How to choose video cards for casual gamers

Author

SB

Date

Sep, 04.2022

Some of the hottest video cards on the market are not necessary for casual gamers to carry. The majority of these games don't put any strain on the system. Using a budget system that will only cost users $500 or so will provide them a good experience. In recent years, entry-level graphics cards have gotten fairly powerful. The majority of the graphics cards on this list can play today's most popular 1080p games while supporting some of the most demanding AAA titles on the market. 

Depending on how graphically demanding they are, some casual games can be played on this hardware at resolutions of 1440p or higher. They are $200 entry-level hardware. Users can still design a cheap system with plenty of room for a CPU, casing, motherboard, RAM, and PSU. 

Here are the top 5 picks for casual gamers: - 

  • Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050 Ti - $180 

A dated graphics card is the GTX 1050 Ti. It was released in 2017 as the GTX 950's replacement. Given its price-to-performance ratio and continuous relevance, the card is still being produced. It is currently available for purchase for $179.99, which is more than the 2017 launch price of the card. Users must take into account inflation and supply problems, which have a significant impact on Nvidia's products. The GTX 1050 Ti is one of the most affordable options for casual gamers overall. 

  • Nvidia Geforce GTX 1650 - $200 

           As the GTX 1050 Ti's replacement, the GTX 1650 was unveiled in 2019. In every workload, the Turing-based entry-level graphics card outperforms the latter. Every AAA game from today may be played on it at 1080p resolution. As a result, the GTX 1650 has no trouble playing casual games. A 4K monitor may be handled without any issues by this graphics card as well. As a result, 2D platformers and visual novels may be played at UHD resolutions. 

  • AMD Radeon RX 6400 - $150 

The cheapest card in the RX 6000 series, which is based on RDNA 2, is the RX 6400. Compared to the GTX 1650 Super, this card is a tiny bit faster. It can also perform ray tracing. However, turning off the feature will improve the gaming experience. 

 The RX 6400 is a fantastic card for casual gaming because it is just a little bit faster than the last item on this list. There are just two video output connectors on the board, though. Gamers that have many displays in their setup might be let down. The card's foundation is a PCIe Gen 4 x8 connector as well. As a result, users of PCIe Gen 3 motherboards will be severely limited. 

  • Intel ARC A380 - $140 

Some of the top merchants have stock of the recently released Intel ARC A380. The majority of dealers are offering it for $140 off MSRP, which makes it an excellent price for casual and entry-level AAA gaming. 

One of the market's most potent sub-$150 video cards is without a doubt the ARC A380. The graphics card outperforms the GTX 1650 by a small margin. It outperforms the Turing-based GPU by a good 10% margin in the majority of AAA games. 

As a result, gamers who don't want to invest a lot of money in their setup can choose from Intel's ARC Alchemist portfolio. However, since the video card hasn't yet been released in all locations, accessibility might be a problem. 

  • AMD Radeon RX 6600 - $260 

A graphics card from AMD Radeon in the performance area is the Radeon RX 6600. It was initially released to compete with the much more expensive RTX 3060 video card. Right now, the Radeon card is available for only $260. 

The Radeon RX 6600 is an option for gamers willing to pay a little more on a high-end setup to run casual games. With no exceptions, this graphics card was created for 1080p gaming. Additionally, it can handle ray-tracing tasks without converting the video game into a slideshow. 

The card, meanwhile, is a little excessive for casual games. Users won't be exploiting it to its best potential if they only utilize it to play certain games with basic graphics.