Best GPU under £150

To turn any PC into a proper gaming machine, the main change is a good graphics card. The graphics card renders images for the monitor, and this is incredibly important for gaming. One of the cheapest ways to begin the journey into PC gaming is to put a cheap graphics card into an older PC and start playing! When you're looking at cheaper GPUs, the best value is definitely found on the second hand market. Older RX 500 series cards can be found for half their current retail price (Normally, when there isn't a global chip shortage feeding an insane GPU market full of scalpers), GTX 1600 Series cards also provide good value, and then if you're aiming for even cheaper, significantly older GPUs can be found for under £20, allowing for a working, if not astounding PC.

Now lets jump into a look at the 5 best Graphics cards for under £150!

1. RX 570 (~£95)

     Advantages:

       - Good entry level gaming performance 

       - Not too old to run DirectX 12 titles 

     Disadvantages:

       - Less than ideal power efficiency

When AMD and Nvidia are always marketing their latest and greatest (and most expensive) GPUs, it may seem a bit odd of me to recommend a 4 year old GPU. In reality though, you should be perfectly fine with the performance of this GPU, especially if you've been used to playing on an older laptop or console. The RX 570 is new enough that it works just fine with other modern hardware, and can offer decent performance, but old enough that there is a fairly good supply of them on the second hand market, and for fairly low prices (normally, when there isn't a global GPU frenzy). For these 500 series cards the versions made by Sapphire, the Pulse and Nitro+ are the best quality options. The Nitro+ even has a slight pre-applied overclock, enabling even more performance. Speaking of performance, the RX 570 can easily reach 60fps at the highest quality settings of a large number of games at 1080p, including Hitman 2, Forza Horizon 4, Battlefield V, and many more. Unfortunately this card is at the performance level where it would be CPU bottlenecked in an old office PC, but building a new gaming PC with it wouldn't be amazing value as you could upgrade to an RX 580 or GTX 1660 for a fairly small increase in the overall cost of the PC. The best option for this card is probably to put it in a office PC with an upgraded CPU, or to buy a low end second hand PC without the Graphics card, as some people do choose to sell them. 

2. GTX 1660 (~£145)

     Advantages:

       - Best performance considered here on average

       - Most modern GPU considered here

     Disadvantages:

       - Most expensive option here

The GTX 1660 is a good performing card that could justify a new build for it, however it is the most expensive card considered here, so if you're looking for a cheap first GPU, this probably isn't for you. Especially since it is currently very overpriced, even more so than the similarly performing RX 580. An alternative, similar option could be the 1650 Super, as that's still available for a semi decent price, and generally beats the RX 580, AMD's main competing part, although for a slightly higher price. The GTX 1660 (or 1650 Super) can definitely justify going into a newly built system rather than an older PC, so again, probably not an option for those on a tighter budget. 

3. RX 560 (~£65)

     Advantages:

       - Fairly cheap, but with decent performance

     Disadvantages:

       - The 2GB version of this card isn't ideal for modern gaming 

There are multiple kinds of RX 570 and 560, which is didn't mention for the RX 570 as performance doesn't differ greatly at 1080p (which is what you should be playing at with most of these cards) for most games. For the 560 however, it is a definite consideration! The 2GB VRAM option of the 560 sees significant performance hits in most titles, especially at higher quality settings, and definitely at higher resolutions. Unless you're paying significantly more for it, definitely go for the 4GB version, and even if you do have to pay significantly more, depending on what titles you're playing, it may still be worth it (so long as it's for ~£35 less than an RX 570). The RX 560 can offer decent gaming performance, however you probably won't be playing at the highest settings for newer games. It would go nicely in an older office PC however, as you shouldn't be CPU bottlenecked in the majority of games. 

4. Radeon HD 7970, GTX 960, Radeon R9 290/390 (~£30-70)

     Advantages:

       - OK performance for a low price. 

     Disadvantages:

       - Low performance compared to most modern PCs

       - Very power inefficient 

These cards, although older, should be able to provide close to 60fps at medium to low settings in modern titles like Forza horizon 4. They're a nice addition to a cheap office PC to provide a beginners machine as an upgrade for someone who's been gaming on an old laptop or console. Although they won't amaze anyone, if you're trying to entertain an interest in gaming for a low price, but want something a bit better than your old family laptop, they can provide some nice value, and usable performance. 

5. RX 580 (~£120)

     Advantages:

       - High performance 

       - Good overclocking potential 

     Disadvantages:

       - Fairly high power draw and temperatures

The Radeon RX 580 (I'd recommend the sapphire versions, the Pulse and Nitro+) can provide impressive budget performance. The 580 is meant for good 1080p gaming (although more demanding titles like Microsoft flight simulator at max settings will only reach around 20 fps) but it could handle some light 1440p gaming. The versions of this card with 8GBs of VRAM would be better suited to 1440p or high quality settings than the 4GB version, however there usually isn't much of a performance difference. The 580 also has some impressive overclocking headroom, with some cards reaching stable overclocks of 1500 MHz, when the stock boost is only 1340 MHz. Although the performance improvements aren't astounding, they are definitely worth it if you're willing to take the time. The RX 580 offers good enough performance that you could justify putting it into a new PC build, although it could be a nice upgrade for an older gaming PC with an older, lower end Graphics card. 

Quick note

Another cheaper graphics card option is the GT 1030, however if you do choose to go for this card (although I wouldn't recommend it) make sure that you choose the GDDR5 VRAM option. It isn't always made clear on the retail sites, but the DDR4 version of this card is much much worse in every way, and so don't make the mistake of choosing a cheaper GT 1030 model, and accidently picking a DDR4 version. Quick note over, just needed to avert any possible cheap GPU disasters. 

Conclusion

Due to the heavy reliance on the second hand market here, which is always changing, the best advice is generally to get the best graphics card available for your target price. To try and help you with this we've considered some options that generally offer good value. I hope you've enjoyed this and found it useful, and if you want to see more please consider subscribing to email notifications so you can see more similar content. Thanks for reading, and bye!