Best Graphics Cards for the Money (Archive)

[bwcbwc]

So, when do you plan to add the GTX 950 and R9 380X to the hierarchy chart?

 

[jtd871]

Are the 950s that only require slot power not shipping yet?

 

[m2geek]

I have a Gigabyte GTX980 WF3 OC - love it, surprised you never see the 980 in these reviews.

 

[bwohl]

What happened to the R9 380/380x ??

It is still $100 less than the 970 and is my current choice to replace my near dead HD 6870.

I just did that - had 6870 and you now cannot install new AMD drivers - its considered a legacy card. 🙁
Pickup up the XFX 380 on the Egg for $160 after $20 rebate. Only have a 1080p 24" so it works for me...

 

[bwohl]

Would also like to say I prefer the older format of price points for this article. I know moving to resolution sounded good - but I recommend this article on Tom's to newby gamers all the time, and it misses too many price points when grading the cards...

 

[HideOut]

Time to wait for the next gen from both. 1440P is the sweet spot. 4K on the PC is an expensive bragger's rights,computer room heater.

My thoughts exactly. I bought a 960 last year and realized I made a mistake. I should have gone a bit higher and will wait until next gen to do it. I'm biased towards nvidia though, so hopefully the next 970-equivalent will be the step up I need. I'm under 1440p (1080p ultrawide), but hoping to change that too.

I'm still on my old 760 because the upgrades have been so small ever since. But aren't we looking at like the end of this year before anything ships?

 

[Onus]

Nothing has cost me more money with this computer hobby than constantly thinking "what if?" with graphics cards. I could enjoy any of my games with a HD7770 or GTX750Ti, and perhaps justify my HD7870 for higher settings in GW2; yet I am running a GTX970 now, and a variety of other cards have passed in and out of my systems; GTX460, GTX560Ti, HD7970 that weren't really needed.

 

[ern88]

My HD7950 has gave me great service but it is time to replace it with either AMD Polaris or Nvidia X80 ti. When the come to market.

 

[ansar]

I guess I am just old fashioned, but I liked the layout of the old "Best of" better than this new all in one page.

 

[darcotech]

I also prefered old Best of" than this one.

 

[littleleo]

Me 3

 

[LORD_ORION]

Hard to take you seriously when a card that performs equal or less for $100 more is recommended,
380 4GB is the midrange card to get.
970 4GB has no business being recommended at that price.

 

[littleleo]

Anyone ever toy with the idea of Xfire Fury Nanos?

Seem like it would deliver good 4k performance and just the other day I saw those cards going for $460.

I have xfire Fury Nano's with EK Waterblocks on them in my custom loop. Overclocked I get Fury X performance easy, but honestly, the Fury X can OC higher. I have them and a 6700k in a micro-ATX case, and I'm really loving it. Maxes every game out at 4k. With DX12 I'll be running 8GB of HBM, which is just insane. at 4k there's no question the Fury X / OC Nano wreck the 980 Ti. my GF's PC is running a 980 Ti and it maxes out 1440p, but not with a ton of headroom. 4k puts it over the edge.

I would hope 2 FuryX in Crossfire would beat a GTX 980Ti, did AMD ever update the HDMI to 2.0?

 

[TheLowGodPrim]

Hard to take you seriously when a card that performs equal or less for $100 more is recommended,
380 4GB is the midrange card to get.
970 4GB has no business being recommended at that price.

The gtx 970 is way better than r9 380, and definitely worth the $100 more.
gtx 960 < r9 380 < gtx 970 < r9 390

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

As I'm playing mostly last-gen games and not bothered by 30fps, I'm quite happily running a GTX 970 at 4K.

I got the monitor mostly for seeing the full detail in photos and seeing what UHD videos look like, but ended up gaming on it.

There is nothing quite like playing the LEGO games where everything is so detailed it looks like real-life LEGO pieces. Its really hard to go back to 1080p after seeing games in 4K.

 

[LORD_ORION]

Hard to take you seriously when a card that performs equal or less for $100 more is recommended,
380 4GB is the midrange card to get.
970 4GB has no business being recommended at that price.

The gtx 970 is way better than r9 380, and definitely worth the $100 more.
gtx 960 < r9 380 < gtx 970 < r9 390

If it is steady at 60FPS, anything more is a waste.
970 is the card that doesn't improve the experience over the 380 4GB at 1920x1080 (both maxed at 60 FPS+, and so what if the 970 gets 20 frames more)

So...
950 should NOT be recommended for any gaming at 1920x1080 in the same way that the 970 should NOT be recommended for any gaming at 2560x1440.
970 should not be recommended over the 380 4GB while gaming at because it does not improve the experience of gaming in any meaningful way.

 

[Onus]

Hard to take you seriously when a card that performs equal or less for $100 more is recommended,
380 4GB is the midrange card to get.
970 4GB has no business being recommended at that price.

The gtx 970 is way better than r9 380, and definitely worth the $100 more.
gtx 960 < r9 380 < gtx 970 < r9 390

If it is steady at 60FPS, anything more is a waste.
970 is the card that doesn't improve the experience over the 380 4GB at 1920x1080 (both maxed at 60 FPS+, and so what if the 970 gets 20 frames more)

So...
950 should NOT be recommended for any gaming at 1920x1080 in the same way that the 970 should NOT be recommended for any gaming at 2560x1440.
970 should not be recommended over the 380 4GB while gaming at because it does not improve the experience of gaming in any meaningful way.

"If it is steady at 60FPS..."
Now there's the rub. Minimum frame rates may not maintain 60FPS. This also discounts 144Hz monitors. For some people/some games, on 60Hz monitors, the R9 380 and GTX970 will yield results that feel identical; but for some others, they won't. In either case, blanket statements just don't apply. Also, the GTX970 uses less power; many people won't care, but others will (note that it takes many hours of gaming to use $100 worth of additional power). Then there's PhysX; applies to very few games, but will matter to some.
I don't get the 950 remark; was that a typo? I'm pretty sure I'd rather have a GTX950 over a GTX750Ti (again assuming I'm not stuck with a 300W OEM PSU).

 

[littleleo]

Also a lot comes down to personal experience for the buyer. I've bought ATI and AMD GPUs and I've always had problems. Mainly with drivers but with I've had issues with every one of them right from the start. Call it bad luck or bad timing with the models I purchased. I've had much better luck with the Nvidia cards. I have had a couple develop issues after a few years but it usually happened when I was getting ready to upgrade anyway. One I was able to correct by myself so I have it saved for a back up if I ever need one. SO when I'm ready to buy a new card and it comes down to team red and team green. I'll be will to pay a little more for the green team since I've had better experiences with them. Now someone else may have had the complete opposite experiences so they would be more incline to go team red. So customers previous experiences can affect the decision as much or more then price does.

 

[Jinglenutz]

Wow, all I can say is wow. Tom's Hardware has been my Go-To site for benchmarks, reviews and anything PC since I was in college. Damn, how the years go by. Well, I keep getting told in one form or another, Things Change. Damn, yes they do. Instead of In-Depth reviews/benchmarks now we get linked to Amazon or something else to buy the card. Damn Tom, everything you said you would NEVER DO is what you are all about now. THE CASH MONEY
You went from being an above average writer to a business man. Big Pimpin

 

[nikorian]

When are you actually going to update the Desktop GPU Performance Hierarchy table. For 2 years now it has had little to no attention. You have only recently added a few video cards and those are only TOP performers. The current views are highly opinionated and based more on Paid or endorsed views than actual cards. Pretty soon you guys are going to be consumer reports or worse Cnet

 

[littleleo]

Wow, all I can say is wow. Tom's Hardware has been my Go-To site for benchmarks, reviews and anything PC since I was in college. Damn, how the years go by. Well, I keep getting told in one form or another, Things Change. Damn, yes they do. Instead of In-Depth reviews/benchmarks now we get linked to Amazon or something else to buy the card. Damn Tom, everything you said you would NEVER DO is what you are all about now. THE CASH MONEY
You went from being an above average writer to a business man. Big Pimpin

I wouldn't be surprised if he sold the site and is vacationing with all the money he got.

 

[Smopy4]

No love for the R9 Nano?! The price cut on these has brought them well out of the niche itx system builder market. With a bit of shopping around, you can find them priced the same as the 390x, yet they're faster, use a hell of a lot less power and they're tiny! For the money, they dominate the QHD segment and push into UHD too. I'm actually amazed no ones mentioning this..

This card will happily power a high end gaming rig for the considerable future, then can retire to a nice comfortable life in a HTPC, unlike the 390x!

Really there's no contest.

 

[Jinglenutz]

Hopefully, whoever decides to be the maid round here starts quick.

 

[jeremymau]

My R9 280X is still kicking ass, plays everything I can throw at it.

 

[Gurg]

Going to wait for the next gen cards to come out to upgrade to.

Evidently new Nvidia cards to be announced April 5th

http://www.tomshardware.de/gpu-nvidia-pascall-gtx-1080,news-255242.html