry into the desktop GPU battle was commendable — and Intel has even improved the performance of its Arc GPUs considerably using driver updates — not every SKU of the first-gen Alchemist lineup was a slam dunk. Besides running a tad too hot and facing poor performance in certain titles, the Arc A770 didn’t do enough to prompt gamers to consider it over Nvidia and AMD options.
The excellent RX 6650 XT is considerably cheaper than the Arc A770 but provides similar performance.
The Arc A770 features a more-than-decent 16GB VRAM (especially in its price range) and proves to be a solid 1080p as well as 1440p performer, but there are better options available from the competition at a similar price. And when you consider ray tracing performance and XeSS upscaling quality against DLSS and FSR, things become even worse for the Intel card.
The excellent RX 6650 XT is considerably cheaper than the Arc A770 but provides similar performance. Plus, the RTX 4060, although priced similarly, will be the much better buy for those who can’t do without ray tracing.
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6 RTX 4060 Ti 8GB
Nvidia doing Nvidia things
The RTX 4060 Ti was mostly doomed from the start. Announced as a $399 GPU, people were already questioning the low 8GB VRAM, which would no doubt have hampered its performance. While the 8GB VRAM at $400 was definitely bad, what happened after the launch completely sealed the deal for the RTX 4060 Ti, and not in a good way.
The weaker 128-bit memory bus compared to the 256-bit on the RTX 3060 Ti was clearly a problem here.
It turned out that the RTX 4060 Ti was no better than its predecessor, the RTX 3060 Ti, and was actually lagging behind it in certain games. The weaker 128-bit memory bus compared to the 256-bit on the RTX 3060 Ti was clearly a problem here. The benefits of the Ada Lovelace architecture were not enough to make up for the poor showing.
The alternatives to the 4060 Ti would be the RX 6750 XT or the RX 7700 XT from AMD. Both are equipped with 12GB of VRAM and perform similar to or better than the 4060 Ti.
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5 RX 7600
No man’s land
AMD has been the savior for many budget and mid-range buyers, providing great alternatives to overpriced offerings from Nvidia. But, when the company launched the affordable RX 7600, it didn’t manage to deliver any worthwhile benefits, either over its predecessors or the competition. AMD manufactured this GPU on the older 6nm TSMC node instead of the newer 5nm node used in many of the other RX 7000 GPUs.
It essentially became a nothingburger, costing more than other offerings while not providing anything worthwhile for the premium.
Adding to the missing benefits that accompanied the older manufacturing process, the RX 7600 couldn’t beat the older (and cheaper) RX 6650 XT. It essentially became a nothingburger, costing more than other offerings while not providing anything worthwhile for the premium.
The RX 6650 XT is the better buy, as it’s cheaper while offering similar or better performance. And the RTX 4060 can also be considered, since it costs just $50 more but offers significantly better ray tracing performance.
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4 RTX 3070
A great card crippled by low VRAM
Source: Nvidia
Nvidia’s Ampere lineup brought huge performance improvements over the Turing GPUs, offering RTX 2080 Ti levels of performance at $500. This was what made the RTX 3070 one of the most exciting pieces of hardware in a long time. Despite the $500 price not becoming a reality for a long time due to the supply chain and silicon shortage crisis, the RTX 3070 was a great card. But, what held it back, albeit in hindsight, was its 8GB VRAM.
Games running out of VRAM started to become an issue in late 2020, and by 2022 and 2023, it was clear that the RTX 3070 had aged quite poorly.
For a $500 GPU, 8GB VRAM is getting laughably bad. Games running out of VRAM started to become an issue in late 2020, and by 2022 and 2023, it was clear that the RTX 3070 had aged quite poorly. A card of this caliber could have been a fantastic 1440p performer if it had shipped with 12GB of VRAM. But, Nvidia decided that 8GB was enough, so that’s what we got.
Today, you can still buy a new RTX 3070 for around the same $500 price, which is nonsensical, since the newer and much more powerful RTX 4070 can be found at the same price.
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3 RTX 3090
Made obsolete
Source: Nvidia
The RTX 3090 was the first-ever 90-class card by Nvidia, creating a new ceiling in consumer GPU performance (and price). While it was one of the fastest cards at its time (later succeeded by the RTX 3090 Ti), it didn’t stay that way for long. That’s because the RTX 40 series brought RTX 3090 levels of performance to the 70-class GPUs.
Even the last-gen RX 6950 XT delivers the same performance at around $550, a full $450 less than the 90-class card.
That’s right. An RTX 4070 Ti Super for around $800 is all you need to handily beat the RTX 3090, which now sells for around $1,000 brand new ($500 down from its launch price). Even the last-gen RX 6950 XT delivers the same performance at around $550, a full $450 less than the 90-class card. So, the RTX 3090, in a nutshell, is a pretty bad buy right now.
You can also get the RTX 4 070 Super for around $550 and get nearly 4070 Ti levels of performance.
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2 RTX 4070 Ti
Doesn’t seem exciting enough now
The RTX 4070 Ti was a pretty powerful card, beating the likes of the RTX 3090 while costing around $700 less. While that might sound impressive, you need to consider that Nvidia offered only 12GB VRAM for an $800 GPU. Plus, it later launched other models that made the 4070 Ti much less exciting, and frankly, irrelevant.
The RTX 4070 Ti Super is clearly the better buy at this price point. You can also consider the RTX 4070 Super and save yourself some money.
When Nvidia launched the RTX 40 Super series, it outfitted the RTX 4070 Ti Super with 16GB of VRAM, a significant upgrade over the outgoing 4070 Ti. While the performance delta isn’t huge between the two cards, the price difference is also not big enough to warrant picking the older model. Even though the 4070 Ti is officially discontinued, you can still find older stock at some retailers for only around $20-$30 less than the 4070 Ti Super.
Hence, the RTX 4070 Ti Super is clearly the better buy at this price point. You can also consider the RTX 4070 Super and save yourself some money.
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1 RTX 4080
Finally replaced by a worthwhile product
The RTX 4080 was one of the worst value products in the RTX 40 lineup, not that its siblings were incredibly exciting. It was priced at $1,200 and only around 20-25% faster than the RTX 4070 Ti while costing 50% more. Plus, Nvidia only offered 16GB of VRAM, which was legitimate robbery at $1,200. So, when the RTX 40 Super series launched, people were expecting big changes from Nvidia. We didn’t get everything, but we got enough.
At least we got RTX 4080 performance at the price it should have been at from the beginning.
The RTX 4080 Super brought with it a $200 price cut for virtually the same performance. While the performance was underwhelming, offering a meager 2-3% improvement over the RTX 4080, at least we got RTX 4080 performance at the price it should have been at from the beginning. Nvidia also discontinued the RTX 4080, similar to the RTX 4070 Ti, so pretty soon, the RTX 4080 Super will be your only option.
You can also consider the RX 7900 XTX for around $100 less than the RTX 4080 Super, offering 10% better rasterized performance.
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Don’t end up with the wrong GPU
In a market where current and previous-generation GPUs are competing for your money, you need to carefully assess the prices and the value you’re getting from every product. Products that used to be good options have now become either obsolete in performance or poorer value than newer models. Some of the GPUs above were never great buys to begin with, so it’s important to stay away from them at all costs.
If you’re building a new gaming PC, you should also avoid mistakes when pairing your CPU and GPU. Once you have your PC ready and want to take it for a spin, don’t forget to do these five things after building your PC.