Best Graphics Cards For The Money: December '09

[esquire468]

[citation][nom]JohnnyLucky[/nom]It gets a little confusing with so many categories.[/citation]

I agree. It seems to me the categories keep growing and we have a price point for practically every single card. It's getting to the point that there is no point. Do we really need "Best Cards for..." every $10 difference? For example, the 9800 GT at under $100, the GTS 250/512MB at $110 and the GTS 250/1GB at $120.

Why not create fixed price points at certain intervals and stick to them? It's almost as if some of these shifting price points are created to ensure that every card is represented so the fanboys are happy; however it gets to the point that all you are doing is listing all the cards off newegg from bottom to top. I appreciate all the hard work you guys do here, but this is getting a little too crowded with all of these categories. Why not do categories every $25 for under $100, and then for every $50 and $100 thereafter? For instance - $50, $75, $100, $150, $200, $300, etc.? Just a thought.

 

[ultim8wpn]

are you serious? the gma 950 is about equivalent to the mx440's? my 2 year old laptop has the equivalent graphics power as my 8 year old pc. fail

 

[ultim8wpn]

[citation][nom]ultim8wpn[/nom]are you serious? the gma 950 is about equivalent to the mx440's? my 2 year old laptop has the equivalent graphics power as my 8 year old pc. fail[/citation]
edit: *has less power*. wtf lol

 

[jadedgamerx]

[citation][nom]deadlockedworld[/nom]Why isnt a $99 4770 competitive? Its faster than a 9800GT...[/citation]

2 4770s in Xfire = $200 gold I LOVE mine.

 

[brockh]

I know this has been mentioned before, but I don't see how the GTX 260 is listed at around $150. If they were able to compensate for the price changes in the HD 4850 then they could definitely compensate for the GTX 260 being $200 or more at this point.

 

[Semi-Lobster]

Today newegg jsut added the formerly 'China only' Sapphire Radeon HD 4860 (its a cut down 4890) for sale for $130, I wonder how that will stack up in the chart.

 

[thyger]

Excellent article, please keep this going every month!!
We need an analogous one for SSDs!! The best SSD for the money, please. You would have to evaluate the interplay between a hi-performance standalone SSD and compare against a pair of raid-0 SSDs that cost half the price.

 

[Guest]

Why are the stats for the 4850 listed in the 4830 section?

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]archangel76[/nom]Why are the stats for the 4850 listed in the 4830 section?[/citation]

The stats look right to me... 640 shaders, 32 TUs and 16 ROPs. 575 core and 900 mem. What stat looks wrong to you?

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]esquire468[/nom]I agree. It seems to me the categories keep growing and we have a price point for practically every single card. It's getting to the point that there is no point. Do we really need "Best Cards for..." every $10 difference? For example, the 9800 GT at under $100, the GTS 250/512MB at $110 and the GTS 250/1GB at $120.Why not create fixed price points at certain intervals and stick to them? It's almost as if some of these shifting price points are created to ensure that every card is represented so the fanboys are happy; however it gets to the point that all you are doing is listing all the cards off newegg from bottom to top. I appreciate all the hard work you guys do here, but this is getting a little too crowded with all of these categories. Why not do categories every $25 for under $100, and then for every $50 and $100 thereafter? For instance - $50, $75, $100, $150, $200, $300, etc.? Just a thought.[/citation]

Good question, I'll be happy to answer:

Notice that the ~$95 9800GT was added when the 4850 price went through the roof. When the 4850 was $100, it was easy to ignore a lot of sub-$100 cards because the increase in price provided a massive increase in performance.

With the 4850 gone and the GTS 250 starting at $110, the playing field is a lot tighter under $100 and competition is closer.

There is no magic price spread that I can ignore in good conscience, and I don't have a problem recommending a number of cards if the performance per dollar justifies it, so that's what I've done. As a rule of thumb I usually make $15 the minimum spread, and that's the difference between the 9800 GT and GTS 250.

If I used fixed price points, we might potentially miss the best cards for the money, the point of this article. For example, $50, $75, and $100: what about the $65 4670? It's clearly better than the $50 4650, but should we ignore it because it doesn't fit an arbitrarily-decided mold? Fixed price points don't work when you're looking for the best value for the dollar. The retailers don't look to my article for pricing, it's the other way around.

The bottom line is, all of the cards I've recommended provide good price/performance at the prices I've found them at. The format might not be pretty, but the picks are solid.

 

[rocky1234]

Great article as always glad to see these every month. It makes me love my 4870x2 even more that is overclocked to almost it's max & allows me to play everything I throw at it with ease. It is to bad that AMD & Nvidia are phasing out so many of the good cards these days. In AMD's case it would probably be better for them to wait until they get their 5000 series supply problems under control. I personally can afford to wait for AMD's spring refresh products & skip their first gen DX11 line up & get something then that would be a worthy successor to my current video card I'm thinking 5890x2 if they name it that in the spring

 

[wongster]

my geforce 7600 died this past weekend. i ordered a 9800 gt

 

[wongster]

my geforce 7600 died this past weekend. i ordered a 9800 gt

 

[Guest]

I think there's an error on the 2nd article page, where i shows the HD4670:
Memory Speed MHz: 1,000 (4,000 effective)
??!?!?!

 

[wintermint]

Way to go~! Actually on time this time in fact.. I think it's pretty early xD

 

[cleeve]

I think there's an error on the 2nd article page, where i shows the HD4670:
Memory Speed MHz: 1,000 (4,000 effective)

THX, fixed!

 

[belardo]

I wonder...

Does anyone really care about nVIDIA anymore? Rebranding a crappy G210 into the G310? Why bother? People got upset with the rebranding of the G92/94 - whatever so many times, we can't keep up. Wow, new NAME = OLD card.

ATI is keeping their head straight with their model numbers... mostly. And we ALL know that any ATI 5xx0 card is a DX11 part. Simple, all G3xx parts should be dx11.

Its reasons like these stupid naming games that I don't buy or recommend Geforce cards. Even thou I do own some and have bought more geforce cards in the past 10 years more than anything else.


Nvidia = FAIL

 

[masterjaw]

Nice article as always. Though it is quite different this month as the supply of 4850 and 4870 runs out. Logically, their competitors (GTS 250 and GTX 260 respectively) would show up. Too bad those good old cards are nearing their end-of-line.

 

[liquidsnake718]

Yes! Its good to see the 9800GTX+ or the GTS250 back on this list!!!!
This makes me feel better as I feel guilty as I am about to buy a 5850.
Since 1997 Ive neeb using Nvidia/3dfx cards(except for one laptop, 9800mobility radeon). I am actually proud to say that Ive had the 200MMX, 6800XT, 8600gt, 8800gt, 9800GTX+, and I was thinking about the GTX285 but this is where Im lost and this list just confirmed that the 5850 is a great card and a price/preformance basis.

All in all, I can at least retire the 9800GTX+ knowing that it is still one of the better overall cards on the entire list of GPUs and is still in the top 15 or TOP 10(non-dual GPU cards). After a year and a few months, this is still impressive.

 

[liquidsnake718]

I was wondering if you could add an honorable mention for particular GPU brands at that price point? So users would know which ones to get and which ones are available? Would that be too hard or would you need to get consent from the manufactures? Some have factory overclocks or parts that come in handy like SLI/Crossfire connectors, or good rebates and customer support. Maybe this can also help further inform readers and buyers as this can be integrated with your GPU reviews.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your effort
I have a few notes;
first: if you look back at the GTX 275 review you will find that it's better than the GTX 280 in every single test.
second: where is the Mobility HD 4650?
thanx again

 

[Summer Leigh Castle]

When was the article written? Can someone point me a link? I can't find the GTX260 for $155 anywhere.

 

[maxpain12]

Its nice to see reviews like this. High end boards like the Geforce 295 or R570 are nice but not realistic for most of us. I noticed that most sites are eager to review these high end boards which are unfortunately out of reach for the majority of gamers. Great review, keep it up.

 

[JustinHD81]

No mention of the 4770, seems odd since it's been a mainstay in these articles since it's release

 

[cleeve]

FYI guys:

Newegg seems to have a few models of Radeon HD 5850 today. If you're interested, get em while they last!

Also a 5870, too.