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

[ubercake]

I still think the 770 and its derivatives are the best deal out there. Why are they still charging $50-$100 more for 680s???

 

[Novuake]

I still think the 770 and its derivatives are the best deal out there. Why are they still charging $50-$100 more for 680s???

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121635
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130921

They are not? In some places, Britain for example, its actually 30 Quid cheaper.

 

[fkr]

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...

according to there tests but go to the 3dmark website and look at what they state as scores for the 760 and you see it gets a 8500 while the 7950 gets a 9200. 700 points is allot to get in that bench mark. the other issue when I look back at benchmarks is that the 7950 does not have as many recent reviews, but when i look at recent reviews you can see better performance than when originally tested. I wish we could get a revised testing on these two very competitive cards. I have seen these 7950's getting under $200 with rebates then throw in the games and it sems like a no brainer. with proper cooling it also seems like every 7950 gets up 1150-1200MHz core clock. If only I had the money

 

[jessterman21]

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.

Unfortunately, AMD can't convert all that hardware into any more performance that what Nvidia is able to squeeze out of the GTX 760.

The AMD card does overclock better and can be had for cheaper, but that doesn't change the fact that the extra "cores," +1 GB of VRAM, and extra 128-bits of memory bandwidth largely give no advantage over the GTX 760.

 

[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...

according to there tests but go to the 3dmark website and look at what they state as scores for the 760 and you see it gets a 8500 while the 7950 gets a 9200. 700 points is allot to get in that bench mark. the other issue when I look back at benchmarks is that the 7950 does not have as many recent reviews, but when i look at recent reviews you can see better performance than when originally tested. I wish we could get a revised testing on these two very competitive cards. I have seen these 7950's getting under $200 with rebates then throw in the games and it sems like a no brainer. with proper cooling it also seems like every 7950 gets up 1150-1200MHz core clock. If only I had the money

I have a feeling that you don't even know what you are writing unless you didn't even read my comment... Please read it again.

 

[icraft]

It sucks that the pricing has gone all weird. The HIS HD 7950 iceq x2 used to be $229, and the reference HD 7950 was $189 on amazon at one time. Awesome. Now the HIS is $309 and the reference is ~$219.

 

[fkr]

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...

according to there tests but go to the 3dmark website and look at what they state as scores for the 760 and you see it gets a 8500 while the 7950 gets a 9200. 700 points is allot to get in that bench mark. the other issue when I look back at benchmarks is that the 7950 does not have as many recent reviews, but when i look at recent reviews you can see better performance than when originally tested. I wish we could get a revised testing on these two very competitive cards. I have seen these 7950's getting under $200 with rebates then throw in the games and it sems like a no brainer. with proper cooling it also seems like every 7950 gets up 1150-1200MHz core clock. If only I had the money

I have a feeling that you don't even know what you are writing unless you didn't even read my comment... Please read it again.

your right, i was running around getting the kids ready. I was only really expanding on the 7950 being a little behind the 760 and the fact a 7950 can be had for as little as $180 with three games while the 760 is $255. I cannot wait for the CCC final drivers to come out, then hopefully we can see how well that memory interface scales to higher resolutions.

 

[Novuake]

It sucks that the pricing has gone all weird. The HIS HD 7950 iceq x2 used to be $229, and the reference HD 7950 was $189 on amazon at one time. Awesome. Now the HIS is $309 and the reference is ~$219.

Yeah, oddly enough just the Tahiti cards pricing thats gone all wonky, and NO one in their right mind wants a reference cooler, maybe if you plan on changing the cooler its worth buying.(which is worth it at that price, if you are willing to break warranty)

 

[Sakkura]

It sucks that the pricing has gone all weird. The HIS HD 7950 iceq x2 used to be $229, and the reference HD 7950 was $189 on amazon at one time. Awesome. Now the HIS is $309 and the reference is ~$219.

Well, you can get a Sapphire 7950 with a decent cooler for $200.

 

[fkr]

beta 2 drivers for AMD just came out today and also the 326.80 are out. great day for drivers.

 

[geok1ng]

I don't know many games out there that would be utterly unplayable in a Radeon 7950 but somehow playable on a GTX 770. I won't even mention how weird is the statement that a GTX 770 is worth USD70 more than a Radeon 7970. I think the article was writed before TH released the review of the new AMD framepacer driver. I also think that TH is being too harsh on SLI and CF builds. About 90%+ of new games are SLI compatible at launch and Crossfire scales well in more and more games with each driver release. it makes no sense keep the very same text month after month if real life results are improving on both sides. SLI 760 and CF 7950 are stable now and will have average performance above a Titan. They also deserve at least as much praise as the GTX 690.

 

[filippi]

IMHO Fkr and Sakkura are right: its a 240 GB/s memory bandwidth 3GB graphic card for $200,00. Its the best bang for your buck by a mile right now.

 

[CaptainTom]

I'm sorry getting a $250 760 over a $220 7950 with higher performance and an extra GB of RAM is just plain stupid. Same goes for the $400 770 over a $340 7970...

 

[sojrner]

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.

@Onus
I agree that it deserves an honorable mention simply for the lack of aux power, and no less than a day before the latest (Aug 2013) version of this article came out did I get the GDDR5 XFX 7750 for $75 on newegg. (both it and Amazon had the same price, I have free shipping for both) Last month's article put the 7750 as a good deal at $90, so $75 was a no-brainer for me. The price has since gone back up to ~$90, which means that rightly so, this article says the 7770 is a better deal... $10 difference is too close.

But if you are constrained to lower power, then the 7750 may be the highest option you have. That is where the honorable mention would help those with limited knowledge of GPU A vs B from understanding what to buy. They are who the article is for in the end.

@All
Having said all that, I appreciate all the work Cleeve puts into the article and the ballpark figures contained have been an easy way to check my bearings when I'm on the hunt for a quick purchase no matter how long it's been since I last looked at detailed benchmarks. The hierarchy he provides does great for filling in the blanks when you find price X for card Y that may do better than the "fixed" points he recommends. Thanks to all involved.

Rock on.

 

[RedJaron]

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.

I'm reverse. I tend to favor Radeon and I like this current crop. But I can't deny the 760 offers significant performance for the price. The 7950 may overclock well, but thermals and power reqs go up quickly when you do. Barring special sales, if the cards are priced close, I can see someone going for the 760 over the 7950 for the lower power consumption and more stable SLI option. The 384-bit memory bus and extra VRAM are nice, but aren't fully utilized until cranked resolutions and AA. At those levels ( particularly multi-display, ) the card itself can start to struggle depending on the game, and you'd need Crossfire to keep things smooth. But with the stuttering and runt frame problems with Radeon, that's not an attractive option. If you don't need the 7950's compute power, a 760 is a great alternative.

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.

I agree, and like sojrner I think it should be at least an honorable mention. Definitely the best card you can get for a HTPC.

Well, you can get a Sapphire 7950 with a decent cooler for $200.

My wallet so hates you for pointing out that card . . .

 

[Onus]

I saw that $75 price, and my wallet-hand twitched, but I think I need a low-profile version in order to build the smallest system possible with it.

 

[king smp]

I'm sorry getting a $250 760 over a $220 7950 with higher performance and an extra GB of RAM is just plain stupid. Same goes for the $400 770 over a $340 7970...

well read the final thoughts in this review
http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-hd-7950-w-boost-versus-nvidia-geforce-gtx-760_2227/13

the 7950 BOOST it the equal of the 760

and looking at Egg pricing for the Boost I dont see a Boost for $220 anywhere.

to quote the article

"Legit Bottom Line: The AMD Radeon HD 7950 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 perform at the same level and are also in the same price segment. It all comes down to brand preference and software features!"

so it comes down to brand preference in this decision
I think they are both great cards for the money
but OBVIOUSLY you have a brand preference.

get your facts straight before you so eloquently state something is "stupid"

 

[RyanTH98]

I'm sorry getting a $250 760 over a $220 7950 with higher performance and an extra GB of RAM is just plain stupid. Same goes for the $400 770 over a $340 7970...

well read the final thoughts in this review
http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-hd-7950-w-boost-versus-nvidia-geforce-gtx-760_2227/13

the 7950 BOOST it the equal of the 760

and looking at Egg pricing for the Boost I dont see a Boost for $220 anywhere.

to quote the article

"Legit Bottom Line: The AMD Radeon HD 7950 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 perform at the same level and are also in the same price segment. It all comes down to brand preference and software features!"

so it comes down to brand preference in this decision
I think they are both great cards for the money
but OBVIOUSLY you have a brand preference.

get your facts straight before you so eloquently state something is "stupid"

In terms of stock speed yeah they are similar, but when overclocked the 7950 beats the GTX 760 in many games.

Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmGWyAyO9mc

 

[Raheel Hasan]

I'm sorry getting a $250 760 over a $220 7950 with higher performance and an extra GB of RAM is just plain stupid. Same goes for the $400 770 over a $340 7970...

well read the final thoughts in this review
http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-hd-7950-w-boost-versus-nvidia-geforce-gtx-760_2227/13

the 7950 BOOST it the equal of the 760

and looking at Egg pricing for the Boost I dont see a Boost for $220 anywhere.

to quote the article

"Legit Bottom Line: The AMD Radeon HD 7950 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 perform at the same level and are also in the same price segment. It all comes down to brand preference and software features!"

so it comes down to brand preference in this decision
I think they are both great cards for the money
but OBVIOUSLY you have a brand preference.

get your facts straight before you so eloquently state something is "stupid"

In terms of stock speed yeah they are similar, but when overclocked the 7950 beats the GTX 760 in many games.

Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmGWyAyO9mc

Oc 760 beats 7970ghz

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GeForce_GTX_760_TF_Gaming/30.html

 

[Novuake]

Oc 760 beats 7970ghz

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GeForce_GTX_760_TF_Gaming/30.html

Seriously??? Just NO!

An OCd HD7950 vs an OCd GTX760 is POINTLESS since it is NOT in any way consistent,
HOWEVER, on average an OCd HD7950 will perform better in the majority of games than an OCd GTX760.
Since most users do not even OC, its not relevant to this article.

HOWEVER #2 : All reviews are not recent enough to convince me which of these 2 cards are better, so untill then the differences are negligable and choices come down to either price or preference.

 

[17seconds]

I'm sorry getting a $250 760 over a $220 7950 with higher performance and an extra GB of RAM is just plain stupid. Same goes for the $400 770 over a $340 7970...

to quote the article

"Legit Bottom Line: The AMD Radeon HD 7950 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 perform at the same level and are also in the same price segment. It all comes down to brand preference and software features!"

so it comes down to brand preference in this decision
I think they are both great cards for the money
but OBVIOUSLY you have a brand preference.

brand preference
That's what this is all about, some people will prefer to buy AMD and some prefer to buy Nvidia. I just wish people would quit acting like it some sort of rational "no-brainer" decision based on facts, rather than what it is, a personal preference.

software features
And this is why I would happily pay more for the Nvidia option. Maybe someone could refresh my memory, but as far as I can see AMD has nothing that can be considered a "software feature". On the other hand, Nvidia's suite of software exclusives are well-known, often useful, occasionally awesome, and unique in a forward-thinking way. Of course, if you are an AMD fan, then they're obviously all marketing gimmicks (see, no need to bother, I saved you the time and effort).

 

[Novuake]

brand preference
That's what this is all about, some people will prefer to buy AMD and some prefer to buy Nvidia. I just wish people would quit acting like it some sort of rational "no-brainer" decision based on facts, rather than what it is, a personal preference.

software features
And this is why I would happily pay more for the Nvidia option. Maybe someone could refresh my memory, but as far as I can see AMD has nothing that can be considered a "software feature". On the other hand, Nvidia's suite of software exclusives are well-known, often useful, occasionally awesome, and unique in a forward-thinking way. Of course, if you are an AMD fan, then they're obviously all marketing gimmicks (see, no need to bother, I saved you the time and effort).

Haha that is just LOOKING for a fight and you know it... 😛

 

[17seconds]

Maybe, but it does go back to the first point, which is to admit to one's fandom and quit acting like every rational person only does simple math. Some of us do calculus, geometry, history, social sciences, and economics as well.

 

[Novuake]

Maybe, but it does go back to the first point, which is to admit to one's fandom and quit acting like every rational person only does simple math. Some of us do calculus, geometry, history, social sciences, and economics as well.

But some of us ARE perfectly logical. But I lean to AMD to be fair, JUST because they have been kind to my overclocking hobby...

 

[fkr]

i do not care if it is relevant to this article if overclock is considered or not. It is relevant to a majority of people following this forum topic. I have yet to see a any of the tahiti chips not get to at least 1150 with proper cooling. with great cooling they can achieve 1300MHz. go to tahiti club forum and see how many are running 1200MHz. this is true for all of the non boost cards. since the boost is nothing more than paying somebody to overclock for you. You can say the chips are binned but it seems like they all achieve great overclocks. overclocking a graphics card nowadays is about as easy as it gets. move a slider and if it gets to hot it slows down automatically.

I am an enthusiast and I want to have the card that is capable of the most, this means I have to consider 1440p and triple monitor. IF we hold the argument down to a single 1080p monitor I would take the gtx760 all day but i want to keep my build going for as long as possible and CF a bunch of tahiti chips seems to have the best long term value just because of the memory interface.

I am holding out final thoughts about AMD until these beta drivers are done, beta2 cam out yesterday. then I hope we see some renewed testing in the price segment that is being battled over.