Video Card Guide 2022 – second half

We help you find the right card for your PC!

It seems that video card is back on the menu of the guys dreaming of a PC upgrade. After a horrific period of prices, in recent months the cost of new products has retreated to levels of two years ago, close to the beginning of the pandemic (but never to the level of 2019, which will never return). We discuss this issue in more depth in this article here..

It’s time to update our article on recommendations and video cards to play, using our performance tests, gameplays and also the current market prices as a reference. It is always important to remember that prices in Brazil vary a lot, so check that the reality of costs has not changed much in relation to what we are going to describe in this article, before making your choice.

Time to update our video card recommendations, using price and performance benchmarks for the products available on the market today.

A novelty of this article is that we will include a price comparison chart for people to see the progression of the costs of these cards, in addition to comparing the value of different products. Our cut will take the costs in 2022. You can freely use this graph below, and once again we thank Edno Silva for the excellent work on PC Build Wizard (@pcbuildwizard), which makes it possible for us to generate this content:

As a benchmark for performances, we have this general graph, using 3DMark Fire Strike, to get an idea of ​​how the cards line up. This graph is not representative of all performance scenarios, as different uses, graphics engines and applications can cause these relative positions to change:

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Once again we’re going to use price tiers to break down our suggestions, with different budgets. You can see all the cards that fit into each track in this interactive graphic below:

With everything lined up, time to start talking about our recommendations!

Plates up to BRL 1 thousand

This budget was terrible for getting a card last year, and even with the recent price improvement, it’s still bad. The “cheap” cards are the ones that have evolved the least, even with the falling costs of several models. Sincerely, I do not recommend anything that is hereand I would prefer, if you are building a PC, to get a CPU with integrated graphics and save money for a more robust video card in the future. A Ryzen 5 5600G It already has graphics performance that competes with options in this price range:

REVIEW: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G – a good mid-range CPU with great integrated graphics
Is it still worth the Radeon RX 550, one of the few below 500 reais?

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But if you already have a PC, you just need something to give video and run your games, the Radeon RX 550 unfortunately remains the only card in this segment and with performance that doesn’t lose to the iGPU. Again, I recommend saving up more money and getting something more potent, but if you can’t, it’s what you have for today.

Plates between R$ 1 to 2 thousand

Few things better illustrate the evolution of the market than the simple existence of this segment. In last year’s article, we went straight to R$3,000, because, like the entry market, this price range was “scorched earth”. Today you can go up to BRL 2,000 and get the GTX 16 crowd and, especially, guys like the RTX 2060.

At the entrance of this track, I would consider the RX 6500 XT, but it has some asterisks which we have already discussed in another article, such as not being used for streaming or recording your gameplay. Going for the “meiuca”, the GeForce GTX 1660 Super is one of the most consistent products in this price range, so I would keep an eye on it for a competent Full HD.

GeForce GTX 1650 GDDR6 vs Radeon RX 6500 XT: Does AMD or Nvidia have the best cheap card?
The GeForce GTX 1660 is back! Still worth it?

Despite the GeForce RTX 2060 appearing here, the truth is that it tangles with the Radeon RX 6600 and RTX 3050 most of the time, so let’s discuss them all together in the next level. But the three are already starting to scratch the dividing line, almost dropping below R$ 2 thousand.

Plates between R$ 2 and 3 thousand

Here we have one of the points I would devote more attention to. Last year the good options appeared at R$ 4 thousand. Today, here at the entry point of R$ 2 thousand, are some of the options that may be the most relevant for most gamers. we are talking about obstacle of GeForce RTX 2060, GeForce RTX 3050 and Radeon RX 6600. We are talking about three products updated in technologies, with support for Ray Tracing, and comfortable performance in Full HD and even playing in Quad HD in lighter games or configuration adjustments.

REVIEW: ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 – A new level of entry for RTX
Is GeForce RTX 2060 Still Worth It?
PowerColor RX 6600 Fighter – the cheapest RDNA 2 arrives to compete with the RTX 3060

For those who want to invest more, we also have the strong Radeon RX 6600 XT option, with a lot of performance and a strong cost-benefit ratio in this segment. The RTX 3060 is a good card, but I believe that the most interesting option for those who prefer GeForce is a little above it, as it costs more than the RX 6600 XT which often delivers more performance than it does.

Plates between BRL 3 and 5 thousand

If you can spend a little more, here are my favorite options currently on the market. In this price range we have the cards that face Quad HD without difficulties, and the ones that are most promising in terms of longevity vs cost, as we explained in another article.

REVIEW: GeForce RTX 3060 Ti – almost an RTX 3070 costing 20% ​​less
REVIEW: GeForce RTX 3070 – An RTX 2080 Ti at half the price
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT – Video card runs well running games at 1440p

Here we have three models that I highlight: the RTX 3060 Ti/3070 duo and the Radeon RX 6700 XT. All deliver a high level of performance at good prices.

Plates from BRL 5,000

Going to the high-end cards, here we go to a number of products that start to abandon the concept of cost and benefit, so that metric starts to abandon us from here, but still there are products that I would highlight. If you have your eyes on the GeForce, I would have actually stopped at the previous range and taken the RTX 3070 Ti. Another that has a very relevant relationship between performance and price is the RTX 3080, already with an eye on playing in 4K without difficulties.

From AMD we have two good options. The price of the Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6900 XT make these two cards very strong options in this segment, again focusing on 4K in high/ultra and ray tracing in Quad HD. Both have a very high performance/cost ratio, even considering this high-end segment and its high values.

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Hey guys, I hope this information is useful. Remembering that this is a starting point. Prices should and will vary over time, so in your research, remember to recalibrate these comparisons considering the new reality of the market. And when you have your eye on a specific model, we have our analysis section and also this playlist of videos on YouTube full of video cards being tested, both in synthetic tests and in game action.

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