With the global memory shortage set to run throughout 2026 and probably well in 2027, prices of everything that requires DRAM are only going to rise. However, thanks to a wealth of graphics cards being in stock over the last quarter of 2025, GPUs have yet to significantly spike in price. Some models have risen but no matter what your budget is, there's a decent value option to be found.
Every week, I hunt down the best prices for Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series, AMD Radeon RX 9000-series, and Intel Arc B-series graphics cards from all the major retailers. Below are the best cards to go for at each budget limit (i.e. $200, $300, and so on).
Intel's Arc B570 isn't the greatest graphics card around but a cent shy of $200, you'd have to step into the second market to find something better. The Battlemage architecture can be a bit funny when dealing with older games, but anything modern (i.e. DirectX 11 or 12-based) should be fine.
Better still, Intel's worked really hard on improving its drivers, and XeSS upscaling and frame generation are both very good. It's a shame more games don't support the technology but as long as Intel keeps on making Arc GPUs, we'll continue to see the catalogue of games with XeSS get bigger and bigger.
Up to $300
This is one of the budget sections that the GPU price increases have clearly affected because until recently, the best sub-$300 graphics card was an AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB. Sadly, the lowest price I've seen for that is $310 at Amazon, while that's only a fraction over budget, I'm being firm with my choices.
Besides, it's not like the GeForce RTX 5060 is awful. It's just that it's not massively better than the RTX 4060, and the RX 9060 XT is faster. Its saving grace is DLSS 4.5, with superb upscaling, up to 6x Multi Frame Generation, plus all the other AI goodies for improving your PC life.
Up to $400
Yes it's quite a bit over the MSRP but even at $390, the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB is a really solid graphics card. It's not quite as fast as the RTX 5060 Ti when ray tracing is involved, but it's not like the last generation of Radeon GPUs, which were miles behind Nvidia's chips in that respect.
With 16 GB of VRAM, you know you'll be set for 1080p and 1440p gaming for many years to come, and while you might have to lean on upscaling or frame generation to help out with the performance in the future, FSR 4 is pretty darn good.
Up to $500
It wasn't that long ago when the GeForce RTX 5070 and Radeon RX 9070 would have been in this category, but they're both over $500 now, so that just leaves one option: the 16 GB version of the RTX 5060 Ti.
If you're upgrading from a GPU that's two or three generations old, you'll be very pleased with the performance. And just as with the RTX 5060, you get the full suite of DLSS 4.5 to enjoy, plus lots of VRAM to brag about on social media.
Up to $600
What a shame. When the Radeon RX 9070 was down at the $500 bracket, it was a no-brainer about buying it one: it's that good. It still is, of course, but now that's edged towards $600, it doesn't quite feel like the bargain is was.
Even so, there's nothing really to touch it for 1440p gaming and it will readily cope with a spot of 4K as long you switch on a bit of FSR Quality upscaling. This Sapphire card is nice and compact, and runs just as well as any other RX 9070 model.
Up to $700
It should come as no surprise to find the XT version of the RX 9070 taking the $700 category. Nvidia's closest offering, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, is over that budget, which leaves AMD as the go-to at this kind of money.
And there's no denying that it is a lot of money. Good job that you're getting a lot of GPU. The RX 9070 XT will happily game at 4K: I've been using one for testing quite a lot recently, and I've been super impressed by how quiet and capable it is.
This just leaves my final budget section, and I'll explain why it's the final one below.
Up to $800
Nvidia's superb GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is my final graphics card for one simple reason: The RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 are both wildly overpriced now. You can't get the latter for anything under $3500, and the former isn't worth getting at its normal MSRP of $999, let alone $1,200.
Fortunately, the RTX 5070 Ti really delivers the goods. It's highly overclockable, and if you delve into the world of undervolting (it's not complicated, I promise you), then you'll have pretty much all the performance you could ask for. Yes, path traced Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K will need plenty of upscaling and frame generation to run really well, but DLSS 4.5 is more than up to the job.
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Nick, gaming, and computers all first met in the early 1980s. After leaving university, he became a physics and IT teacher and started writing about tech in the late 1990s. That resulted in him working with MadOnion to write the help files for 3DMark and PCMark. After a short stint working at Beyond3D.com, Nick joined Futuremark (MadOnion rebranded) full-time, as editor-in-chief for its PC gaming section, YouGamers. After the site shutdown, he became an engineering and computing lecturer for many years, but missed the writing bug. Cue four years at TechSpot.com covering everything and anything to do with tech and PCs. He freely admits to being far too obsessed with GPUs and open-world grindy RPGs, but who isn't these days?
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