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

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The problem with any of these sites like the Passmark site, GPUBoss, and Anandtech's bench site is that you don't know which drivers were used, and its extremely likely their results are based on outdated performance numbers from that site's original review. Gotta use TechPowerUp's cumulative scores based on 18 gaming benchmarks with each card tested on an identical system using only the latest drivers.

 

[ingtar33]

HEY! what magic is this ..??
7970Ghz in the same tier with 780gtx,,..???? really..???
am i in a parallel universe or something?
not only 780 is a million times faster,,, but also 770 is faster as well than a 7970ghz
tom put it one tier lower !! to 7970 and 680,770 where it belongs....there is NO WAY a 7970ghz is in the same tier with 780 and 590 or 6990... lower it down !! shame on you TOM !

The problem with any of these sites like the Passmark site, GPUBoss, and Anandtech's bench site is that you don't know which drivers were used, and its extremely likely their results are based on outdated performance numbers from that site's original review. Gotta use TechPowerUp's cumulative scores based on 18 gaming benchmarks with each card tested on an identical system using only the latest drivers.

yet tpu is often in complete contradiction to most every other benching site out there. their results run contrary to so many benching results i think there must be something wrong with their methodology... that or they're the only ones doing it right. it just sets off alarm bells when a site gets results contrary to everyone else consistently.

 

[Sakkura]

TPU's results usually fit fairly well with the results from Tom's Hardware.

 

[ingtar33]

TPU's results usually fit fairly well with the results from Tom's Hardware.

from time to time. it's not like they're always an outlier. i don't know. i long ago stopped believing benching sites. course that was cause i found the user experience often differed from the benching numbers pretty drastically.

a perfect example is with an athlon 64 3000+, a cpu which by every benching number in existence was superior to the competing p4 3.0ghz chips intel was putting out (and often significantly higher)... yet if you have windows xp or windows 7 installed on two computers one with the athlon, one with the p4, the p4 significantly felt and ran smoother then the athlon.

it's not that the athlon was an inferior chip, it's that, despite M$ claims to the contrary, they really optimized windows for the p4, it loads faster much faster. heck, windows 7 loads faster on an ancient single cored p4 then it does on a quad core phenom II...

when benchmarks fail to explain the end use experience there is little point to really putting stock into the benchmarks.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Except that benchmarked games take that into account anyway - they're measuring real-world performance largely, not theoretical.

 

[de5_Roy]

you really only need three tests, cinbench,heaven, and prime 95 to get a good idea of the performance of your pc.

Maybe sandra if you building a apu to check memory

cinebench?!?!? from an amd builder?!? i read amd fanboys deride cinebench every single chance they get. lol
cb may be okay for intel builds but for amd.... i dunno...

 

[de5_Roy]

Yup not better way to shut down intel fanboys than beating them at there own benchmark. That starts about 1.34 in single thread test

😆 then it's okay.

 

[blyte_scrin]

I had a comment to express.. But after running/scrolling threw 20+ pages of old posts. Getting to the newest comments. I now see people are blabbing on about benchmarks and usage of them. . Not about price vs. performance. Or even the specs. of one card over another. It seems pointless to leave a comment now.
Please invert the order of the posted comment. People can scroll back to read the oldest comments from Dec. 2012..
All the scrolling is a pointless waste on time.

 

[king smp]

Yes this is a graphics card thread
not a CPU thread
this is considered hijacking or derailing a thread
please stay on topic

 

[king smp]

So I bought a used XFX Double D 1 ghz Black Edtion 7770 to Crossfire with another XFX 1 ghz BE 7770 in my secondary rig.
I got it for $80 plus with a Bioshock Infinite code included
not too shabby
not really meant for gaming
really meant for Folding at Home since 7770s get good points with very low heat and power usage
i was checking out 7770s on Egg recently and can grab one around the $90 USD mark
so two 7770s at less than $200 and about equal to a 7950/660ti in performance
as long as AMD drivers are optimized for the game you are playing that is

now I will be on the lookout for a cheap EVGA 660Ti Superclocked to SLI with the one in my rig

I never did the CF and SLI before so I wanted the tech experience of trying it out
should be interesting

 

[Avro Arrow]

A brilliant read as always Don! Your article made me look into the ATi Radeon HD 7870 and now I have two of them on order. If you keep writing articles this good, you'll make me a very poor man before too long! Cheers! 😀

 

[paulo_sl]

Please correct the spelling of the "memory". Thank you.

"The only differences between them are their core and ***momory*** clock rates."

 

[paulo_sl]

Please correct the spelling of the "memory". Thank you.

"The only differences between them are their core and ***momory*** clock rates."

 

[Rob St]

These articles are bunk, take them with a HUGE grain of salt, they are paid for these reviews

 

[Novuake]

These articles are bunk, take them with a HUGE grain of salt, they are paid for these reviews

You did not bother reading the article did you?

 

[crimson87]

Hi , anyone knows of which settings the Entry , Performance and Extreme categories are comprised? This would help a lot when looking at the price/performance index. For example , probably a high end card has a big variance in the Extreme segment vs a lower end card but there is not much difference in the Performance segment.

 

[Mike Hackett]

over in england the powercolour 7950 has actually just gone up by about £20 there os now a £7 difference in the powercolour and the cheaper saphire 7950

 

[king smp]

not a big fan of saphire anymore
had one of their cards die on me and their support is horrible
I am sticking with EVGA and XFX
just personal preference based on past good experiences

 

[Novuake]

not a big fan of saphire anymore
had one of their cards die on me and their support is horrible
I am sticking with EVGA and XFX
just personal preference based on past good experiences

EVGA yes, XFX no...

XFX has been consistently CHEAP the last generation.
Too many reports of overheating.
Low overclocking averages.
Cheap VRM(remember reading somewhere where the VRMs were throwing the voltage all over the place)
"Black" edition cards costing more but nothing but looks different on them.

 

[lunyone]

Haven't had any recent issues with Sapphire, but haven't bought a GPU since 2012. On the AMD GPU side I tend to look at Asus, Sapphire, & XFX, but it all depends on the value proposed. I do prefer a better warranty, if it isn't too much more $.

 

[Novuake]

Haven't had any recent issues with Sapphire, but haven't bought a GPU since 2012. On the AMD GPU side I tend to look at Asus, Sapphire, & XFX, but it all depends on the value proposed. I do prefer a better warranty, if it isn't too much more $.

Well one of my Sapphire HD7950s died, it happens unfortunately.

 

[lunyone]

@Novuake
I'm sure it does and all manufacturers have these issues, some more than others.

 

[Novuake]

@Novuake
I'm sure it does and all manufacturers have these issues, some more than others.

Good thing there are some very concrete ways of testing this sort of thing if you know where to look. 😀

 

[Onus]

The first HD7970 I bought was XFX, because I liked my XFX HD7770 and HD7870 so well. Unfortunately, it was intolerably noisy and ran hot. Contacting their support seemed a waste of time. I swapped it for a Gigabyte WF3 model, and it was great (I say "was," because it's in my backup rig and rarely used now since the lower-wattage HD7870 has been enough; I'll use it when I need it though).

 

[Roger Rogers-1382392]

All graphics card owners are being experimented on by Microsoft and the hardware manufacturers.

Everything they make at the moment is done in hope that they have not made a major design error (as is often the case).
That said; the manufacturers are fed up with chancers; the low-life freaks looking for a free upgrade every 6-months, after some greedy overclocking fried their gear.