Many users will take advantage of the Christmas season to upgrade your graphics cards, something completely understandable not only because of the data, but also because of the improvement that the price of this component has seen in general. It is true that prices have not yet fully normalized, but it is now possible to find options at much more reasonable prices than a few months ago, and this is key for the market to “move” again.

Choosing your new graphics card It won’t be an easy decision. Apart from configuring the device and the options you can get based on your budget, you need to consider your aspirations and needs. Once you are clear about all the graphics cards that suit your budget and your needs, you should decide on one of them and it is important that you are careful when buying, as its price may vary from one vendor to another.

To make this complicated decision easier for you, today I want to share with you one of our most popular guides, updated today, where we will read five graphics cards that are not worth buying and we discover five alternatives that are they are an excellent choice. In any case, I will clearly explain why the said graphics card is not worth it and why you should consider another model as an alternative option.

As usual, I will try to be as clear as possible, but if you have any questions after reading the article you can leave it in the comments and I will be happy to help you solve it. Without further ado, let’s get down to business.

Five graphics cards that aren’t worth it

1.-NVIDIA GeForce GT 730

It’s an entry-level graphics card that still has a huge presence at many retailers despite all the time it’s had. It is available in two versions, one with GDDR3 memory and one with GDDR5 memory, and uses the GK208B graphics core, a revision of the Kepler architecture built on a 28nm node.

There is no doubt that it is a very economical solution, takes up little space, is cool and does not require any type of additional power supply, but it is a model that came to the market in 2014 and that not only has obsoletebut also offers extremely poor performance. You won’t be able to play any current title fluently with it, except for the very undemanding ones.

Which alternative is worth it? If you have a budget of less than 100 euros, which is the level at which the GeForce GT 730 is, it’s ideal if you look directly used graphics cards such as GeForce GTX 1060 and Radeon RX 580, which can be found at prices between 70 and 110 euros depending on the memory configuration. With them, you can play at 1080p without any problems, adjusting the quality level to the requirements of each game.

2.-AMD Radeon RX 550

We find a model that is significantly higher than the previous one, but its price is so high and its performance is so low (in proportion) that it’s just not worth it. This model came out in 2017, uses the second generation Polaris architecture and has good DirectX 12 support, but it cannot smoothly move current games unless we move in very low resolutions and minimal qualities.

To make your purchase easier, Radeon RX 550 has three times less performance than Radeon RX 580 and its price is 141 euros. For a little more we can find new graphics cards that perform much better and if we go to the used market we can find better options for less money so forget this model, it’s a terrible choice.

Which alternative is worth it? You have several options. If you want to drag the used market, you can go to one GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB for less than 150 eurosand you can also choose GeForce GTX 1070 8GB, which are also around 150 euros. On the AMD side, you have many second-hand options, such as Radeon RX Vega 56 and Radeon RX 5600 XTalthough the prices of both are a bit higher and hard to find under 160 euros.

3.-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630

Could be an interesting low range option, but its price is not well adjusted and its value in terms of performance per euro invested is so bad that it can be avoided, in fact the Radeon RX 6400 costs the same as the GeForce GTX 1630 and brings 50% moreso imagine how bad the NVIDIA model is at its current price (190-200 euros).

This graphics card uses the Turing architecture, is compact and has very low power consumption (75 watts), but it lacks tensor cores and does not have RT cores, so it does not accelerate ray tracing or support DLSS. Its performance is thus limited it even ranks below the 6GB GeForce GTX 1060 and the 4GB Radeon RX 570. A solution from AMD could be bought for less than 100 euros new a few years ago, so I don’t think anything more needs to be said.

Which alternative is worth it? You also have many options, but on the used market you should only consider the Radeon RX 6600, which costs between 240 and 260 euros. In exchange for the extra 40-60 euros, you get a model with 8 GB of graphics memory, which serves nearly four times more in games (on average). Within the bazaar market, you can also find more powerful graphics cards for less money, such as GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB and GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB for less than 150 euros, GeForce RTX 2060 for less than 200 euros and Radeon RX 5700 for less than 200 euros .

4.-AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT

This is a graphics card that is on par with the 6GB GeForce GTX 1060 in terms of average performance, and which is slightly less than the 8GB Radeon RX 580. Despite this, its price is still clearly inflated because around 240 euros, and it doesn’t make sense to buy it for that money. Also note that it is limited to a PCIe Gen4 x4 interface, which means it will lose performance if you mount it on a PCIe Gen3 motherboard.

Strictly speaking, the Radeon RX 6500 XT is not a bad graphics card, it copes quite well in 1080p and its value would be interesting if it cost around 150 euros at most, but at 240 euros it has no place in the market and in fact with the Radeon RX 6600 it steps on the pricegraphics card that became available for 229 euros and that yields 70% more than this one.

Which alternative is worth it? It is the best choice in the new graphics card market Radeon RX 6600, a graphics card that is more than adequate at 1080p and behaves quite well at 1440p. It offers excellent value for money. The GeForce RTX 3050 is another interesting option due to the value offered by DLSS and its ray tracing performance, although it is more expensive and has less rasterization performance than the Radeon RX 6600. We have very attractive options on the used market, such as the ones we named in the previous three points.

5.-NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB

This is a slightly improved version of the 6GB GeForce RTX 2060, which generally works slightly less than the GeForce RTX 2060 Super. It offers good enough performance to pass games at 1080p and 1440p with no problems, but its price is too high for what we can find in the market today, as it is around 360 euros.

It’s not a bad graphics card in terms of raw performance, but its price isn’t well matched and that becomes such a serious issue that it’s not worth considering in the end. It sits squarely on the GeForce RTX 3060, which is more efficient and has the benefit of a more advanced architecture, and lags behind other AMD models that offer excellent value.

Which alternative is worth it? If we focus on the market for new graphics cards, Radeon RX 6700 It is without a doubt one of the best alternatives we can find now, since it costs 329 euros and performs almost the same as the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. It’s true that it loses in ray tracing and that it doesn’t have DLSS, but it makes up for it with much higher raw power in rasterization. Looking at the used car market, it’s harder to find attractive options, as the Radeon RX 6700 offers fantastic value. Still, we could get a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti for around 350 eurosand we would have the benefit of the higher ray tracing performance and value that DLSS offers.

Final Notes: I would buy five graphics cards

To end this guide and perfectly complement everything we have seen in the previous parts, I want to share with you a clear and concise list five graphics cards, new and used, that are good buys Today in different price ranges, and you should take this into account when upgrading your PC.

If you want to play 1080p on a very limited budget, several 100 eurosI would buy one outright Graphics card Radeon RX 580 8GB on the used market because it is the best option we can find for the money in the price/performance ratio. If we can spend a little more and want to play with all the guarantees in 1080p, I’d go straight for one GeForce GTX 1660 from second-hand 150 euros (maximum).

If I wanted to enjoy ray tracing and good performance even at 1440p, I’d go for it GeForce RTX 2060 6GBbut I would buy it second hand as it is available for less than 200 euros, and it is now difficult for him to drop below 300 euros. For gaming at 1080p and 1440p with guarantees using a new graphics card I would no doubt go to Radeon RX 6600which rounds 240-260 euros.

Finally for those who want play smoothly in 1440p or even 4K for little money is the best option Radeon RX 6700which performs at the level of the GeForce RTX 2080 Super in rasterization, has 10 GB of graphics memory and costs 329 euros. For example, the said graphics card hovers above 50 FPS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider set to 4K at maximum quality, and also maintains a good level of smoothness in other Gears V games and even Red Dead Redemption 2. In other more demanding Pros, such as Cyberpunk 2077, we’ll have to lower the quality level, but that’s also fully viable in 4K with said graphics card.

Any of these five graphics cards is a good buy if you can get them at the prices we have quoted. If you’ve never bought a second-hand graphics card, I suggest you follow the instructions we provided back then in this guide. It is a few years old, but almost all of the information it contains is still relevant and of indisputable value. In any case, it is ideal if you try the card, or resort to bazaars, because even though their prices are usually a bit higher They make up for it by offering a warranty.