So, I recently got my hands over the Ryzen 5 2600, and gosh, this is just a beast here. Being faster than my previous build, the 8400, I was just stunned by the results. I was amazed by the performance this Ryzen 5 2600 delivers and that too while being extremely affordable.
Okay, so the next thing I wanted to pair it up with the Ryzen 5 2600 was a decent GPU. We already know how important it is to pair the right GPU with a processor. Now I didn’t want to mismatch both of the components; just imagine guys playing games on a system that has core i3 with RTX 2060.
Sounds absurd, right?! To not let you guys go through any sort of compatibility issues here, I have compiled some of the easy tips you need to remember beforehand purchasing the best GPU for Ryzen 5 2600; also, I will share some of the best picks here that didn’t report compatibility issues. So, let’s get into the buying guide.
Top Products:
Best GPU For Ryzen 5 2600 Reviewed At a Glance:
- PowerColor Red Devil AMD Radeon RX590 8GB
- MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
- Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB
- XFX Radeon RX 590 Fatboy
- EVGA RTX 2070 Black Gaming
- AMD Radeon RX 6600
- ZOTAC Gaming Geforce GTX 1650 Super
Best GPU For Ryzen 5 2600 Reviewed
PowerColor Red Devil AMD Radeon RX590 8GB
Best Flagship GPU for Ryzen 5 2600
SPECIFICATIONS
Brand: PowerColor | Graphics Coprocessor: AMD Radeon RX 590 | Chipset: AMD | Graphics Type: GDDR5 | Graphics RAM Size: 8 GB
Okay, so the Powercolor Red Devil RX 590 seems like an actual red devil here with that red color lining all over the card. Physically, I believe this card over here is a bit beefy because it is thick and takes about 2 or 2 and half of the PCIe slots.
This card has a massive heatsink and can turn the fans on and off; however, they have mentioned that the fans won’t run at full speed until the GPU is about 60 degrees Celsius. Also, at the back, I got this excellent back plate with numerous holes for a better overflow.
As you all know, I have been around different GPUs lately, so if I compare the performance of the 590 to others, in my opinion, it is somehow in between the 1060 and 1070, so it touches that sweet spot. This card actually is a beast because I was able to play several games over this one at 1080p, and guys, the results were astonishing.
Because it retails for a very low cost, not everyone would expect it to perform the best, even if I was initially skeptical, but this is one of the best budget GPUs for Ryzen 5 2600. However, the benchmarks did prove me wrong here.
While at 2K, it was able to give me 60-65 FPS for some games, and if I talk about the 4K results, then it actually was able to deliver about 40-45 FPS. This is something unusual for a card that would not cost you more than $400.
However, I would not suggest that this is the best card for 4K gaming, but I am trying to say if you want to experiment, you can go ahead. So, the benchmarks for the Shadow of Tomb Raider gave me 55 FPS at 1080p, while at 1440p, it was 37 FPS, and at 4K, it was 19 FPS.
Coming towards the Far Cry 5, I got an impressive 70 FPS at 1080p, while at 1440p, it was 50 FPS, and lastly, at 4K, it was 27 FPS. For Time Spy 4K, the score was 2434, and for 1080p, it was 7274. Benchmark wise I am literally impressed with this powerful card.
Now coming to the noise part, and guys, there is a bummer, actually. First, there is some weird coil whining when I turn this GPU on. Like it is hell annoying to have that. Now, if any of you are thinking of building a silent system, I would suggest letting this one go because the fans aren’t quite as well.
Like even at 60 degrees Celsius, the fans are running at full speed, and gosh, that annoying sound is indeed way too obvious.
REASONS TO BUY
✓1080p gaming card
✓Works for 4K content creation
✓Affordable price
✓Remains cool
REASONS TO AVOID
✗Too loud
WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE THIS GPU?
Personally, I think that the PowerColor Red Devil RX590 is the best budget graphics card out there right now that you can get without breaking your budget.
I had no issue with this one except for the fact that this is too loud; however, if you can get a soundproof PC case, then it would be a great one for you. Other than that, it supports 4K content creation but might not satisfy 4K gaming needs.
MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
Best Overall GPU for Ryzen 5 2600
SPECIFICATIONS
Brand: MSI | Graphics Coprocessor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti | Chipset: NVIDIA | Graphics Type: GDDR6 | Graphics RAM Size: 6 GB
MSI has never disappointed us, and this one pick is just one of the GPUs for Ryzen 5 2600. If you didn’t know, let me tell you that this is not the original 1060, but this is actually a 1060 Ti. So, first, we got 1060, then 2060, and then this 1060 Ti was released.
Now, if you guys are stuck with your previous 9 series or even 7 series card, I must suggest this one is a decent upgrade. On the box, you can read that it is an OC card, which means that it comes overclocked, so of course, you will have the most out of it; you will find that later when I share the benchmarks with you.
The card comes with 6GB DDR6; previously, 1060 had the GDDR5 technology, so I am hoping for a bit of performance boost with the Ti. If you look at the front here, we got two fans that are good for airflow, and it also has this back plate to make the heat dissipation more straightforward.
In terms of ports, it has got these three display ports and one HDMI port. Now those of you who want a fancy system build might find this one a bit simple, but at this price, what else can you expect. As a matter of fact, it runs on the new TU 116 Turing architecture with a memory bandwidth of around 288 gigabytes.
So, with overclocking, this graphics card has a boost clock of around 1872 MHz, and the temperature remained between 60 to 70 degrees Celsius. The fans here do not stop even if your system is idle; they are constantly spinning, and with that, they do produce noise, but it won’t bother you much if you are having headphones while using this system; in short, the other person in the room might not be much bothered by the noise.
I also tried manually overclocking this card. With that, I reached the boost clock of up to 1965 MHz; however, the card would crash at 2010 or 2020 MHz, which was a massive disappointment for me. Generally, I was getting the performance way too similar to the 20 series, and I didn’t notice any considerable difference.
Coming toward the benchmarks, I first tried the Fire Strike Extreme while having the card manually overclocked. In scores, I saw around a 5 to 12 % increase in performance. Unfortunately, you can never have 4K gaming with this one, as 1080p is what its maximum resolution is.
Even at the lowest settings, you would be able to get 30-40 FPS, and here I would say what else you can expect from a mid-tier range graphics card. While having the settings high, the 1660 Ti at 1080p gave me a frame rate of 118 FPS, at 2K, it gave 81 FPS, and finally, at 4K, it gave me the lowest frame rate that is 40 FPS.
Next is Resident Evil 2; the GTX 1060 ti at high present with 1080p gave me the frame rate of 129 FPS, at 2K, it was 81.6 FPS, and finally at 4K, it was 40 FPS. So, you can clearly see that this is not the card for playing 4K games or mining which also requires high resolutions. If you still continue to do so, you will have crashed several times, just like mine.
REASONS TO BUY
✓Remains cool
✓Works for mild overclocking
✓Reasonable price
✓Huge heatsink
REASONS TO AVOID
✗Not for 4K gaming or even mining
WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE THIS GPU?
The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is a solid best mid-range GPU for Ryzen 5 2600. It can handle 1080p or even 2K gaming, but I would not suggest going for this one if you are into 4K gaming.
Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB
Best Value GPU Ryzen 5 2600
SPECIFICATIONS
Brand: Gigabyte | Graphics Coprocessor: GeForce | Chipset: GTX 1050 | Graphics Type: GDDR5 | Graphics RAM Size: 4 GB
The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is the best GPU for Ryzen 5 2600 for under $200, but that doesn’t mean you are getting nothing out of this one. Just don’t get to the price or small size of this graphics card. Even though this card might seem teeny-tiny, it has a lot of power.
I loved this one because it is literally way too simple to install; for further information, keep on reading. From the size, I wasn’t expecting that this 1050 ti would come with many ports. It comes up with 3 video output ports, one DVI, one HDMI 2.0, and one Display port 1.4.
Now you can have a 4K experience using the display port 1.4 but by no means am I claiming that this is the card for 4K gaming. Still, you can attach your 4K monitor with this one, play your games at 1080p and have the perfect results.
I tried playing GTA 5 over this one and the results were somehow satisfactory with 60-70 FPS. Here I will tell you something disappointing about this one: you cannot run every other new game on the market over this card. Even if you do, you would not be able to achieve frame rates higher than 50-60 FPS.
One thing that distinguishes these graphics cards from others is that they do not require a 6-pin PCIe power connector, so you can literally set it up in whatever processor you have; whether it’s old or new, the 1050 ti would fit right in them and would work as well.
For overclocking purposes, I won’t suggest doing that with the 1050 ti for many reasons, including the single-fan design.
I tried running my favorite Rise of the Tomb Raider over this one and my other 1050 ti with a dual-fan design. So for the 1050 ti with single fans, I got a frame rate of around 56 FPS, and for the double fan design, it was 57 FPS, so I guess there is not much difference between both of them.
REASONS TO BUY
✓Good performance for the price
✓Decent 1080p gaming experience
✓Inexpensive graphics card
✓Small footprint
REASONS TO AVOID
✗Not for high-end gaming
WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE THIS GPU?
The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is the best graphics card for Ryzen 5 2600 under $200. If you don’t want to spend much money, this is the one to get. But remember to not buy this for high-end gaming because then you would be stuck with many glitches.
XFX Radeon RX 590 Fatboy
Best Value GPU for Ryzen 5 2600
SPECIFICATIONS
Brand: XFX | Graphics Coprocessor: AMD Radeon RX 590 | Chipset: AMD | Graphics Type: GDDR5 | Graphics RAM Size: 8 GB
Now this card is the sole proof of the fact that when I tell you guys to not spend way too much or too low but get a card that is able to return the value you are paying for it. The XFX Radeon RX 590 is one fat boy that is just the best value graphics card on budget for Ryzen 5 2600.
So what makes this card so special and what are its awesome aspects and are there any drawbacks to this one? I have covered you all here so keep on reading! Now here if you guys have previously owned any of the RX 480 or 580 ones then let me tell you an interesting fact here.
So, basically the RX 590 is an overclocked version of the RX 580. I am not claiming that there are literally zero differences among them, yeah differences do exist but very slight ones.
Other than that the architecture is the same but guys the performance it delivers is decent and that should be our only concern. In terms of the performance this one literally falls in between the GTX 1060 and 1070.
The design is pretty simple. We have got 2 fans, a backplate , 3 display ports, and 1 HDMI pretty much everything a decent graphics card would have. Now let’s jump into the benchmarks which is the real way to find out whether this card is worth anything or not.
So first I tried playing Battlefield V at 1080p Ultra Quality setting. Here the RX 590 gave me a frame rate of around 80 FPS which is similar to the frame rates I obtained using the GTX 1070. Next I turned the setting into 1440 and got some good frame rates here as well with the RX 590 having 60 plus FPS whereas the GTX 1070 gave 72 FPS here.
Forza Horizon also played really well on the RX 590 with a frame rate of 80 FPS. Now Shadow of the Tomb Raider had some issues with this card because of that the frame rate was very pathetic with 33 FPS. Also I think Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey also had no good time with the RX 590 because the frame rates here were as low as 29 FPS.
Even though I was using the GLUE up to its fullest potential the temperature remained in between 70-71 degree celcius and the fans were spinning dead silent like I wasn’t distracted nor it was way too obvious.
With overclocking I am not going to lie I did notice a considerable difference in the temperature but again the fans weren’t crazy. Now, comes the conclusion: should we get it or not.
I personally believe that the RX 590 doesn’t make any huge difference if you have the 480 or 580 in your PC case. Another thing is that this card can cost you more than $200 so why would you spend this much money on a card that is just going to last you a year or so and will be dead on the arrival of new graphic intense games.
REASONS TO BUY
✓Fast VRAM
✓Decent 1440p gaming experience
✓Comes with a backplate
✓Plenty of ports
REASONS TO AVOID
✗Gets hot when overclocked
WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE THIS GPU?
XFX’s RX 590 is a solid pick for the money. You can play almost any game and not have to worry about it being glitchy.
However if you just like me want to overclock your GLUE for gaming and not just for fun then I would say stir clear of this one. Because this one literally gets fried up when it is overclocked. Maybe a cooler would do for that but still I would not recommend this one for serious overclockers.
EVGA RTX 2070 Black Gaming
Best Performance GPU for Ryzen 5 2600
SPECIFICATIONS
Brand: EVGA | Graphics Coprocessor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 | Chipset: NVIDIA | Graphics Type: GDDR6 | Graphics RAM Size: 8 GB
So, this 2070 is the best value GPU for Ryzen 5 2600. I am literally in awe of the aesthetics; they are entirely black and look premium at a glance. From the specs, I came to know that this card has an exceptional Turing architecture with a boost clock of around 1770 MHz.
Further, it has around 2560 Cuda cores, 8 GB RAM, and 256 bandwidth, along with a memory bandwidth of 448 gigabits per second. Honestly, I have been a fan of the 70 series by NVidia from 970 till 2070. I had owned all of them at some point in my life, and I literally love using them.
In terms of benchmarking, I tried this one against the GTX 1070 first with the Heaven Unigine. At 1440p, 2070 gave a 70.8 FPS while 1070 gave 55.1 FPS. Next, I also benchmarked Superposition using Unigene, and 2070 here gave me 22.58 FPS while the 1070 14.26 FPS.
And then I tried using this card for my favorite GTA 5, so the FPS here for 2070 was 78.76, which is quite impressive, and for 1070, it was 56.48 FPS with all the settings maxed.
Now with the Far cry again, the benchmarks for 2070 were quite impressive with 78 FPS compared to 1070 with 63 FPS. The results with 2070 while playing Forza Horizon made me love this card the most with 97.1 FPS and a beautiful resolution. 1070 had a good FPS of 82.9, but it wasn’t as good as 2070.
With these results and the price tag in mind, I, as a budget-minded consumer, would definitely get this one for my PC build. Even under a high load, my GPU didn’t cross the temperature above 61 to 63 degrees Celsius for the thermal part.
Now for overclockers, I have some bad news that this card here has some power constraints because of which you cannot use it up to its full potential while overclocking, but that must not bother you if you are not an overclocked.
At the remaining 61 degrees Celsius, these GPU fans could spin at around 1800 to 1900 RPM. Now by no chance I would claim that this is the quietest card on the market as it does produce a considerable noise with around 40 dBA.
What differentiates this card from 1080 is that 2070 uses new technology and architecture but at the same price as 1080, so you don’t have to pay anything extra.
REASONS TO BUY
✓Reasonable price
✓Amazing 1440p results
✓Remains cool
✓Low profile
REASONS TO AVOID
✗Lacks backplate
✗No RGB
WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE THIS GPU?
EVGA RTX 2070 Black Gaming is the best value GPU for Ryzen 5 2600. It has 8 GB of high-speed GDDR6 memory for enhanced game performance, and it includes a powerful boost clock up to 1770 MHz.
However, one thing that actually disappointed me was the lack of a back plate. I mean, it’s not a big issue. Still, getting a high-end graphics card with NVidia Turing technology, I wanted to get a back plate for this one.
AMD Radeon RX 6600
Powerful GPU For Ryzen 5 2600
SPECIFICATIONS
Brand: Power Color | Graphics Coprocessor: AMD Radeon RX 6600 | Chipset: AMD | Graphics Type: GDDR6 | Graphics RAM Size: 8 GB
The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is one of the most powerful GPUs for Ryzen 5 2600 thanks to its powerful boost clock of around 2941 MHZ; however, I am doubtful whether this will perform up to the mark or not, for that keep on reading this review.
So, the graphics card here, the RX 6600, is a tiny compact graphics card. It is not as tiny as I am describing it, but somehow it is much shorter than the graphics card I have owned in the past. The front has this decent black color plastic with two fans that are 90 millimeters in dimension.
Now it doesn’t come up with a back plate; that was a big turn-off for me. However, I had one from my previous model, so it was not a problem. And again, guys, you are paying less than 400$, so you can expect this one to not have a backplate even though it should have.
It also has one 8-pin power connector, and the heat pipes are apparent as well. I expect this to remain cool through heat pipes as a back plate is already missing. Next, it has these 3 display ports, 1.4 and 1 HDMI 2.1 port, with a black aesthetic.
I had my RX 580 compared with the RX 6600, and I learned that the 6600 is a bit more compact than the 580, which is just an excellent thing for those with a compact PC case. In terms of performance, I believe that the 580 can deliver a 10-15% increase in the performance as it also has these vast fans, making heat dissipation effective.
So, the GPU thermals for the RX 6600 XT under workload with auto controls the card remains at 73 degrees Celsius with that the card fans had an 1800-1900 RPM. Now here I would like to mention something even when the card was at 50 degrees Celsius the fans were running at 1900 RPM; after some time, the fans drastically performed at 1400 RPM and then suddenly got into 1900 RPM again.
And this sudden change in the RPM produced some audible sounds, and I could clearly hear these sounds even while sitting in the corner of my room. Now let’s come towards the benchmarks so, at stock setting, the 6600 XT at 1080p delivered an average frame rate of 135.2 FPS; this performance was very close to the one given by the RX 5700 XT.
After overclocking this card, it still didn’t increase the frame rate; instead, it was very close to the ones at stock conditions, which is 138.9 FPS. I also compared this one to my previous Sapphire RX 6800 XT, and the frame rate was 184.1 FPS; that shocked me, but then there are core differences between them.
Now coming towards the 4K setting, the RX 6600 offered 48.7 FPS at stock condition. At the same time, it showed around 51.3 FPS at overclocked conditions. So, you can play 4K games over this graphics card but make sure to tune the settings a bit down. With the Red Dead Redemption 2 at 1080p, the RX 6600 Xt gave 105.2 FPS; that is just incredible.
REASONS TO BUY
✓Powerful performance
✓Triple heat pipe design
✓Good for gaming
✓Decent overclocking
REASONS TO AVOID
✗Noisy
WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE THIS GPU?
AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is a powerful GPU for gaming on a budget. It provides good gaming performance with excellent graphics quality. However, this card is a hell of noisy, like it literally produces some weird noises out there, but I guess a soundproof PC case might do for that.
ZOTAC Gaming Geforce GTX 1650 Super
Mid Range GPU For Ryzen 5 2600
SPECIFICATIONS
Brand: ZOTAC | Graphics Coprocessor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 | Chipset: NVIDIA | Graphics Type: GDDR6 | Graphics RAM Size: 4 GB
A GPU built for performance and value for gamers, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 delivers up to 2x the performance of the previous generation, making it the best choice for gamers seeking more power at an affordable price.
Here I would also tell you guys if you just want to squeeze a bit of extra performance from your system then this is the GLUE you need to get! I am going to share with you everything you need to know for deciding whether to or not invest in the GTX 1650 OC.
Starting with the design because that is what I came across initially. So this has a tiny compact footprint. And when I am claiming that this one here has a tiny footprint that means it actually is smaller than any other graphic card on the list and eventually it also comes with a single fan design.
Now don’t underestimate the power of this one just because it is teeny tiny. It is jam packed with a lot of power due to 896 Cuda Cores and comes up with 4 GB GDDR5 memory. And the most amazing thing about this one is not its compact design but its ability to take up only 75 watts of power to work.
In terms of ports they have kept everything really simple with a single DVI, single HDMI port, and a single display port. Let’s jump into the numbers and benchmarks. Oh and also I am going to put up this one besides my previous GTX 1050 Ti and check if it is going to outperform or not.
With the Heaven benchmark the graphics score for the 1650 was 1992 which is much improved than my previous 1050 Ti having a graphic score of 1763. The average frame rate was also improved up to 9 frames with the 1650 having 79 FPS and 1050 Ti with 70 FPS.
Now in terms of Far Cry 5 at 1080p high preset the 1050 ti was able to achieve the frame rates of 44 FPS, the 1650 got 55 FPS. Here the 1650 improved much better however if you want to modify the frames rates then the 1060 would work better.
With Forza Horizon 4 at 1080p high preset the 1650 got the frame rate of 81 FPS while the 1050 Ti 67 FPS now I don’t think there is a huge difference between these two cards and if you are thinking of an upgrade then this might not be the good choice.
Even though the size is small it still outperforms somehow but for ultra quality I would suggest you jump into the 1660. Now let’s talk about the temperatures at heavy load. The 1650 achieved a max temperature of 53 degree celsius while idle it was 26 degree celsius so I don’t think it is much of an issue here.
Also the noise wasn’t much viable and I am okay with this one but if you want actual performance boost then go for the 1660.
REASONS TO BUY
✓High FPS at budget
✓Compact footprint
✓Affordable price
✓1080p gaming
REASONS TO AVOID
✗Specifications are a bit insufficient for modern day games
WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE THIS GPU?
The ZOTAC Gaming GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 5G is the best GPU for gaming on the market. It has all the gaming performance you need for 1080p and 1440p gaming.
The cooling performance is really impressive as well. However I believe that the market is changing at a very high pace and this card won’t be able to let you play modern graphic intense games in a year or so.
Conclusion
The Ryzen 5 2600 is the perfect choice for gamers who want the best performance. It has a powerful core and a great set of features that will help you achieve the best results. Here are some of my personal favorites if you haven’t yet decided which one to go for.
- If you want a GPU without breaking the budget, then the PowerColor Red Devil AMD Radeon RX590 8GB is the best budget GPU for Ryzen 5 2600.
- I also care for those of you who have this mid-range budget, and for them, I would suggest going for the MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ti OC as it is one of the best mid-range GPUs for Ryzen 5 2600.
- Lastly, if you want to have the most out of your GPU, then go for the EVGA RTX 2070 Black Gaming as it is the best value GPU for Ryzen 5 2600.
Hopefully, my review about the best GPU for Ryzen 5 2600 has provided you enough options to choose from. Besides, to make a careful purchase, consider the points mentioned here before investing in a GPU for Ryzen 5 2600. Order the best GPU for Ryzen 5 2600 now. You can thank us later!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can A Ryzen 5 2600 Cause Any Bottleneck On RTX 2060?
Yes, the Ryzen 5 2600 can cause some bottlenecks. However, if you use only 4 cores for all your games, the bottleneck will be even lower. It should be ok. But you need to check if your PC meets the minimum requirement of Ryzen.
Does My Ryzen 5 2600 Needs To Have A Good Graphics Card?
Yes. The main reason behind this is that the graphics card is what helps Ryzen to keep up with all the processing power needed to run the game smoothly. If you don’t have a good graphics card then you will get laggy gameplay.
Is The Radeon RX 580 A Good Buy?
Yes, because it’s the best one out there. It’s a very powerful GPU and is relatively inexpensive. You can have it for gaming or even creating content. It works smoothly for any task.