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Every gamer’s dream is to immerse themselves in fluid and detailed virtual worlds, but the reality of the wallet often imposes a rude awakening. In the current economic landscape, characterized by biting inflation and a rising cost of living, the art of assembling a budget gaming PC has become a true discipline of digital survival. It is not just about saving money, but applying that uniquely Italian creativity in finding the best price-performance ratio, a sort of “art of making do” applied to hardware.
Integrated graphics, once considered the tail end destined only for office work and web browsing, has undergone a radical metamorphosis in recent years. Today, “all-in-one” solutions promise to run modern titles without the need to purchase an expensive dedicated video card. Here opens the great debate that inflames forums and voice chats from Milan to Palermo: is it better to rely on the integrated power of AMD APUs or seek alternative combinations involving the Nvidia ecosystem?
In this article, we will analyze this challenge from every angle, not limiting ourselves to cold numbers, but contextualizing the use of these technologies in daily life. We will explore how the tradition of smart saving clashes and merges with technological innovation, providing a practical guide for those who want to play without taking out a mortgage.
Italy is a country of saints, poets, navigators, and, increasingly, budget-conscious gamers. The Mediterranean culture, which privileges conviviality and shared experience, is also reflected in the way we experience gaming. However, the cost of electricity in our country is among the highest in Europe. This factor transforms the choice of hardware from a simple question of frame rates to an evaluation of long-term energy efficiency.
A high-end dedicated video card can consume hundreds of watts, turning the room into a sauna during torrid Italian summers and making the electricity meter spin at the speed of light. Conversely, a solution with integrated graphics offers reduced consumption, often less than 65-90 watts total for the entire system. This efficiency translates into tangible savings on the utility bill, an aspect that Italian families evaluate with increasing attention.
Energy efficiency is no longer optional, but a fundamental parameter: choosing integrated graphics often means halving consumption compared to a console or a traditional PC.
Furthermore, living space in our historic cities is often limited. The possibility of building compact (Mini-ITX), quiet, and cool systems, which can be placed in the living room without looking out of place next to the TV, is an undeniable advantage of integrated solutions. Here technology meets design and practicality, core values of our lifestyle.
When talking about high-performance integrated graphics, AMD is practically playing in a league of its own. With the acquisition of ATI years ago, the company merged its experience in processors with that in video cards, creating the so-called APUs (Accelerated Processing Units). The Ryzen series, and in particular the recent 8000G generations, represent the state of the art of this technology.
The Ryzen 5 8600G and Ryzen 7 8700G APUs feature internal graphics chips based on the RDNA 3 architecture, the same that powers current-generation consoles and handhelds like the Steam Deck or the ASUS ROG Ally. This means having graphics power in your processor that, until a few years ago, required an entry-level dedicated video card.
The strength of AMD lies in continuous innovation of drivers and FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) technology. This software allows games to be rendered at a lower resolution and then upscaled, ensuring sharp images and playable frame rates even on modest hardware. It is the digital equivalent of “doing a lot with a little,” a philosophy that resonates deeply with the pragmatic approach of users looking for methods to speed up a slow PC without spending extra euros.
It is necessary to make a fundamental technical clarification: Nvidia, at the moment, does not produce socketable x86 desktop processors with integrated graphics for the mass consumer market in the same way as AMD. When speaking of “Nvidia” in a low-budget desktop context, one usually refers to the purchase of a low-end dedicated video card (such as a GTX 1650, a GT 1030, or an RTX 3050) to be paired with an economical processor (often an Intel Core i3 or a Ryzen without graphics).
Nvidia’s strategy has always been focused on raw power and proprietary technologies like DLSS and Ray Tracing. However, in the ultra-budget segment, these technologies struggle to shine. An entry-level dedicated video card entails an immediate additional cost (often exceeding 150-200 euros) which must be added to the rest of the PC. In a tight budget, this money could make the difference between having a PC immediately or having to wait months.
While AMD offers a “turnkey” solution with its APUs, choosing Nvidia in the low-budget range almost always means having to assemble a more expensive and complex puzzle of components.
However, Nvidia’s advantage remains driver compatibility and pure power if you can find a used card at a good price. For those willing to risk the used market or who need CUDA cores for work (video editing, rendering), the discrete Nvidia solution remains a benchmark, even if less energy-efficient.
Let’s move on to concrete data. To understand who wins the challenge, we must look at the FPS (frames per second) in the most played titles in Italy. Let’s examine a typical 2024/2025 comparison: a Ryzen 7 8700G APU (with Radeon 780M graphics) versus an economical combination formed by a budget CPU + Nvidia GTX 1650.
In games like League of Legends, Valorant, or Counter-Strike 2, AMD’s integrated solution shines. These titles are optimized to run on everything, and the Radeon 780M easily exceeds 100-140 FPS at 1080p. The Nvidia solution does just as well, but at a higher overall system cost and with double the power consumption. For the competitive gamer who just wants to play online with friends after school or work, the integrated option is more than sufficient.
The real challenge is on heavy games like Cyberpunk 2077 or GTA V. Here the Radeon 780M performs a miracle: thanks to activated FSR, it is possible to play Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with low details while maintaining a stable average of 30-40 FPS. It is an old-gen console experience, but it is playable. Nvidia’s GTX 1650 offers similar or slightly superior performance in pure rasterization, but lacks support for the latest frame generation technologies that AMD is starting to implement even on integrated graphics.
If your goal is to assemble the ultimate gaming machine, it is essential to know how to correctly configure peripherals and the monitor to exploit every single frame these cards can generate, avoiding useless bottlenecks.
An aspect often underestimated in international reviews, but crucial for us, is the ambient temperature. Italy in summer reaches temperatures that put hardware to the test. A PC with AMD integrated graphics has the advantage of concentrating heat in a single point (the CPU), which can be effectively cooled with a good quality air cooler or a small AIO liquid cooler.
Adding a dedicated Nvidia video card means inserting a second heat source inside the case. In cheap and poorly ventilated cases (typical of low-budget builds), this can create a stagnation of hot air leading to thermal throttling, i.e., cutting performance to avoid overheating. For those living in hot apartments without 24/7 air conditioning, the integrated solution offers superior thermal stability and lower fan noise.
For those who decide to push their hardware to the max, it is vital to know the risks. We recommend reading our guide on how to manage overclocking on Windows while avoiding damage, as APUs benefit enormously from increased RAM memory frequencies.
In solutions with integrated graphics, system RAM plays an absolutely starring role. Unlike dedicated Nvidia cards, which have their own ultra-fast VRAM (GDDR6), the AMD APU must borrow memory from the main system. This means that the speed and configuration of your RAM directly determine how many FPS you will get in-game.
To obtain noteworthy performance with a Ryzen 8000G, it is mandatory to use DDR5 memory in a Dual Channel configuration with frequencies of at least 6000 MHz. Skimping on RAM in a build with integrated graphics is the gravest mistake one can make: it is like buying a Ferrari and putting bicycle wheels on it. Bandwidth is everything.
The choice of components must be surgical. Often inexperienced users also underestimate the importance of a clean and secure operating system. Remember that a high-performance PC is also a secure and protected PC from malware that could consume resources in the background, killing in-game performance.
One of the strategic advantages of the AMD choice (AM5 platform) is longevity. Buying a processor with integrated graphics today allows you to play immediately at low details. In the future, when the budget permits, you can add a powerful dedicated video card, transforming the budget PC into a gaming beast without having to change the processor or motherboard.
The low-budget Nvidia solution (cheap CPU + cheap GPU) is often a dead end. Once the cheap GPU becomes obsolete (and it happens fast), you are left with a piece of silicon that is difficult to resell and a processor that might not be up to par with new video cards. The integrated approach is therefore a staggered investment, much more sustainable for the finances of a student or a precarious worker.
Investing in a good base (CPU + Motherboard) with integrated graphics is like building a house with solid foundations: you can always add the upper floors (dedicated GPU) at a later time.
The challenge between AMD integrated graphics and Nvidia discrete solutions in the low-budget segment has a clear winner, but with important nuances. If your goal is to assemble a new PC spending as little as possible, keeping consumption low, and guaranteeing an escape route for future upgrades, the AMD Ryzen 8000G series APUs are the undisputed choice. They represent the triumph of efficiency and integration, perfect for the Italian economic and climatic context.
Nvidia remains the queen of absolute performance, but in the segment under 500-600 euros total for the PC, it struggles to compete with the value offered by modern integrated graphics, unless one turns to the used market with all the associated risks. Technology has finally democratized gaming: you no longer need hardware worth thousands of euros to have fun, you just need to choose wisely, optimize the system, and, as per our tradition, use a bit of ingenuity.