Well, for such budget you can get mainstream graphics cards like Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 non Ti and Radeon RX 460. Those graphics card are really popular among gamers not just because their affordable price, but also because they have been equipped with DDR5 memory type and are strong enough to run most modern games with high settings.
note:
- At least Quad core CPU and 500 Watts power supply are required to run the cards below properly.
- The video cards in this article are quite strong for 900p or 1080p gaming with decent frame rate. However, avoid the cards below if you are planning to play games on larger resolutions.
The Best Graphics Card Under 150 Dollars from Nvidia
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mini 4GB GDDR5
The presence of GTX 1080, GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 is able to prove that the architecture of Pascal GPU can offer fast performance with low power consumption. Unfortunately, the price of the video cards above is relatively expensive for most PC gamers.
To complete the line of graphics cards based on Pascal GPU architecture, Nvidia officially presenting their latest graphics card, GeForce GTX 1050 Series. Interestingly, Nvidia offers two variants at this time, GTX 1050 Ti and non Ti. It seems that Nvidia released this series to replace the GTX 950 and GTX 750 ti which have become less popular at the market.
GTX 1050 Ti from Zotac is of the best choice for a gamer who wants to get a great gaming video card for 1080p due to its powerful performance. Furthermore, the price of GTX 1050 series is quite affordable. In term of price, the GTX 1050 series will fight directly against AMD's Radeon RX 460 series.
Zotac GTX 1050 Ti itself comes with 768 CUDA Core and is clocked at 1290 MHz (Base Clock) & 1392 MHz (Boost clock). The GPU chip of this video card is equipped with 4gb GDDR5 memory, with memory speed clocked at 7000 MHz. Unfortunately, the GTX 1050 non Ti version is only available with 2gb GDDR5 memory. Furthermore, One of the most interesting point from this GTX 1050 series is, the graphics card power from both GTX 1050 Ti and non Ti is only 75W!!. According to GTX geforce official site, you can operate this video card in a computer with 300W power supply.
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mini 4GB GDDR5 Specifications
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Memory Speed
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7000 MHz
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Memory Size
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4GB DDR5
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Core Clock
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1303 MHz
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Boost Clock
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1417 MHz
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CUDA Cores
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768
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Max TDP
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75 W
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Recommended PSU
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300 W
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Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1050 2GB GDDR5 128 Bit PCI-E
The coming of GTX 1050 Series makes the graphics card market more exciting. Overall the GTX 1050 is able to offer nice gaming performance in Full-HD resolution settings with decent FPS on some popular AAA games like Battlefield 1. Even in most games you will get an average FPS above 60 FPS therefore you can play the games comfortably.
GeForce GTX 1050 uses GPU based on 16nm Pascal architecture with GP107-400 code. Based on the code used, GP107 is indicated on GTX 1050 is the full version without any microprocessor stream cuts. The GP107 chip itself is supplied 6 BC with 768 CUDA cores in it. GPU is staying will have Base clocked at 1318 MHz with Boost Clock at 1380 MHz.
For its memory sector, the GPU is equipped with 2GB GDDR5 memory with 7 GHz speed and 128-bit interface. The most interesting is the max TDP of the GTX 1050 is only 75 Watt, meaning GTX 1050 from NVIDIA and the reference version of its partners can rely on power from the PCI-E slot without additional power from the PCI- E.
Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1050 2GB GDDR5 128 Bit PCI-E is one of the best and recommended GTX 1050 Graphic Card available in the market you can get, and is designed for budget gamers who wanna play intense 3D games on 1080p with decent settings.
Click here to buy Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1050 2GB GDDR5 from amazon
The Gigabyte GTX 1050 mentioned in this article is the OC version which means it runs sligthly faster than standard version. Furthermore, you can also choose silent mode and user mode when you're not playing games.
Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1050 2GB GDDR5 128 Bit Specifications
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Memory Speed
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7008 MHz
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Memory Size
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2GB DDR5
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Core Clock
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1404 MHz
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Boost Clock
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1518 MHz
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CUDA Cores
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640
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Max TDP
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75 W
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Recommended PSU
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300 W
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The Best Graphics Card Under 150 Dollars from AMD Radeon
XFX Radeon RX 460 4GB GDDR5
Aimed toward gamers with limited budget, of course some of you might curious about what is offered by this XFX Radeon graphic card?.
XFX Radeon RX 460 brings the Polaris 11 GPU which has different specification than the RX 470 and RX 480 (with their Polaris 10 GPU). One noticeable difference is its lower TFLOPS rating, at 2.2 TFLOPS, or less than half of the RX 470 and RX 480 GPUs. This is certainly due to the use of smaller number of shaders/compute units.
Speaking of gaming performance in 1080p, the Radeon RX 460 2GB demonstrates competitive performance in its class, where it is able to compete with the GTX 950, and is fairly constant on top of the GTX 750 Ti. Compared to its class predecessor, the R7 360, RX 460 is far enough, about 20-25%.
But there is one thing to note, the difference between video capacity of memory between RX 460 2GB and RX 460 4GB gives a significant influence on performance in some games such as Assassin Creed Unity, Grand Theft Auto V, and Rise of The Tomb Raider.
XFX Radeon RX 460 4GB Specifications
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Memory Speed
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7000 MHz
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Memory Size
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4GB DDR5
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Core Clock
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1220 MHz
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Stream Processors
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896
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Max TDP
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75 W
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Recommended PSU
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400 W
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MSI Radeon RX 560 AERO ITX 4G OC GDRR5
MSI is one of the best Graphic card manufacturers that offers a range of products for budget gamers to enthusiast gamers.
RX 560 AERO from MSU is one of the best mid end graphics cards with minimalist design and tiny size, and it has enough power to run the latest game smoothly.
As you can see from the image above, MSI Aero RX 560 does have a small and simple shape. This graphics card only has one fan as its cooling system. It also doesn't have fancy features like RGB LED or other gaming features. However, the MSI RX 560 still supports a variety of modern graphics technologies from AMD such as FreeSync and support for the Vulkan graphics API.
For display output, like most mid end video card, the MSI Radeon RX 560 provides HDMI, DVI and DisplayPort. Unfortunately this MSI card does not provide D-sub output, a standard output often used by cheap 19 inch monitor with 900p resolution.
MSI RX 560 AERO ITX 4G OC Specifications
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Memory Speed
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7000 MHz
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Memory Size
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4GB DDR5
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Core Clock
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1196 MHz
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Cores
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1024 Units
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Core Name
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Polaris 21
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Max TDP
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60 W
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Recommended PSU
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400 W
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On the other hand, the MSI aero RX 560 is a graphics card that is classified as power efficient. It only comes with one 6-pin power connector and you can still use a 400W power supply for systems that use this graphics card. Furthermore, the MSI RX 560 is equipped with 4GB of GDDR5 memory, which is enough to just play your favorite modern games.
Click here to buy MSI Radeon RX 560 AERO ITX 4G from amazon
Overall, with the price under 150 dollars, the MSI aero RX 560 should be quite attractive for gamers with tight funds. The reason is, they can still enjoy a variety of the latest games smoothly even though not at the highest settings quality.
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