Best Graphics Cards For The Money: January 2012 (Archive)

[someperson123]

I am curious as to where Haswell's HD 4600 integrated solution fits into the hierarchy... probably only a tier or two above HD 4000, but still nice to know.

 

[jrstriker12]

I am curious as to where Haswell's HD 4600 integrated solution fits into the hierarchy... probably only a tier or two above HD 4000, but still nice to know.

They added them to the hierarchy chart in the article along with AMD integrated graphics. It's in the tier with the 6800 Ultra and X800 XT.

 

[Sakkura]

I am curious as to where Haswell's HD 4600 integrated solution fits into the hierarchy... probably only a tier or two above HD 4000, but still nice to know.

They added them to the hierarchy chart in the article along with AMD integrated graphics. It's in the tier with the 6800 Ultra and X800 XT.

That's the 4000 and below only. He's asking about the 4600, which has not been added to the hierarchy chart yet.

 

[king smp]

hmmm 7770s for $160 USD after rebates
CF 7770s are a little bit faster then a 480/570 in performance from charts and just below a 580 I saw which puts it a little below a 660Ti or 7950 roughly
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_7750_7770_CrossFire/5.html
decent deal for $160 bucks

 

[JPNpower]

Fanboys are bad but fanboy haters can be worse at times. watch out.

 

[hasten]

7970's can be had for $300, yet they don't make the list? The $100 more GTX 770, which was 2.6% slower got the recommendation though.

7970's for $300? Where? Lowest I've seen is $375 in a combo or $389 alone with a rebate. Keep in mind that Tom's reviews don't count rebates or used/open box sales.

.... the egg has two listed at $349.99 (rebated down to $320). A 20 second search would have shown you that...

Where do you think I got the initial numbers in my post? Prices may have changed, but the the last search I did earlier today showed $389 with rebate.

EFX is $320 with rebate but has 3 eggs - looks like people had some issues.

Powercolor version at $330 with rebate looks decent.

My post was 11 minutes after yours... just saying.

 

[littleleo]

nVidia is not "dominating" AMD. In fact, at the low end (where most of the volume is), nVidia has few if any options. At the upper end, performance is so great that the differences really don't amount to much, except perhaps in those one or two titles that are a dealmaker/breaker issue for an infinitesimal number of gamers. That said, afaik Crossfire is still broken, so if a multi-card configuration is on the table, that should be nVidia. For certain features, I'd probably prefer to run nVidia cards myself for games, but because I was bitmining, AMD was the only viable choice. I have absolutely no performance-related reasons to feel compelled to switch to nVidia.

Nvidia is absolutely dominating AMD across the board in sales. I see them out sell AMD 10 to 1 from low-end to the high-end. The AMD Fan boys only buy one or two cards every 2-3 years. Business buy 5-10 Nvidia cards every month. AMD has improved their drivers but its still seen as a big weakness, and resellers don't want headaches over drivers. I've had High-end AMD cards returned over drivers before, but I've never has an Nvidia returned for drivers they just work. I've used both and I've had much better luck with the Nvidia, so I tend to stick with them. I don't care which customers buy as long as they buy.

 

[Chris Droste]

Hey Don; Great Write-up; I'm so happy to see the HD7790 get some spotlight. I actually picked a VisionTek 1GB version up last month for $130@Microcenter when it was still officially considered a $150 card and it's been sporting along driving an HD TV and Guildwars2 with med-high details and decent framerates. It almost seems like a steal, and Hopefully with that next-gen graphics core as the drivers mature for it, it'll only get sweeter!

 

[Onus]

...only if Crossfire gets properly fixed.

 

[Shawna593767]

Your 65$ card is 77$...

 

[ingtar33]

hmmm 7770s for $160 USD after rebates
CF 7770s are a little bit faster then a 480/570 in performance from charts and just below a 580 I saw which puts it a little below a 660Ti or 7950 roughly
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_7750_7770_CrossFire/5.html
decent deal for $160 bucks

yep. if they ever fixed xfire the 7770 in xfire would make a solid alternative to a GTX 660ti or HD 7870xt; that said the price of the 2gb versions need to drop under $100 AND amd has to fix xfire before this becomes a solid option.

 

[refillable]

nVidia is not "dominating" AMD. In fact, at the low end (where most of the volume is), nVidia has few if any options. At the upper end, performance is so great that the differences really don't amount to much, except perhaps in those one or two titles that are a dealmaker/breaker issue for an infinitesimal number of gamers. That said, afaik Crossfire is still broken, so if a multi-card configuration is on the table, that should be nVidia. For certain features, I'd probably prefer to run nVidia cards myself for games, but because I was bitmining, AMD was the only viable choice. I have absolutely no performance-related reasons to feel compelled to switch to nVidia.

Most tom's Hardware enthusiast will go with cards above $150. This is where nvidia really shines. If you remember in January 2013 (half a year ago, the article is taken out in place of the newer ones) AMD shines in every price point.

However, a 7950 for $270 is still very good. Plus a 7870 for a mere $185 and (although very rarely) a 7970 can go $350 for a really killer deal.

Also, if you are doing something aside gaming, go with AMD. The conversation stops there.

 

[Onus]

There are always deals to be found.
Even if one company had a 5 or even 10 FPS edge at given price points, with few game exceptions, the high-end cards are all going to offer similar experience (i.e. 80FPS vs. 70FPS doesn't matter the way 40FPS vs. 35 FPS does).

 

[jessterman21]

Even if one company had a 5 or even 10 FPS edge at given price points, with few game exceptions, the high-end cards are all going to offer similar experience (i.e. 80FPS vs. 70FPS doesn't matter the way 40FPS vs. 35 FPS does).

Unless your favorite game is Crysis 3, Far Cry 3, Metro: Last Light, Tomb Raider, and pretty much every port coming this winter and next year... I guess that is a few game exceptions.

 

[ubercake]

...only if Crossfire gets properly fixed.

I thought this was supposed to be handled at the beginning of July?

My experience with AMD is they're not really concerned with their crossfire customer base since they make up a minority of their customers.

They have to get this crossfire issue worked out for me to even consider their cards.

 

[Sakkura]

They'll be right there. They just had to get some important business out of the way, tweeting about the royal baby.

 

[footman]

How about going back to recommending specific cards for specific resolutions like you did originally. This is more interesting to me when I am looking for the best value card to play at 2560x1440 or 1920 x 1080 for example.
I'd also like to see a review of Video memory in modern DX 11 games, do we need more than 2 gb at 1080 or 1440 or 1600 with and without FSAA.
I like your reviews, keep up the good work.

 

[Wisecracker]

Best Graphics Card For The Money: HD7870

(even with the price going up in the last month)

 

[jessterman21]

I'd also like to see a review of Video memory in modern DX 11 games, do we need more than 2 gb at 1080 or 1440 or 1600 with and without FSAA.

Hexus did a review of VRAM usage at 4K recently. It seems 3GB is plenty for even 4xMSAA, and 2GB is plenty for no/post AA.

 

[jrstriker12]

How about going back to recommending specific cards for specific resolutions like you did originally. This is more interesting to me when I am looking for the best value card to play at 2560x1440 or 1920 x 1080 for example.
I'd also like to see a review of Video memory in modern DX 11 games, do we need more than 2 gb at 1080 or 1440 or 1600 with and without FSAA.
I like your reviews, keep up the good work.

Have to agree here. Good suggestions. One thing though, Seems like most cards in the list could probably do 1920 X 1080 but at differing levels of detail.

 

[ingtar33]

I'd also like to see a review of Video memory in modern DX 11 games, do we need more than 2 gb at 1080 or 1440 or 1600 with and without FSAA.
I like your reviews, keep up the good work.

generally speaking vram (having enough of it) matters only if your card is fast enough. Benches on cards slower then a 660 or 7870 show pretty definitively that amount of vram has basically no effect on FPS. They're just too slow to make use of more then 1gb of vram.

That said there is one other reason to buy a card with more then 1gb of vram (if you're buying a slower card) is for xfire/SLi. as in xfire/SLi the amount of vram you have is not added together, so a 2gb+ card is pretty much necessary if you plan to get a 2nd. 2gb is about all you need for most modern titles at 1080p, however crysis3 does bump up and past that at that resolution and highest graphic setting, so cards with 2gb or less will bottleneck a bit just on the vram issue alone. Generally if you're playing with 2-3 monitors across them at a huge resolution you'll need 3gb min of vram.

 

[Sakkura]

That said there is one other reason to buy a card with more then 1gb of vram (if you're buying a slower card) is for xfire/SLi. as in xfire/SLi the amount of vram you have is not added together, so a 2gb+ card is pretty much necessary if you plan to get a 2nd. 2gb is about all you need for most modern titles at 1080p, however crysis3 does bump up and past that at that resolution and highest graphic setting, so cards with 2gb or less will bottleneck a bit just on the vram issue alone. Generally if you're playing with 2-3 monitors across them at a huge resolution you'll need 3gb min of vram.

Hexus' review has Crysis 3 using a maximum of 1872 MB at 4K x 2K, High settings. Granted, higher settings would increase VRAM utilization, but come on - the resolution is FOUR TIMES 1920x1080. 2 GB is PLENTY for 1080p. Even 1 GB is fine.

 

[Sakkura]

They did say they were aiming for July 31st with the Crossfire fix.

 

[sarinaide]

I am buying a HD7730 to test it covertness in supporting AMD dual graphics, perfect card for that if it works out.

 

[Demo_Beta_v2]

The article recommends an HD 7850 "when you consider AMD's impressive game bundle."

The gaming bundle is for all intents over; it is out of stock. HD 78xx series cards are not very attractive sans the $150 in free software.