This holiday season is an excellent time to purchase a graphics card. Fantastic discounts are available on RTX 30-series and Radeon 6000-series cards due to the collapse of cryptocurrency mining and the release of new cards from Nvidia and AMD.
AMD cards are much more affordable this season than Nvidia-powered options, although you can still find some RTX card discounts.
Below, we’ve highlighted all of the top graphics card discounts.
Check out our ranking of the best graphics cards and GPU benchmark hierarchy for consistent performance data despite changes in sales.
Cheapest graphics cards according to GPU
Both the new RTX 4090/4080 and the RTX 30-series graphics cards from Nvidia have a reputation for being pricey.
A few cards are sold at nearly MSRP prices, but they need to be more credible.
For instance, the Peladn RTX 3080 10GB is the least expensive 3080 card available (and it’s not a used or refurbished device), but it’s a somewhat unknown brand.
Even when on sale, most Nvidia cards continue to sell for more than their MSRPs.
AMD provides far more value for your money and offers some fantastic entry-level to midrange prices.
On Black Friday, the RX 6600 dropped as low as $189, and the lowest price is $209.
The RX 6650 XT at $249 is still a fantastic value if you have extra money to invest.
All of AMD’s GPUs are currently selling for less than their initial MSRPs, which is to be expected given that some of the GPUs are two years old.
Naturally, some of those MSRPs increased due to the GPU shortages from the previous year.
Also considered is the impending Radeon RX 7900-series, which will retail for $899 and $999 and may offer up to 50% higher performance than the RX 6950 XT.
The older GPUs’ costs are being pushed down as a result, which is as expected, yet, Nvidia’s pricing has increased to “make way” for the 30-series.
Given the incoming cards, we advise spending at most $650 on an RX 6950 XT.
Similar to Nvidia, there aren’t many discounts available for Intel’s Arc GPUs.
Arc’s A770 16GB Limited Edition is backordered, while the A770, A750, and A380 are available for purchase (again).
Even an ASRock A750 with a lower price than the MSRP counts as a sale, making one of the four potential Intel GPUs available.
Arc GPU performance keeps improving, with the A750 and A770 consistently outperforming Nvidia’s RTX 3060.
In addition to being less expensive than the Nvidia card, it outperforms AMD’s GPUs regarding ray tracing capability.
Sadly, the Arc 700-series still appears pricey even with rasterization performance that approximately matches the RX 6650 XT.
What to Consider When Buying a Graphics Card
Think about the following when graphics card shopping.
What settings and resolution would you like to play at?
Games can be played at 1080p on medium settings with a low-end graphics card, but if you want to play at ultra settings, you should at least acquire a mid-range graphics card.
You can play in 2K resolution and higher settings as you advance up the stack of cards or at 4K with the most expensive cards.
What frame rate would you consider smooth?
Most people deem 60 fps to be respectable and 30 fps to be the absolute minimum for playability.
However, you should be able to reach over 100 fps at normal settings if you wish to have minimal lag when playing eSports games.
To see how each GPU performs, view our GPU benchmark hierarchy.
How much power do you have?
Verify that your power source has adequate capacity to support the card.
If you need clarification, find out how much you need using a tool like the power supply calculator on Newegg.
Get a new power supply or a different card if your current one can’t handle the card.
Is it going to fit in your case?
Make sure to compare the length of the card to the case’s clearance numbers if you have a small PC case.
