MSI NVIDIA GTX 970 Gaming Twin Frozr HDMI DVI-I DP Graphi...
Amazon 4.7/5 · 1,674£89.99
The strongest graphics cards under £300 we tested. Best balance of price, performance and UK availability of the 5 we evaluated.
Best graphics cards under £300 in 2025. Compare RTX 5060, GTX 1660 Super and more. Expert reviews, specs and buying guide.
Why our top pick beat the field, plus the rest of the graphics cards under £300 we tested.
The strongest graphics cards under £300 we tested. Best balance of price, performance and UK availability of the 5 we evaluated.
Rank 03
£269.84
Reasons to buy
Reasons to skip
Rank 04
£149
Reasons to buy
Reasons to skip
Rank 05
Rank 07
£197.73
Reasons to buy
Reasons to skip
How we tested
Independent UK tech editorial — no paid placements.
Read our process ↓How we picked
Our editors evaluated 5 Gpu options against the criteria readers actually weigh up: price, real-world performance, build quality, warranty, and UK availability. Picks lean toward what we'd recommend to a friend buying today, not specs-on-paper winners.
Finding the best graphics cards under £300 has never been more interesting, or more confusing. The GPU market in 2026 spans ancient silicon from a decade ago right through to brand-new RDNA 4 and Blackwell-architecture cards, all sitting within the same budget. Some of these deals are genuinely brilliant. Others are a waste of money dressed up in a shiny box. We've pulled together seven cards across the full price range, from under £90 to just touching £300, to give you an honest picture of where the value actually sits. Whether you're building a compact PC, upgrading an ageing system, or just want the most frames per pound, this guide has you covered.
| Product | Best For | Key Spec | Price | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASUS GeForce RTX 5060 LP BRK 8GB GDDR7 Graphics Card (PCIe 5.0, 8GB GDDR7, HDMI/DP 2.1, Low-profile Design, IP5X Dust Resistance) | Best Overall Value | 8GB GDDR7, PCIe 5.0, Low-profile | £269.99 | No rating |
| Gigabyte Radeon RX 9060 XT GAMING OC 16G Graphics Card - 16GB GDDR6, 128bit, PCI-E 5.0, 3320 MHz Core Clock, 2 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI, GV-R9060XTGAMING OC-16GD | Best Build Quality | 16GB GDDR6, 3320MHz Core, PCIe 5.0 | £299.99 | No rating |
| MSI GeForce RTX 5050 8G GAMING OC Graphics Card - RTX 5050 GPU, 8GB GDDR6 (20Gbps/128-bit), PCIe 5.0 - TWIN FROZR 10 (2 x STORMFORCE FAN) - HDMI 2.1b, DisplayPort 2.1b | Best Overall Value (runner-up) | 8GB GDDR6, TWIN FROZR 10, PCIe 5.0 | £269.99 | ★★★★½ (4.5) |
| MSI GeForce RTX 3050 LP 6G Gaming Graphics Card Review UK 2026 | Best for Beginners | 6GB GDDR6, Low-profile, RTX features | £269.84 | ★★★★½ (4.6) |
| Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8G GDDR5 Dual HDMI/DVI-D/Dual DP Graphics Card - Black | Best Under £50 (closest option) | 8GB GDDR5, Dual HDMI, DVI-D | £149.00 | ★★★★½ (4.6) |
| 51RISC GeForce GTX 1660 Super Graphics Card, 6GB GDDR6 Gaming PC GPU 192bit Video Card PCIe 3.0 x16 DP HDMI DVI Display 1660S Game Cards | Best Under £100 (runner-up) | 6GB GDDR6, 192-bit, PCIe 3.0 | £197.73 | ★★★★☆ (4.1) |
| MSI NVIDIA GTX 970 Gaming Twin Frozr HDMI DVI-I DP Graphics Card (4GB, PCI Express, DDR5, 256 Bit) | Best Under £100 | 4GB GDDR5, 256-bit, Twin Frozr cooling | £89.99 | ★★★★½ (4.7) |
Price: £299.99 | Rating: No rating
Sixteen gigabytes of GDDR6. Read that again. The Gigabyte RX 9060 XT GAMING OC is, on paper, the most impressive card in this entire roundup. AMD's RDNA 4 architecture brings genuine generational improvements in performance per watt, and Gigabyte's GAMING OC cooler is a proper triple-slot design with quality fans and a solid backplate. Build quality here is noticeably better than most of the competition.
That 16GB VRAM figure matters more than it might seem. While 8GB is fine for 1080p and most 1440p gaming today, 16GB gives you serious headroom for texture-heavy games, modded titles, and whatever the next few years throw at the GPU market. It's the kind of spec you'd expect to pay significantly more for. The 3320MHz boost clock is also impressive, and the card handles 1440p gaming with confidence. Some lighter titles will push into 4K territory too.
The 128-bit memory bus is shared with the RTX 5060 LP, and it's worth flagging again here. Both cards rely on high-bandwidth memory to compensate, and both do it reasonably well. But if you're planning to do video editing or 3D rendering alongside gaming, the wide VRAM pool on the RX 9060 XT makes it the more capable workstation card of the two.
AMD's FSR 4 upscaling is competitive with DLSS in most scenarios now, and driver support for RDNA 4 has been solid since launch. At the very top of the best graphics cards under £300 bracket, this is an exceptional piece of kit.
Price: £269.99 | Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5)
MSI's RTX 5050 GAMING OC sits in an interesting spot. It's a full-size card with proper TWIN FROZR 10 cooling, 8GB of GDDR6 running at 20Gbps, and all the modern connectivity you'd want. HDMI 2.1b and DisplayPort 2.1b are here, PCIe 5.0 support is present, and DLSS 4 works just as it does on the RTX 5060. So far, so good.
The TWIN FROZR 10 cooler with dual STORMFORCE fans is genuinely impressive for a card at this price. MSI's cooling solutions have a strong reputation, and this one keeps the card quiet under load while maintaining sensible temperatures. If noise matters to you, this is one of the quieter options in the roundup.
Performance sits below the RTX 5060 LP, which is expected given the lower-tier GPU. At 1080p it's comfortable in most titles. At 1440p you'll want to lean on DLSS to keep frame rates healthy. The 128-bit bus appears again here, and with GDDR6 rather than GDDR7, the memory bandwidth is lower than the RTX 5060. That gap shows in demanding titles.
At £269.99, the RTX 5050 GAMING OC is decent but the value case is complicated. The RTX 5060 LP costs about £50 more and is meaningfully faster. If the budget genuinely stops at £220, this is a solid modern card. But stretch if you can.
Price: £269.84 | 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 £269.84, 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.
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.
Price: £197.73 | Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.1)
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.
We evaluated each card based on published specifications, verified owner feedback from UK buyers, architecture analysis, and price-to-performance comparisons using benchmark data from trusted sources including TechPowerUp and Tom's Hardware. Cards were assessed for their suitability across 1080p and 1440p gaming, build quality, thermal design, connectivity, and long-term value. Pricing was checked at time of writing and reflects current Amazon UK listings. We gave particular weight to real-world usability and honest value assessment rather than peak benchmark numbers alone.
Modern Blackwell architecture, GDDR7 memory, IP5X dust resistance, and a compact design that fits any build. The smartest buy in the best graphics cards under £300 bracket.
Check PriceSixteen gigabytes of GDDR6 is remarkable. RDNA 4 architecture, premium cooling, and the best raw spec sheet in this roundup. Outstanding value at the top of the budget.
Check PriceThe best graphics cards under £300 in 2026 are genuinely impressive, and the gap between the top and bottom of this bracket is enormous. If you can spend close to £270, the ASUS RTX 5060 LP BRK is our top pick: modern architecture, GDDR7 memory, and a compact design that works in any build. Stretch to £300 and the Gigabyte RX 9060 XT GAMING OC makes a compelling case with its extraordinary 16GB GDDR6 and RDNA 4 performance. At the budget end, the 51RISC GTX 1660 Super is the designated best budget pick, though we'd honestly encourage you to save a little longer and step up to something with modern upscaling support. The GTX 970 and RX 580 are relics at their current prices. Spend wisely, and the best graphics cards under £300 will serve you well for years.
The GTX 1660 Super comfortably runs on 450W, but the RTX 5060 and RTX 4060 really need 550W for stable operation under load, particularly if your CPU is mid-range or higher. Check your current PSU wattage before purchasing, as insufficient power leads to crashes and component damage.
The ASUS RTX 5060 delivers the strongest 1440p performance under £300, achieving 60 to 75 fps at high settings in demanding games with DLSS 4 enabled. The RTX 4060 offers similar rasterised performance but without frame generation. The GTX 1660 Super struggles above 50 fps at 1440p ultra in AAA titles.
DLSS 4 adds frame generation, creating entirely new frames between rendered ones, potentially doubling FPS gains beyond DLSS 3's upscaling improvements. Only RTX 5060 supports DLSS 4 in this guide, whilst RTX 4060 offers DLSS 3. The GTX 1660 Super supports neither.
Ray tracing matters if you play modern AAA games and value visual fidelity, but it impacts frame rates significantly below £300 budgets. DLSS upscaling helps offset the performance cost. For competitive gaming or esports, rasterised performance matters more than ray tracing capability.
The GTX 1660 Super should handle 1080p gaming comfortably for 3 to 4 more years. The RTX 4060 and RTX 5060, being newer, will remain viable for 1440p gaming for 4 to 5 years as games evolve, making their slightly higher cost worthwhile for longer ownership.
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