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We researched the market to find the best budget graphics cards under $100, our top pick for this budget point is the MSI Gaming GeForce GT 710 2GB GDDR3 it offers the great performance for a card that comes in at under 100 bucks.
With the ability to run games from medium to low settings under a 30 to 60 fps range, the MSI Gaming GeForce GT 710 2GB GDDR3[1] still holds up to heavy games. Best for low-spec competitive gaming.
Cheap and still usable, the GDDR3 GT-710-2GD3-LP can maintain levels of low temperature even when running on resource-demanding games. It is quite amazing how the MSI Gaming GeForce GT 710 2GB still holds up despite the GPU being close to irrelevant. The card is also fitted with an aluminium core, giving the GDDR3 GT-710-2GD3-LP a long lifespan.
Although, if your PC is mainly fit with an HDMI 2.0, that makes it useless for the GT 710 card because the MSI GPU only has an HDMI 1.4 connection.
Nonetheless, the GDDR3 GT-710-2GD3-LP is still one of the best cheap GPUs available even though MSI stopped producing this model.
Fit with overclocking capabilities and playing up to 60 fps, the Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 [3] Low Profile does its job well at running games while being a general-use GPU.
Low Profile Nvidia cards are made for smaller or slimmer PCs. They’re not exactly built for gaming, but the Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 Low Profile is barely an exception. Once you turn on overclocking, the GV-N1030D5-2GL transforms from general-use GPU to budget gaming GPU.
However, despite its passive cooler, the GV-N1030D5-2GL heats up rather quickly especially when overclocked. Then again, you get what you pay for.
Despite its overheating, it is still very impressive how the Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 Low Profile can do especially with fast-paced competitive games such as CSGO and Overwatch when on lowest settings.
The EVGA GeForce 8400 1GB [5] is a whole new story when you overclock this old GPU. The 01G-P3-1302-LR may not be the best-looking or the best in overall gaming but it is a fine graphics card for a very low price.
While 4GB of RAM is the least number of memory you need to play a PC game properly, the EVGA GeForce 8400 1GB can still play modern games with a sufficient capacity when you activate overclocking. The 01G-P3-1302-LR may not be ideal for competitive games (excluding League of Legends) but it surely plays decently on casual games.
For Dell and HP PC users, please be aware that the 01G-P3-1302-LR still has unknown issues syncing with those brands. I highly suggest getting a Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 instead of an alternative.
Very cheap and just barely enough to run 2017-2024 games at low to medium-high settings, the EVGA GeForce 8400 1GB is worth the cheap price.
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The Radeon RX 560 [7] makes a great entry-level budget gaming video card. The XFX RX-560D4SFG5 has all the basic necessities of a good RX series GPU but with significantly lesser features. Still, this is a good cheap card.
While the Radeon RX 560 does have the common RX series problems, it still fares greatly as a budget AMD graphics card on a low budget. If you are a competitive online gamer but do not have the money to get a better graphics card, I cannot recommend the XFX RX-560D4SFG5 enough.
Even at its normal clock speed, the RX 560 still works smoothly even up to 4K as long as it maintains the right frame rates. While it does not have a FreeSync feature, the overclocking on XFX RX-560D4SFG5 is more than enough for a good low budget gaming experience.
GPU Clock Speed: 1175 MHz [8]
Boost Clock Speed: 1275
Memory Clock: 7000 MHz
IO: DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort
Size: 123 mm²
The MSI AMD Radeon R7 240 2GB DDR3 is the most basic AMD Radeon GPU you can find. Since the R7 240 is a low-profile graphics card, do not expect anything spectacular about its performance other than it can at least boost clock speeds at moderate numbers.
Unless you are willing to risk it, the MSI AMD Radeon R7 240 2GB DDR3 is only good if you overclock it to meet the minimum requirements of modern games. I highly advise not to use this graphics card if you plan on playing competitive games. Casual games, sure, but for fast-paced games like Modern Warfare and Apex Legends, you do not want to use this.
Nonetheless, if you are really short on money and you need a game that can run relevant games at least with 30 fps to 60 fps on 720 to 1080p, the MSI R7 240 counts as a very affordable GPU.
GPU Clock Speed: 730 MHz [10]
Boost Clock Speed: 780 Mhz
Memory Clock: 7000 MHz
IO: DVI-D, HDMI, VGA
Size: 90 mm²
Unless you are willing to risk it, the MSI AMD Radeon R7 240 2GB DDR3 is only good if you overclock it to meet the minimum requirements of modern games. I highly advise not to use this graphics card if you plan on playing competitive games. Casual games, sure, but for fast-paced games like Modern Warfare and Apex Legends, you do not want to use this.
Nonetheless, if you are really short on money and you need a game that can run relevant games at least with 30 fps to 60 fps on 720 to 1080p, the MSI R7 240 counts as a very affordable GPU.
