Best graphics card for budget gaming PC

mOuldyorange · Oct 18, 2016

I'm planning on building a PC over the next few weeks, on a budget of £500.

I'll be using it for 1080p gaming, and I'd like to be able to comfortably run AAA games for the next 3 years or so, but I don't mind having to turn the settings down.

So far I have this:
PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/WGnfpb
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/WGnfpb/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£92.91 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-K Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£47.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£37.94 @ BT Shop)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£41.99 @ Novatech)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Mini Video Card (£188.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£29.20 @ More Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£49.86 @ BT Shop)
Total: £488.88

I'm also planning on getting an SSD at Christmas.

So my question is this: what graphics card should I choose?
At the moment I am thinking about either the 1060 3gb or the 1050ti when it comes out (The specs can be found in this article).

I'm most interested to know how big an issue the 1060's 3gb of VRAM will be for me, and how much of a performance drop the 1050ti will have compared to the 1060.

Also any other suggestions for improvements to my parts list would be greatly appreciated.

Barty1884 · Oct 18, 2016

A 1060 makes the most sense. If you can stretch your budget to a 6GB 1060, then that would be ideal.

A 1050TI appears to be aimed at competing with the RX460.
Putting that into perspective, you're considering a card which is in the same 'space' a 750TI or 950 was in relation to a 980/980TI and hoping you can comfortably run AAA titles for ~3 years.

While 950's & 750ti's (and the 1050ti) have a place, it's certainly not a card to push quality FPS for ~3 years.
It'll certainly be playable in 3 years in AAA titles, but I would expect you to be in the low-medium settings space by then.

I can see a couple of changes that'll make it just about work in budget:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£92.91 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-K Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£47.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£32.99 @ Novatech)
Storage: Toshiba Product Series

T01ACA 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.51 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB Dual Video Card (£228.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£29.20 @ More Computers)
Power Supply: XFX TS 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.88 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £509.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-18 17:03 BST+0100

Ideally you'd go with dual channel RAM, 2x4GB or 2x8GB - but setting yourself up with a single 8GB module should allow you to upgrade to 16GB in future.

mOuldyorange · Oct 18, 2016

Barty1884 :

A 1060 makes the most sense. If you can stretch your budget to a 6GB 1060, then that would be ideal.

A 1050TI appears to be aimed at competing with the RX460.
Putting that into perspective, you're considering a card which is in the same 'space' a 750TI or 950 was in relation to a 980/980TI and hoping you can comfortably run AAA titles for ~3 years.

While 950's & 750ti's (and the 1050ti) have a place, it's certainly not a card to push quality FPS for ~3 years.
It'll certainly be playable in 3 years in AAA titles, but I would expect you to be in the low-medium settings space by then.

I can see a couple of changes that'll make it just about work in budget:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£92.91 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-K Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£47.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£32.99 @ Novatech)
Storage: Toshiba Product Series

T01ACA 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.51 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB Dual Video Card (£228.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£29.20 @ More Computers)
Power Supply: XFX TS 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.88 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £509.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-18 17:03 BST+0100

Ideally you'd go with dual channel RAM, 2x4GB or 2x8GB - but setting yourself up with a single 8GB module should allow you to upgrade to 16GB in future.

Thank you very much, that's a great help.

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