Best Graphics Cards Under $500

The $400-$500 price range represents the upper-end of mid-range graphics cards. As of the time of publishing this guide, there are really only two newer generation GPUs available in this price range: the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and the NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti.

Of the two, the RX 7800 XT offers the much better raw performance. In fact, even the cheaper RX 7700 XT, which comes in at just under $400, offers better raw performance than the 4060 Ti.

However, NVIDIA does come with better features, like their more polished upscaling technology, DLSS.

And, there will always be games that favor an NVIDIA GPU over an AMD GPU (and vice-versa). So, either the 4060 Ti or 7800 XT could be the right option for you.

In this guide, we’ll go over a handful of the best options in this price range, which will really just boil down to a couple of 7800 XTs and 4060 Tis.

Also, if you’re not sure of what to look for in a graphics card, please read our graphics card buyer’s guide or watch the video below.

1. Gigabyte RX 7800 XT Gaming OC

The best graphics card under $500

I might be biased since I own this card, but I think the Gigabyte RX 7800 XT Gaming OC is one of the best graphics cards under $500 right now. It isn’t the most extreme RX 7800 XT out there, but it is often one of the more affordable options despite coming with a robust cooling configuration and a decent factory overclock on it.

I used this Gigabyte graphics card in a $1,000 gaming PC build I put together and I’ve benchmarked it in 17-different games at both 1080 and 1440P resolution when paired with both the Ryzen 5 5600X and Ryzen 5 7600.

You can see the results when paired with the 5600X here and when paired with the 7600 here.

The other nice thing about the Gigabyte Gaming OC edition card is that it isn’t as long as other RX 7800 XTs (it measures in at just 302mm long) even though it does have a nice triple fan cooling configuration on it.

So, you can fit this card in a compact build if you want to.

Of course, there is a smaller and less expensive RX 7800 XT option, the ASRock Challenger (listed below), but it is only about $5 cheaper right now and the cooling solution it comes with isn’t as good. But, if you’re looking for as small of a graphics card as possible, it would be worth considering.

2. ASRock Challenger RX 7800 XT

The cheapest RX 7800 XT

As mentioned above, the ASRock Challenger RX 7800 XT is not only the cheapest RX 7800 XT available, but it’s also the smallest. At just 267mm long and 51mm thick, it’s the best option for AMD-enthusiasts who are looking to build a mini-ITX gaming PC.

Although, if you’re willing to sacrifice some performance, there are smaller RTX 4060 Tis, including Zotac’s Gaming AMP edition card (mentioned below).

The ASRock Challenger comes with a 2475MHz boost clock, a dual fan design, and a full metal backplate.

Ultimately, while this ASRock 7800 XT won’t offer as good of gaming and cooling performance as the Gigabyte Gaming OC listed above, it shouldn’t be that far behind, and it’s a little bit cheaper and more compact as well.

3. MSI RTX 4060 Ti Ventus

The best NVIDIA graphics card under $500

If you’re looking to spend in the middle or lower-end of the $400-$500 price range, or if you just want an NVIDIA graphics card for their DLSS technology, then the RTX 4060 Ti is your best bet.

Of the 4060 Tis available, the MSI Ventus 3X is an excellent option that gives you advanced cooling, a good factory overclock, and doesn’t come with an extreme premium.

The Ventus 3X features a 2610MHz boost clock rate, offers a triple fan cooling configuration, and only measures in at 308mm long.

It’s not going to give you as good of an average framerate as the options above, but it doesn’t cost as much either, and with DLSS, you should be able to bridge that performance gap in some games.

Of course, if you wanted to go cheaper (or smaller), you could consider the Zotac Gaming AMP RTX 4060 Ti below…

4. ZOTAC Gaming AMP RTX 4060 Ti

Best option under $500 for mini builds

Zotac’s Gaming AMP RTX 4060 Ti is another great option, especially if you want to save as much money as possible and you’re looking for an extremely compact graphics card.

The Zotac Gaming AMP measures in at just 226mm long, easily making it one of the smallest graphics cards in its price range. If you’re looking to build a small form-factor system, this card will fit in some extremely small cases.

This card also comes with a 2595MHz boost clock and it only requires a 500-watt power supply, so not only do you save money on the card itself, but you don’t have to spend a ton of oney on the PSU as well.

Conclusion

I’ve listed a handful of the top graphics cards in the $400-$500 price range. It is important to note that this isn’t the end-all-be-all list. Prices change all the time and it may be that in a couple of weeks one of the more extreme RX 7800 XTs drops in price, making it a better value option than the one we’ve chosen.

Whole series of GPUs also drop in price as new GPU generations get released. So, you could see the 4060 Tis drop to under $400, the 7800 XTs to come down to the low $400s, and something like the RX 7900 GRE come down into the sub-$500 price range.

So, be sure to do your due diligence when researching graphics cards.

If you have any questions or want help picking out components, let me know in the comment section below.