Best Gaming Graphics Cards For The Money, May 2011 (under $100)

Choosing the right budget graphics card is not very easy, there are dozens of different models and variety of manufacturers. Not all video cards are worth their price, often other graphics card with same price is many times slower. Prices between manufacturers can vary a lot too, same card by other company can cost even $70 more. In this post I list best gaming graphics cards for the price from $40 to $100. Remember that availability and prices change very fast, this means that some info can be out of date.


Best graphics card for $40:

In this price range there are two graphics cards (DDR2 versions of ATI HD 4650 and Nvidia 9500GT) that should have almost identical performance. They are both OK for older games but some new and very demanding games only run at low settings/resolution. 9500GT (SPARKLE SFPX95GT512U2HP) has a silent passive cooling but HD 4650 (SAPPHIRE 100253HDMI) is a low profile (it should come with a full height bracket) card with a small fan.

Nvidia GeForce 9500GT 512MB GDDR2

• DirectX 10
• 128-bit memory interface
  
• Minimum PSU: 350W

ATI alternative:

ATI Radeon HD 4650 512MB GDDR2 

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Best graphics card for $50:

For $50 you can get a Nvidia GeForce GT 240 which is a big step up from both HD 4650 and 9500GT. This specific card is pretty loud, according to some customer reviews.

Nvidia GeForce GT 240 1024MB DDR3

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

ATI alternative:

ATI Radeon HD 5550 DDR3 is less powerful than GeForce GT 240 DDR3, but it has DirectX 11 support. Although, it's pretty pointless for this slow graphics cards.

ATI Radeon HD 5550 1024MB DDR3

• DirectX 11
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Best graphics card for $60:

Nvidia GeForce GT 240 is also the best graphics card for under 60 dollars. There is no point to spend extra cash for ATI HD 4670 which has same performance as GT 240.

Nvidia GeForce GT 240 1024MB DDR3

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

ATI alternative:

More expensive ATI Radeon HD 4670 is not really worth the price, I highly suggest getting much faster ATI HD 5670 / HD 4830 instead, they only cost $10 more.

ATI Radeon HD 4670 1GB DDR3

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Best graphics card for $70:

The best video card for $70 is ATI HD 5670. It's slightly faster than GT 240 DDR5, but little bit weaker than HD 4830 that has much higher power consumption and no DirectX 11 support.

ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB DDR5

• DirectX 11
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Nvidia alternative:

Nvidia GT 240 512MB DDR5 is little bit more powerful than cheaper GT 240 1GB DDR3. The minimum power supply requirements is strange for this card, most GT 240's require 300W PSU.

Nvidia GeForce GT 240 512MB GDDR5

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 450W

Best graphics card for $80:

Best graphics card for under $80 is the ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB. HD 5670 is little bit weaker than GeForce 9800GT, but it's DirectX 11 compatible and it consumes much less power.

ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB DDR5

• DirectX 11
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Nvidia alternative:

9800GT is a card that I really don't recommend. It's very common that Nvidia 8800/9800 series cards die after few years of use. 9800GT is little bit faster than GT 240 DDR5 and ATI HD 5670.

Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT 512MB GDDR3

• DirectX 10
• 256-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Best graphics card for $90:
Same as $80, no better deals for this price.

Best graphics card for $100:

Fastest gaming graphics card under 100 dollars is the ATI Radeon HD 5750, but I strongly suggest getting much faster ATI Radeon HD 5770 instead. It doesn't cost much more.

ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB GDDR5

• DirectX 11
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 450W

Nvidia alternative:

GTS 250 is not much slower than HD 5750, but GTS 250 has significally higher power consumption and no DirectX 11 support. Even when it requires a weaker power supply.

Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 512MB DDR3

• DirectX 10
• 256-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W