As 4K gaming has started gaining popularity and is becoming more mainstream, many gamers are looking for affordable GPU options to deliver a smooth, immersive gaming experience.
Many budget-friendly GPUs are available today that offer great performance and features for 4K gaming. Nvidia and AMD have been continuously releasing numerous economical GPUs with different capabilities to meet the user's expectations.
In this article, we look at five such GPUs that perform well at 4k resolution without burning a big hole in your pocket.
Note: This article is subjective and reflects the author's opinions.
Both Nvidia and AMD offer affordable 4k-capable GPUs
1) Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the latest generation mid-tier graphics card, which provides exceptional performance during 4K gaming sessions at 240 Hz. It is based on the Ava Lovelace architecture and is equipped with 3rd-generation ray tracing and 4th-generation tensor cores.
The graphics card comes with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and can even run most games in 8K at 60 FPS. It is ideal for gamers who want to play recently released and upcoming AAA titles in the highest settings in native 4K resolution without losing performance.
2) AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is a top-of-the-line graphics card that delivers the ultimate gaming and content creation experience. It is a high-end graphics card equipped with the RDNA 2 architecture, which can even perform slightly better in 4K than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 at a lower price point.
The RX 6800 XT is paired with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and a 256-bit memory interface, giving users all the memory and bandwidth they require for even the most demanding games and applications and a boost clock speed of up to 2.5GHz.
3) Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 is a powerful graphics card with impressive performance and many features for 4K gaming. It is based on Nvidia's Ampere architecture and has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory.
It offers 3rd generation ray tracing cores for mesmerizing and AI-based DLSS to boost performance in-game, making it an excellent choice for gamers who want to experience the best gaming experience.
RTX 3070 performs significantly well in most recently released AAA games, maintaining over 60 fps at 2160p. The only limitation of this GPU is that it has 8 GB of memory, which may result in performance drops in some games.
4) AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT
The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is a mid-tier budget-friendly option that can run modern games in 4K at 60 FPS with a few tweaks. It is powered by AMD's RDNA 2 architecture and has 12 GB GDDR6 memory.
This GPU supports ray tracing to enhance the gaming experience and FSR 2 to improve performance even in ultra settings, making it an excellent option for gamers who want a high-quality gaming experience without spending a fortune.
Furthermore, the GPU supports FreeSync, eliminating screen tearing without lags or frame drops. It also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.1.
5) Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
The Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti is a popular mid-tier graphics card for gamers and professionals. This GPU is part of Nvidia's Ampere architecture cards, which offers several key improvements over its predecessors.
This card is equipped with 2nd generation ray tracing cores and 3rd generation tensor cores which can run most of the recently released games at 4K in high frame rates without many tweaks but requires Nvidia DLSS for stability and boost in frame rates.
The RTX 3060 Ti is great for building a high-end gaming setup on a budget. The only drawback of the card is that the Ti edition only contains 8 GB of memory, which may cause performance drops in some highly demanding games.