GPU prices are extremely high where I live, and I've saved about $340 for a graphics card. I'm trying to choose between a used RX 6700 XT for $310, a used RX 6800 for $360, a new RTX 5050 for $340, or a new Arc B580 for $360.
The card I buy will need to last me around three to five years for 1080p gaming. I'm a university student without a job, so I'm worried about buying a powerful used card and having it fail after the short one-month warranty. I would thoroughly test a used card before purchasing it, but there would not be much I could do if it died several months later.
The Arc B580 seems appealing because it is new and offers good performance, but I'm concerned that my Ryzen 5 3600 may hold it back. I can upgrade my CPU later, although I've also heard about possible Intel driver issues. The RTX 5050 would come with a longer warranty, but it seems noticeably weaker than the used AMD cards and the B580.
Since this GPU will mainly be used for gaming, which option offers the best balance of performance, reliability, and value for the next three to five years?
4 Answers
Intel’s older CPU-overhead problems have improved, so the Ryzen 5 3600 should not automatically rule out the B580. It may still bottleneck the card in high-refresh-rate or CPU-heavy games, but that applies to the other GPUs too. Just check that the games you play run well on Arc, since newer or less-supported titles can still have occasional driver differences.
The RX 6800 is the strongest option here by a clear margin. It has excellent 1080p performance and 16GB of VRAM, which should help it age well. The main risk is simply that it is an older used card, so you need to inspect it carefully and make sure the seller allows a proper stress test. If the extra $20 is manageable, it offers much better value than the RTX 5050.
The Arc B580 is probably the safest performance-oriented choice if you want something new. Its drivers have improved considerably, and a Ryzen 5 3600 may limit performance in some CPU-heavy games, but that does not make the card unusable. You can upgrade the processor later. For mostly gaming, though, the RX 6800 still has more raw performance and VRAM if you are comfortable accepting the used-card risk.
The RTX 5050 is the least attractive option in this group. The long warranty is reassuring, but you would be paying new-card money for substantially less performance than the RX 6800 and likely less value than the B580. Unless reliability is more important to you than performance and you absolutely cannot tolerate buying used, I would look at the other choices first.
I’m mainly focused on gaming, so I’ll compare real-world performance more carefully before deciding. I do want to get the best value possible without taking an unreasonable reliability risk.