The Radeon 6600 XT has just come out. Could this be our $200 hero? NO! This is a tier
of graphics card that used to be well under $200, but which is now marketed at $379, and
selling for even higher still. It is a sad day indeed for people looking
to build a gaming PC. I’m hoping that things will get better, but as it stands, let’s
consider our options for budget builds, right now.
DISCRETE GPUs If you already have an aging gaming PC, and
REALLY need a performance boost, then the most affordable (new) graphics cards available
right now will either be the Geforce 3060 or Radeon 6600 series of card. These are marketed
as ‘Ultra 1080p cards’, and at that resolution they’ll certainly perform great! As you
should expect from a $300+ card. It’s interesting to compare them with the
previous generation. The Geforce 3060, for instance, is pretty much a Geforce 2060 Super,
but with more VRAM and is launching for $70 cheaper. Which… actually sounds okay?
Meanwhile, the Radeon 6600 XT is like a 5700 XT, but with raytracing support, and is marketed
at $20 less. So this means that we haven’t moved along
the price-performance curve very much in the last 2 years. And the situation was already
bad back then, but has been made worse thanks to global shortages which are pushing the
prices up higher still. But this is the situation right now, and this is what’s on offer.
Of the two, the Geforce 3060 is cheaper and a bit slower than the 6600 XT, but has superior
raytracing support and supports DLSS, which I think makes it the better option overall.
The 6600 XT, while a bit more expensive, is also a bit faster at 1080p and is more power
efficient. In fact, it’s very good for power efficiency! However, it isn’t so capable
of raytracing, and it has a few limitations that will stop it from performing as well
as it could have done at higher resolutions. Sure, it has FSR, but honestly, I haven’t
been too impressed with that just yet. If you can stretch a bit further, the Geforce
3060 TI is unquestionably the BEST choice- it’s fast enough for 1440p gaming, and is
just a capable all-rounder. But it also costs more… so there’s that.
So that’s the depressing situation in the discrete graphics card market! Now to go cheaper
still. APUs
APUs are CPUs, combined with a GPU. In theory this is great- it combines the two most expensive
components of your PC into one affordable package. However, I think the latest generation
of AMD APUs -which has just been released- is a little bit lopsided- the CPU portion
of them is very powerful, but the graphics card bit is not. The Vega graphics side of
things hasn’t really progressed much beyond those seen in APUs from 3 years ago, which
I am bitterly disappointed about. So it’s a struggle for me to recommend these as budget
gaming options- though if you don’t mind ultra low resolutions then you can get by
with them. And there is always the option to slot a discrete graphics card into these
machines at a later date, once prices for them drop or whatever. But let’s look at
the new APU offerings: At the top of the line is the Ryzen 5700G,
which contains an 8 core Zen 3 processor. This is overkill for your gaming needs- buy
this if you’re going to be rendering or encoding, or doing other cpu-demanding workloads.
Unfortunately, it’s bundled with just 8 vega graphics cores, which isn’t very powerful
and will restrict you to the lowest of resolutions. And for $360 it’s hardly a ‘cheap’ option
if you’re going to use this to game on a budget. But it’s great if you need a powerful
processor and don’t want to spend on a graphics card.
The next one down is more attractive- the 5600G is just $260, and its processor contains
6 cores / 12 threads. In my opinion, this is the perfect gaming balance right now. And
while it isn’t as fast as the 5600X, this processor will still be great for gaming.
This APU features 7 Vega CUs to drive the graphics. In practice, this isn’t much slower
than the 8 Vega CUs seen in the more expensive Ryzen 5700G. But neither is great. So yeah-
if you’re looking for a single component to tide you over, the 5600G will run games
slowly now, AND its processor will be enough to drive games once you slot a dedicated graphics
card into it later on. In the past, there have been sub-$200 and
even sub $100 APUs, but AMD has forsaken us! The 5300G kind of exists, but it’s only
available in pre-built systems. It’s got 4 cores, 8 threads, and 6 vega CUs, which
puts the whole thing on the bare minimum of what you should be looking for.
You can still get an older 3400G, or even an Athlon APU, but I think these are approaching
the end of their lives and with the Navi-powered APUs just around the corner, I would save
your money and hold on just a little bit longer- the right time to buy these low-priced APUs
was 3 years ago! Which brings us onto the…
STEAM DECK I didn’t think I’d be recommending a mobile
gaming platform, but these are strange times indeed, and given the situation, the Steam
Deck is a bit of a miracle! A whole budget gaming system for $400- which is exactly what
we need right now! Its processor is a bit slower than the Ryzen
APUs I’ve just covered (but that’s fine, since those are a bit overkill for budget
gaming). But the Steam Deck’s killer feature is its graphics cores! It features 8 RDNA
2 units, which appear to be quite a bit better than the Vega ones found in current APUs,
and they’re capable of raytracing because why not.
So in other words: the Steam Deck features the APU I’ve been waiting for, and that
is currently being withheld from PC-builders. Given its mobile form factor, it isn’t going
to deliver as much power as a desktop setup would. There aren’t yet benchmarks out for
it, but Valve claims it can run anything in the steam library which is hopeful indeed!
It isn’t out until next year- and isn’t going to be anywhere near as fast as the discrete
cards I’ve covered already. But this looks to be the budget gaming setup that we really
need right now- the fact it’s portable, and comes with its own screen and controls
is just icing on the cake at this point. So why can’t we get this APU and slot it
into a normal PC? I think it’s to do with the RAM- the Steam Deck contains some really
cool modern stuff that isn’t available to the rest of us, and is needed to get the most
out of its graphics cores. To summarise: now is a terrible time for PC builders, and for
the best bang-for-our-buck, we need to look elsewhere. And the Steam Deck is one such
option.
CONSOLES Which brings me to consoles. I would never
use a console, just because I value the extra features you can do with a PC- it’s what
I spend my time doing, after all! BUT, if you’re just wanting to game, and don’t
want to spend silly money, then the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series S or X is a darn-site better
and cheaper than whatever the PC market can currently offer. Just get one of those and
come back to PC in a few years time to see if things have improved.
GAME STREAMING If you REALLY want to use your PC, then perhaps
look into Stadia, or Geforce NOW. They haven’t been too popular, and I’m yet to investigate
them myself, but with the market the way it is they’re becoming increasingly attractive
options for people desperate for a spot of PC gaming. You can use your existing PC to
run these things, and they may open the door to higher quality graphics than your rig can
currently power. Why not give them a go?
CONCLUSION So yeah, those are your options. You could
also consider buying stuff second-hand- who knows, you might get a good deal. Or you could
get a gaming laptop, which given the desktop situation, might not be much worse for your
money. Just be sure to read the reviews. But as far as budget PC gaming goes, to see the
6-tier of graphics cards selling for more than $300 is really depressing. I would not
encourage you to buy right now if you can help it. Look elsewhere, and perhaps get something
a little silly or flamboyant instead. Sure, you might still get ripped off, but it’ll
be harder to see how much you’re being conned versus the tech from yester-year when you
buy in a strange form-factor.