A "budget" graphics card in late 2026 is not the £200 card many people remember. Current-generation cards start well above that, and 8GB of video memory is tighter than it used to be. The aim of this guide is to find the cheapest cards that are still worth buying in the UK, and to be honest when a little more money buys a lot more breathing room.
Forge PC hasn't tested these cards. Our picks draw on Tom's Hardware's mid-2026 buying guide and GPU hierarchy (credited below) and on manufacturers' official specifications. Prices are the lowest new UK prices on SpecPrice's tracker, updated at 07:57 GMT on 13 November 2026, and are approximate. Stock and prices move, so check the listing before you buy.
Quick picks
Pick | Card | VRAM | Approx. UK price, 13 Nov 2026 |
|---|
Cheapest card worth buying | Intel Arc B570 | 10GB | £284 |
Best 1080p current-gen card | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 | 8GB | £425 |
Best 16GB card under £600 | AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB | 16GB | £580 |
Worth a look if the listing is real | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 | 12GB | from £598 at AWD-IT; £780 at Scan |
Tom's Hardware, in its October 2026 guide, called the Arc B570 "the only cheap graphics card worth buying" and the RTX 5060 the best card for 1080p gaming. The 16GB RX 9060 XT is the cheapest way to get 16GB of VRAM in a new current-generation card on SpecPrice's UK list.
How we judged "budget"
We looked at new current-generation cards that cost less than the usual mid-range pairing of an RX 9070 or RTX 5070 — in this market, that's roughly the £280 to £600 band, with a note when a mid-range card briefly overlaps it. Last-generation cards such as the RTX 3060 12GB (about £398) and RX 7600 (about £382) are still listed new in the UK, but they lack the current upscaling and frame-generation features, so they are alternatives rather than the lead picks.
Video memory matters more than it used to, especially if you want higher settings or upscaling with frame generation. Our VRAM guide explains the 8GB, 12GB and 16GB split. Official memory figures used here come from the manufacturers: 8GB GDDR7 on the RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, 10GB on the Arc B570 (as listed by Tom's Hardware), 16GB GDDR6 on the RX 9060 XT 16GB, and 12GB GDDR7 on the RTX 5070.
Cheapest worth buying: Intel Arc B570 (about £284)
Tom's Hardware's verdict is blunt: if you have to save every penny on a new card with a warranty, the B570 is the cheap option that still makes sense. It recorded the lowest new UK price on SpecPrice at £284.48, from GamingKit, with a second shop also listing it. Tom's Hardware says it "just squeaks over the 60 FPS mark overall" in its 2026 raster test suite at 1080p, only a few frames per second shy of the RTX 5050, and that its 10GB of memory is more useful than 8GB.
The trade-off is software. Tom's Hardware notes that Intel's XeSS upscaler and frame generation are not as widely adopted as NVIDIA's DLSS, and that Arc driver quality can be inconsistent in some titles. If you want the fewest surprises in a wide range of games, spending more on an RTX 5060 is the safer current-generation choice. The slightly dearer Arc B580 was listed from about £306, but only at one UK shop on the day we checked, so availability looks thin.
Best 1080p current-gen card: GeForce RTX 5060 (about £425)
Tom's Hardware still picks the RTX 5060 as the best card for 1080p gaming in mid-2026. NVIDIA's official specification is 8GB of GDDR7, 145W total graphics power and a 550W required system power. The cheapest UK listing on 13 November was £424.95 at AWD-IT.
Tom's Hardware's case for it is consistency: it holds up in popular 1080p games that are not especially hungry for VRAM, and DLSS is available in a very long list of titles. The same review notes that 8GB is not always enough to use multi-frame generation reliably, and that the RX 9060 XT 8GB can be faster in some games, but not consistently enough for Tom's Hardware to dethrone the 5060 as a general recommendation.
The 8GB RTX 5060 Ti was about £480 — only around £55 more. That's a small step, but it is still an 8GB card. If you can stretch to the 16GB RX 9060 XT, you get a much larger memory pool for not a huge amount more.
Best 16GB under £600: Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB (about £580)
This is the pick we would make if the card has to last, or if you also want to run local AI models. AMD's official page for the 16GB RX 9060 XT lists 16GB of GDDR6, up to 320GB/s of memory bandwidth, 160W typical board power and a 450W minimum PSU recommendation. SpecPrice's cheapest UK price on 13 November was £579.98 at Scan.
You are paying about £155 more than an RTX 5060 for twice the memory and, in AMD's figures, modest power needs. Tom's Hardware has described the 16GB 9060 XT as a former value favourite that looks less clever once faster cards are close in price, but in the UK it remains the cheapest new 16GB current-generation card. The 8GB 9060 XT was about £450 — cheaper, but it gives up the memory advantage that makes the 16GB model interesting.
A mid-range card that has dipped into this budget
The RTX 5070 is a 12GB card, officially rated at 250W total graphics power with a 650W required system power. It is not a budget part in NVIDIA's range, and Scan's cheapest listing on 13 November was £779.99. The same morning, SpecPrice's stock-checked low was £597.99 at AWD-IT for an Inno3D Twin X2 model.
If that AWD-IT listing is in stock when you look, it undercuts the 16GB RX 9060 XT on price and, according to Tom's Hardware's mid-range pick, it is a stronger gaming card than the cheaper 8GB and 16GB options above. You still only get 12GB of memory, so read the VRAM guide before you choose it over 16GB. If the cheap listing has gone and the card is back around £780, it belongs in our main graphics card guide and the RX 9070 vs RTX 5070 comparison, not in a budget round-up.
Cards we would skip at these prices
The RTX 5050 starts at about £360. Tom's Hardware's 1080p figures put it close to the much cheaper B570, and you only get 8GB. Unless you specifically want NVIDIA's software stack at the lowest possible price, the B570 or a used search is usually the better starting point.
Older cards such as the RTX 3060 12GB and RX 7600 can look tempting on price, but you are buying last-generation features. They can still play games, especially at 1080p, yet they are a weaker long-term buy than a current card with a warranty from a UK shop.
Whatever you choose, match the power supply to the official figure and leave some headroom. Our PSU guide explains how.
Our verdict
If you have to spend as little as possible on a new card, Tom's Hardware's pick is still the Intel Arc B570 at about £284, with the caveat that Intel's software stack is less universal than NVIDIA's. For a straightforward 1080p gaming PC, the RTX 5060 at about £425 is the current-generation card Tom's Hardware recommends. If you can stretch to about £580, the RX 9060 XT 16GB is the budget buy that will age more comfortably, because 16GB of memory is the scarce thing in this price band. And if an RTX 5070 is genuinely available near £600, check the listing carefully — that is mid-range performance at a budget-adjacent price, with only 12GB of VRAM.
