Best Overall Value
Price: £248.61 | Rating: ★★★★½ (4.6)
The MSI RTX 3050 LP 6G is the card for someone building their first gaming PC who wants modern features without the complexity. It's a low-profile card, so it fits in slim cases and small builds. Power draw is low enough that you won't need to worry about upgrading your PSU. And it carries the RTX badge, which means ray tracing and DLSS support, even if neither is going to blow you away at this performance level.
For 1080p gaming at medium to high settings, the RTX 3050 LP does a proper decent job. Esports titles, older AAA games, and anything that isn't pushing the absolute bleeding edge of graphics will run well. It's not a card for 1440p gaming, and you'll want to manage expectations in newer, more demanding titles. But as a starting point? It's solid.
The 6GB VRAM is the honest limitation here. In 2026, some games are already pushing past 6GB at higher settings, and that number will only grow. It's not a dealbreaker for a beginner who's gaming at 1080p on medium settings, but it does mean this card has a shorter useful lifespan than the 8GB options in this roundup.
At £248.61, the RTX 3050 LP is priced a bit high for what it delivers compared to the RTX 5050 GAMING OC sitting just £20 above it. But for a beginner who wants a simple, low-power, compact card with RTX features, it earns its place in the best graphics cards under £300 conversation.
Pros
- Low-profile design fits compact and slim cases
- Very low power draw, PSU-friendly
- RTX features including ray tracing and DLSS
- Easy to install, great for first-time builders
- Quiet operation
Cons
- 6GB VRAM is tight for 2026 gaming
- Older Ampere architecture
- Priced close to newer, faster options
- Not suitable for 1440p gaming
Buy on Amazon
Best Under £50 (Closest Option)
Price: £149.00 | Rating: ★★★★½ (4.6)
The Sapphire Pulse RX 580 is a card from another era, and it's important to be straight with you about that. This is a Polaris-architecture GPU from 2017. It has no ray tracing, no hardware-accelerated upscaling worth speaking of, and the GDDR5 memory is slow by modern standards. And yet, Sapphire's build quality is genuinely excellent, and 8GB of VRAM at this price point is still a talking point.
For 1080p gaming at medium settings in older titles, the RX 580 holds up. It's a card that was genuinely good in its day, and Sapphire's Pulse cooler keeps it running cool and quiet. The dual HDMI outputs are useful for multi-monitor setups, and DVI-D means it works with older monitors too. Driver support from AMD continues, though it's winding down.
Here's the honest truth though: at £149.00, the RX 580 is hard to recommend when newer options exist nearby. It's listed here because it's a real product in this price bracket and Sapphire's reputation for build quality is deserved. But if you're spending £149, the 51RISC GTX 1660 Super offers better performance for a similar outlay, and the MSI RTX 3050 LP isn't far above it with far more modern features.
The RX 580 makes sense as a stopgap, or for someone who specifically needs DVI-D output and dual HDMI. Otherwise, look elsewhere.
Pros
- Sapphire build quality is excellent
- 8GB VRAM is generous for the architecture
- Dual HDMI and DVI-D for legacy display compatibility
- Quiet Pulse cooler
- Proven long-term reliability
Cons
- 2017 architecture, no ray tracing or modern upscaling
- GDDR5 memory is slow by current standards
- Driver support is winding down
- Newer cards offer better performance at similar prices
Buy on Amazon£149.00
Best Under £100
Price: £197.73 | Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.2)
The GTX 1660 Super is a card with a solid reputation. NVIDIA's Turing architecture without the ray tracing cores, 6GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, and performance that sits comfortably above the GTX 970 and RX 580 in most gaming scenarios. At the right price, it's a proper 1080p gaming card that handles most titles at high settings without complaint.
The problem here is the brand. 51RISC is not a name with a long track record, and at £197.73, you're paying a price that's hard to justify. The GTX 1660 Super was a great card when it launched, but in 2026 it's competing against RTX 5050 and RTX 3050 cards with modern features, better upscaling, and longer support windows. The 1660 Super has none of that. No ray tracing, no DLSS, no modern connectivity beyond standard DP and HDMI.
That said, if you find this card at a genuinely low price, it's a reliable 1080p performer. The 6GB GDDR6 is adequate for most 1080p gaming today, and the 192-bit bus gives it decent bandwidth. Esports titles, older AAA games, and anything from the last five years at medium to high settings will run well enough.
Buy it only if the price drops significantly below what you see here. At its current asking price, better options exist in the best graphics cards under £300 bracket.
Pros
- GTX 1660 Super is a proven 1080p performer
- 6GB GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus
- DP, HDMI, and DVI outputs for flexibility
- Decent 1080p frame rates in most titles
Cons
- 51RISC is an obscure brand with limited track record
- No ray tracing, no DLSS
- Overpriced given the competition at similar price points
- PCIe 3.0 only, older platform
- 6GB VRAM is getting tight for newer titles
Buy on Amazon£197.73
