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CompareYourGPU

Best GPU under $500

The strongest graphics card you can buy without going over $500, judged at 1440p.

How this is ranked: Cards priced at $500 or below only. 45% performance index at 1440p, 35% performance per dollar, 20% VRAM headroom. Only cards still in production are eligible. Price-based elements use each card's verified current price.

Rank 1
Top pickIntel$435Category score 45/100

Intel Arc B580

The most memory you can buy at this price: 12 GB on a 192-bit bus for entry-level money. Ray tracing is respectable for the tier, but the card needs Resizable BAR to perform as intended, and driver maturity varies more than it does on NVIDIA or AMD.

  • $435 current price.
  • Estimated 50-70 FPS at 1440p in a typical modern AAA game at High settings, no upscaling. Modelled estimate, not a measurement.
  • 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus.
  • 6.2 performance index points per $100 at 1440p.

Strengths

  • 12 GB of VRAM and 456 GB/s of bandwidth at an entry-level price
  • Ray tracing performance is competitive with cards costing more
  • AV1 encode and decode, plus VVC decode

Trade-offs

  • Requires Resizable BAR; performance drops sharply on platforms without it
  • Driver behaviour in older titles is less consistent than the competition
  • 190 W is high for the performance it delivers

Cheaper alternative: Arc B570 at $352

Full specificationsCompare with alternatives
Rank 2
Intel$352Category score 41/100

Intel Arc B570

The cheapest card in this database. It keeps most of the B580's strengths, including 10 GB of memory and AV1 encode, in exchange for around 15 percent less performance. The same Resizable BAR requirement applies.

  • $352 current price.
  • Estimated 40-55 FPS at 1440p in a typical modern AAA game at High settings, no upscaling. Modelled estimate, not a measurement.
  • 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus.
  • 6.2 performance index points per $100 at 1440p.

Strengths

  • 10 GB of VRAM at the lowest price here
  • 150 W on a single 8-pin connector
  • AV1 encode and DisplayPort 2.1

Trade-offs

  • Requires Resizable BAR
  • 160-bit bus and reduced core count versus the B580
  • Entry-level performance only

More powerful: Arc B580 at $435

Full specificationsCompare with alternatives
Rank 3
NVIDIA$383Category score 37/100

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050

The cheapest way into the RTX 50 feature set. It is an entry-level 1080p card that leans heavily on DLSS to hit modern frame-rate targets, and it uses slower GDDR6 rather than GDDR7.

  • $383 current price.
  • Estimated 40-55 FPS at 1440p in a typical modern AAA game at High settings, no upscaling. Modelled estimate, not a measurement.
  • 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus.
  • 5.7 performance index points per $100 at 1440p.

Strengths

  • Lowest-cost route to DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation
  • 130 W suits small cases and modest power supplies
  • AV1 encode is included, which is rare at this price

Trade-offs

  • GDDR6 rather than GDDR7 leaves it short on bandwidth
  • 8 GB of VRAM restricts texture quality in newer titles
  • Needs upscaling to reach high frame rates in demanding games

Cheaper alternative: Arc B570 at $352

More powerful: Arc B580 at $435

Full specificationsCompare with alternatives

Other categories

The same database, weighted for a different priority. Expect different winners.