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

[jessterman21]

I really could not care less for PhysX, as with TressFX. It's just a gimmick. Does not even work that great on mid range Nvidia cards and only looks good in 2 titles I have ever played.

Definitely a gimmick - but looks and runs great on my new card.

What game and what card?

Card in sig.

The two Batman games, Warframe, Hawken, Mirror's Edge, and Metro 2033. No discernible drop in performance vs. other game engine's physics effects. There might be a long frame or two in there for some of the games, but nothing that doesn't normally occur when seeing explosions or showers of sparks and such in non-PhysX games. Warframe and Arkham Asylum were particularly smooth around PhysX effects.

 

[king smp]

I remember running Alice madness returns which uses some sort of physx though I am not sure if it is the nvidia proprietary
ran well on a PHII 965/5770 though at 1920x1080 ultra
I havent tried any physx games on my 660Ti
seems like a dying technology since I havent really seen it in newer game titles or maybe I havent been paying attention

 

[Novuake]

Card in sig.

The two Batman games, Warframe, Hawken, Mirror's Edge, and Metro 2033. No discernible drop in performance vs. other game engine's physics effects. There might be a long frame or two in there for some of the games, but nothing that doesn't normally occur when seeing explosions or showers of sparks and such in non-PhysX games. Warframe and Arkham Asylum were particularly smooth around PhysX effects.

You should have seen Batman before all the updates. PhysX was unplayable. But anyway, Batman and Borderlands 2 were the only games I found PhysX to be nice. Then again there are many I have never seen. Like that new mech game.

 

[jessterman21]

You should have seen Batman before all the updates. PhysX was unplayable. But anyway, Batman and Borderlands 2 were the only games I found PhysX to be nice. Then again there are many I have never seen. Like that new mech game.

I believe it - heard about that mess. Heck I still have to turn off all DX11 features in Arkham City for it to be smooth enough outdoors. Got both games in a $10 bundle last Black Friday - best purchase ever. I'm about a year behind when buying games - it's a much better experience, I've found.

Anyway, how'd we get on this topic again?

 

[Novuake]

I believe it - heard about that mess. Heck I still have to turn off all DX11 features in Arkham City for it to be smooth enough outdoors. Got both games in a $10 bundle last Black Friday - best purchase ever. I'm about a year behind when buying games - it's a much better experience, I've found.

Anyway, how'd we get on this topic again?

I just stated that PhysX and TressFX is a gimmick. 😀

 

[Onus]

I still have Sacred2, although I've not played it lately. It uses PhysX. I used to play it maxed at 1920x1080 on a GTX560Ti; I suspect a GTX650Ti can max it too, or close.

 

[nostall]

Would like to see more of the CPU integrated graphics listed in the hierarchy chart: For me and some of the people I help with PC's, it give at least some idea whether they would need some (lowend)decrete graphics card or not. Just as an example (without any real world knowledge of performance) what would be a comparable video card to an AMD A-10 APU with HD 8570D integrated graphics.

 

[Wisecracker]

Would like to see more of the CPU integrated graphics listed in the hierarchy chart: For me and some of the people I help with PC's, it give at least some idea whether they would need some (lowend)decrete graphics card or not. Just as an example (without any real world knowledge of performance) what would be a comparable video card to an AMD A-10 APU with HD 8570D integrated graphics.

It's difficult for THG to test and rank APU graphics performance because the tweaking of an individual set-up could result in large performance gains that a typical user may not see ...

That said, the THG Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart really screwed the pooch on the Trinity APUs. The Trinity HD 7560D with DDR3 1866MHz performs on par with the Radeon HD 5570 DDR3.

Presumably, an A-10 'Richland' APU with HD 8570D would perform a bit better than that, or, conceivably lower with slower RAMs.

 

[Narbonne1944]

I don't think the chart is very accurate. It rates a 8800GT 516mb over a 6670 DDR3 (2GB) but on GPUBoss the 6670 has a better passmark score by 300. I mean, it's only a little better, but it's not two tiers below it for sure.

 

[Sakkura]

I don't think the chart is very accurate. It rates a 8800GT 516mb over a 6670 DDR3 (2GB) but on GPUBoss the 6670 has a better passmark score by 300. I mean, it's only a little better, but it's not two tiers below it for sure.

The chart isn't meant to be very accurate. Besides, GPUboss is far from accurate. I'd rather go by this chart than GPUboss, if I really had to choose.

 

[mastaa]

Has no one else noticed the recent price drop of the 7970? Surely it deserves a place on the list coming in at $310 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008) and $370 for ghz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001)

 

[Novuake]

Has no one else noticed the recent price drop of the 7970? Surely it deserves a place on the list coming in at $310 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008) and $370 for ghz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001)

Really? You comment on JANUARY 2012 article??? Seriously dude...

 

[Sakkura]

Has no one else noticed the recent price drop of the 7970? Surely it deserves a place on the list coming in at $310 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008) and $370 for ghz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001)

Really? You comment on JANUARY 2012 article??? Seriously dude...

Actually, this comment thread now belongs to the most recent "Best Graphics Cards For The Money" article - July 2013. The amount of confusion caused by this article recycling is enormous. His comment is correctly placed and highly relevant. And the August article should reflect the major price cuts by AMD, and at least mention their new game bundle program.

 

[Novuake]

Has no one else noticed the recent price drop of the 7970? Surely it deserves a place on the list coming in at $310 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008) and $370 for ghz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001)

Really? You comment on JANUARY 2012 article??? Seriously dude...

Actually, this comment thread now belongs to the most recent "Best Graphics Cards For The Money" article - July 2013. The amount of confusion caused by this article recycling is enormous. His comment is correctly placed and highly relevant. And the August article should reflect the major price cuts by AMD, and at least mention their new game bundle program.

Well damn, my apologies!
LOL thanks!

 

[esrever]

why are you guys still using 3dmark11 for the gpu performance graphs?

 

[fkr]

I am a nvidia fanboy;however, this will never supercede my wallet. For the last month many have argued how the gtx 760 is better than the 7950. tom's rating of the gtx 760 as equal to the 7950 is ridiculous. the 7950 is cheaper, has more shader units, more texture units and has a significantly more memory bandwidth (better for multi-card and high resolutions). the 7950 even has more overclock room as it starts at an 850MHz core clock instead of 980MHz. the only thing going for the 760gtx is 30 watts less draw, who cares. I hope you guys read it and all you guys who decided to ignore me and buy that gtx 760 I want you to know that I was right. I really hate it when others ignorance of the facts deludes your buying decisions. why buy old 256 bit tech? now come on nvidia I would love to come back but it is getting really close for me to double up on cards and it will be another 7950 unless something changes in the next 30 days.

 

[Memnarchon]

According to performance per dollar, GTX760 (and 7950 boost a little behind) offers same or at worst case 2% lower performance than 7970. How can 7970 be an option at ~$340 since it offers only 2% for ~$100 more???

edit: Seriously 7970GE is not at the same lvl with GTX780 when are you going to fix it on the hierarchy chart? It is terribly misleading...

 

[Raheel Hasan]

There should be a dual card recommendation and mentioning in the hierarchy. At $500 760x2 is easily the best

 

[Sakkura]

There should be a dual card recommendation and mentioning in the hierarchy. At $500 760x2 is easily the best

They do mention dual-card configurations near the end:

The Radeon HD 7970 delivers such strong performance at $340 that we find it hard to recommend faster (but sometimes-inconsistent) multi-card configurations for more money.

We'll call out some other options, though, mostly for folks with one of these cards already installed: two GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2 GB cards in SLI for $330, two GeForce GTX 660s in SLI for $390, two GeForce GTX 760s in SLI for $500, and finally, two GeForce GTX 770s in SLI for $800.

 

[The_Trutherizer]

D: Summon next-gen parts already! lol

 

[Onus]

I still think the HD7750 deserves a place, for two reasons. For one, it is the most powerful card that doesn't need auxiliary power, and will run on most OEM PSUs. Second, it is available in both single-slot and low-profile versions, so it will fit where the HD7770 won't.

 

[Raheel Hasan]

There should be a dual card recommendation and mentioning in the hierarchy. At $500 760x2 is easily the best

They do mention dual-card configurations near the end:

The Radeon HD 7970 delivers such strong performance at $340 that we find it hard to recommend faster (but sometimes-inconsistent) multi-card configurations for more money.

We'll call out some other options, though, mostly for folks with one of these cards already installed: two GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2 GB cards in SLI for $330, two GeForce GTX 660s in SLI for $390, two GeForce GTX 760s in SLI for $500, and finally, two GeForce GTX 770s in SLI for $800.

Sorry i dont see that but it will be great if they mention dual cards in hierarchy

 

[csf60]

what do the entry, performance and extreme presets mean? I can't find any explanation on the difference between them in the article.

 

[Wisecracker]

Radeon HD 7870 2GB ... has 2x6-pin power

AMD price-cuts, upcoming VI 9000-series release, and the new Forever bundle might lead to quite a price war in the discreet GPU world over the next few months.

Hold on to your wallets as long as you can

 

[koolkei]

just how long did the comment section on this page didnt update?