Not everyone wants or needs a top-of-the-line graphics card. If all you are doing is some word processing, spreadsheet work and maybe some light gaming to relax at the end of the day, then even a RX 9070 XT is going to be excessive. Fortunately, there are some options on the market that are friendly to the budget and can deliver solid performance figures. Best of all, some of them are currently on sale.
Sparkle Intel Arc B580 Titan OC 12G
Sparkle Intel Arc B580 Titan OC 12GB
“Arc B580 represents a welcome step in the right direction for entry-level graphics cards.” – Read our review
If you check Amazon UK right now, you will find the Sparkle Intel Arc B580 Titan OC 12GB available for a mere £229.99. For this modest price, you get a very attractive-looking graphics card that features a stylish blue shroud and blue ‘breathing’ LED lighting. To ensure the installation is stress-free, this card comes along with an anti-sag bracket, helping resist the unwanted effects of gravity.
Given Intel’s newbie status in the discrete graphics market, Arc B580 left us suitably impressed at launch in December 2024. Notably, the B580 sports 12GB of VRAM, considerably more than more expensive cards like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060. This extra VRAM buffer can make a difference to how smoothly games play, particularly those with large or complex graphical textures.
The Intel Arc B580 is not a premium card, but it can do a decent job of punching above its weight class. For instance, in Assassin’s Creed: Mirage it can deliver an average framerate of 92fps at 1080p, and a respectable 73fps at 1440p. Fans of MMORPGs will have reasons to be pleased, too, as it can post a framerate of 128fps at 1080p in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, and a solid 90fps at 1440p.
The Arc B580 is not the absolute most power-efficient card, with a TBP of 190W, but despite this, it does an excellent job of staying cool under load, maxing out at 55°C. We don’t imagine this one catching fire anytime soon.
In addition, Intel’s XeSS 2 suite of tools can reduce latency and improve framerate using frame generation technology. Though not as well-developed as AMD’s FSR or Nvidia’s DLSS, this tech is improving all the time. There is even news of multi-frame generation coming in a future update.
We reviewed a slightly different version of this card, and were impressed enough with its capabilities and bargain price to make it our recommended choice for budget builds. With even more money off the usual price, it is absolutely worth a look.
Arc B580 cards are also reduced across Europe, with partner cards available around the €250 mark in Germany, so be sure to check out local offers to grab a deal.
Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB
If you want an alternative to the Arc B580, then AMD’s Radeon RX 9060 XT is a noteworthy option. Though it lacks the punch of its bigger brother, the Radeon RX 9070 XT, this mainstream card can deliver in gaming and productivity scenarios and is available for only £229.50 at Amazon UK. This is only a small 4 percent discount, but every little helps when shopping for expensive components.
Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9060 XT
“While this Radeon isn’t as much of a slam dunk as its peers, AMD still has another winner on its hands.” – Read our review of the 16GB model
This particular model does suffer from having only 8GB of VRAM, which can be an issue in some modern AAA titles, as the smaller VRAM buffer can struggle with large or complex textures. However, users can still benefit from the 2,530MHz base clock and 3,130MHz boost clock providing some solid performance. This dual-fan card is also suitable for smaller PC cases, and with a 160W TBP it sips power, saving additional money on power bills.
The smaller VRAM size means it does not exactly line up with the figures from our RX 9060 XT 16GB review, but users can still expect broadly similar performance if time is spent adjusting the settings a little. For reference, in Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, the RX 9060 XT 16GB achieves a framerate of 133fps at 1080p, and 101fps at 1440p. Fans of first-person shooters like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction can likewise expect a good experience. At 1080p, the 9060 XT 16GB averaged a huge 240fps, with a similarly impressive 157fps at 1440p.
Since this is the modern AMD Radeon GPU, users get access to the complete suite of FSR 4 tools. Thanks to several updates, FSR is slowly catching up to Nvidia’s DLSS, and can provide machine learning frame-generation, neural radiance caching and AI upscaling.
Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB is not a premium, 4K-worthy card, but for smaller workloads at 1080p and 1440p it does a fine job. Those who enjoy older games and working their way through the Steam backlog will have a great deal to celebrate, especially at such a low price.
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