Graphics Card Recommendations?

[KittyLee]

Thanks to everyone here for your help! I have a lot to consider here, this is all very confusing! but at least I have somewhere to start now, so thanks!
I'm really not looking for the Best, just something that Works Well. When I say 60fps, I mean at most a fairly steady 60fps, i really don't need or want my games to run any faster. Another reason I'm sticking with Win7 rn is because, for some reason, Dolphin and MelonDS run *significantly better* on it than they do on my Win10 "gaming" laptop, which has higher stats all around. Plus, it's nice to have a Win7 PC in case I want to play any really old games, because I hear Win10 has issues with compatibility. If I really want to play a really new game, I have my Win10 laptop (which can't actually handle Minecraft with shaders either, and perhaps even runs a bit worse).

 

[Kazesama]

Thanks to everyone here for your help! I have a lot to consider here, this is all very confusing! but at least I have somewhere to start now, so thanks!
I'm really not looking for the Best, just something that Works Well. When I say 60fps, I mean at most a fairly steady 60fps, i really don't need or want my games to run any faster. Another reason I'm sticking with Win7 rn is because, for some reason, Dolphin and MelonDS run *significantly better* on it than they do on my Win10 "gaming" laptop, which has higher stats all around. Plus, it's nice to have a Win7 PC in case I want to play any really old games, because I hear Win10 has issues with compatibility. If I really want to play a really new game, I have my Win10 laptop (which can't actually handle Minecraft with shaders either, and perhaps even runs a bit worse).

what games are you planning on playing at 60 fps? Does this include newer games like 'Alan Wake 2' which requires a beast GPU to play.

I know you mentioned 300$ budget. But I stick by my initial recommendation, get an RX 580 8gb.. you can get one used or brand new for around ~60-80$ USD. If your PC has 8gb ram, upgrade to 16 or 32. Save the rest of the $$ towards your next PC.

Also I see you mentioned Dolphin emulator, did you know Dolphin no longer supports Windows 7 as of 2022?
https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2022/06/09/leaving-a-legend/