Rumors claim that you will soon be able to purchase AMD’s cheapest graphics card. But is such a graphics card still worth it today? MeinMMO explains why gamers should invest more.
Many gamers are currently looking for a way to get a graphics card at a relatively low price. Now there are rumors that AMD wants to introduce two budget graphics cards in spring 2022. This leak was reported by the English news magazine wccftech (via wccftech.com).
- The first graphics card is said to be the Radeon RX 6500 XT. The release is expected in January 2022.
- The second graphics card is said to be the Radeon RX 6400. This graphics card is expected to be released in March 2022.
With these two graphics cards, AMD is likely to round out its current portfolio of RX 6000 graphics cards at the lower end. As of now (December 3, 2021), the RX 6600 is the smallest graphics card, has a recommended retail price of 339 euros, but is available for at least 550 euros.
In terms of price, the two new cards are expected to be positioned below this mark and are likely to be too expensive as Nvidia has stated that the high prices will last for a long time.
However, one thing is likely to be unappealing to most gamers who are looking for a powerful graphics card at a reasonably fair price: According to rumors, the RX 6500 XT and RX 6400 are said to only be equipped with 4 GB of video memory.
Video memory is one of the most important features of a graphics card
What is video memory anyway? Video memory (or VRAM) is built directly into the graphics card and transfers data to the graphics card. Therefore, particularly fast memory is used in the graphics card. Technically, video memory doesn’t differ significantly from the RAM used in your computer. The graphics memory is just often many times faster.
Certain features like texture quality, anti-aliasing, and ray tracing require a lot of video memory. The demand for video memory increases significantly at higher resolutions. Offering a graphics card with “only” 4 GB of VRAM is therefore not a viable option for most gamers in the long run.
4 GB of video memory are not future-proof in 2021 and 2022
AMD’s smallest graphics card is also expected to support AMD FSR, AMD’s DLSS alternative. Because graphics cards with 4 GB or less video memory are no longer really recommended in 2021 and 2022, as they do not provide future-proofing. Especially if you prefer higher resolutions than Full HD or want to play with all possible details, 4 GB of video memory is simply too little.
Especially if you are interested in ray tracing, you should have a graphics card with plenty of video memory. For example, people hope for a model with more video memory for the RTX 3080, as 10 GB of video memory is too little for many users.
If you really want to play and do so at Full HD, you should invest more money and go for the Radeon RX 6600 or RTX 3060. Because these two graphics cards offer you 8 GB (RX 6600) and 12 GB (RTX 3060) of video memory, making them significantly better prepared for the future.
AMD is not the only manufacturer that could offer budget graphics cards. Other manufacturers also want to offer affordable graphics cards starting in 2022, which could bring some surprises:
Gamers are now hoping for an affordable graphics card – But it’s not coming from AMD or Nvidia
