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

[yeungl]

Correcion: 260/260X should be R7, also, R7 250/240 is missing

 

[grumpigeek]

I dont understand the purpose of having desktop IGP on the GAMING chart
anybody that games seriously will want a discrete card
only in the mobile market does it make sense to show IGP
but if you want a laptop for primarily gaming than a discrete should be the solution there also

Believe it or not, there are poeple who read Tom's Hardware who are not gamers.
Tom's GPU chart is the only reliable chart one I see on a regular basis.
It is simply a matter of interest to see how far ahead of IGP the discrete cards are.
It helped me in purchasing an Ultrabook, as I realised I didn't need a discrete GPU.

It also has relevance to my desktop PC with which I use a 2560x1440 monitor. My Intel CPU has IGP but it is too slow at that resolution. Hence I used the chart to select an AMD HD7770 which is just fine for what I do.

 

[jdlobb]

Can you add Intel HD Graphics 5000 to the hierarchy table? With more and more titles coming available for Mac I would be especially interested to know where it falls in this chart.

 

[king smp]

I dont understand the purpose of having desktop IGP on the GAMING chart
anybody that games seriously will want a discrete card
only in the mobile market does it make sense to show IGP
but if you want a laptop for primarily gaming than a discrete should be the solution there also

Believe it or not, there are poeple who read Tom's Hardware who are not gamers.
Tom's GPU chart is the only reliable chart one I see on a regular basis.
It is simply a matter of interest to see how far ahead of IGP the discrete cards are.
It helped me in purchasing an Ultrabook, as I realised I didn't need a discrete GPU.

It also has relevance to my desktop PC with which I use a 2560x1440 monitor. My Intel CPU has IGP but it is too slow at that resolution. Hence I used the chart to select an AMD HD7770 which is just fine for what I do.

"Detailed graphics card specifications and reviews are great, assuming you have the time to do the research. But at the end of the day, a gamer needs to know what the best graphics card is for their money. So, if you don’t have the time to research the benchmarks, or if you don’t feel confident enough in your ability to pick the right card, then fear not. We've compiled a simple list of the best gaming cards offered in any given price range."

The chart is a gaming chart as clearly stated by THG

Now if you need other performance charts NOT related to gaming then check out this link

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2013-vga-gpgpu/benchmarks,135.html

further on down the page you will see benchmarks that are not gaming based
OpenCL and DirectCompute are tested.

What do you use your card for?

 

[DelightfulDucklings]

Can you PLEASE reset the comment each time you renew this article, I know I can go to most recent comments but it would be nice if I could actually see relevant comments under the article and not ones from over a year ago

 

[Sakkura]

Note that the AMD pricing situation is different in Europe. I can get a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X for $60 less than the cheapest GTX 780 (Asus' model). That makes the R9 290 superior value.

Edit: And R9 280X and 7970 are about $30-40 cheaper than GTX 770s.

 

[Jaroslav Jandek]

Good, I see that "Integrated: HD 7660D" was added 4 tiers above Intel's best integrated, but it needs to be listed as "HD 7660D - A10 5800K APU" so that people can properly recognize and consider it. The change would be appreciated TH.

Intel's best integrated is not in the list

 

[Jaroslav Jandek]

Can you please add the Haswell line of integrated GPUs to the Graphics Card Performance Hierarchy Chart?
It could be useful to people that are buying a small factor PC or HTPC.

 

[vertexx]

Seriously guys. It's 2014, time to start another article.

With all the bashing on AMD pricing, you're missing a big point. A gamer can buy an AMD R9 series card and have it pay for itself over a couple of months. I've seen numerous opinions expressed about Litecoin mining ruining the AMD market, but here's my take. You don't have to be a full time "miner" to get the benefits. You can be a gamer who just mines when you're not gaming. Doing so will help or fully pay for the card.

In some respects, that is a more healthy and realistic goal then the guy who's trying to make it rich thru mining. When you look at it that way, even with the higher prices, they are still the best GPUs for the money (i.e. essentially free after a couple of months).

You also get the benefit of learning all about cooling optimization when you have your GPUs running full bore 24x7..... 😛

 

[Sakkura]

Good, I see that "Integrated: HD 7660D" was added 4 tiers above Intel's best integrated, but it needs to be listed as "HD 7660D - A10 5800K APU" so that people can properly recognize and consider it. The change would be appreciated TH.

Intel's best integrated is not in the list

That was over a year ago, before Haswell added better integrated graphics.

 

[brendonmc]

Ah, if only you could really get a Titan for the price of a GTX 770...

 

[need some help here]

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#r=6144,4096,3072,2560,2048&sort=a4
read this

 

[logainofhades]

So when we going to get a review on the lower end R7's? The claim is that it is faster than a 6670, but I have yet to see any benchmarks to back up that claim.

 

[Sakkura]

So when we going to get a review on the lower end R7's? The claim is that it is faster than a 6670, but I have yet to see any benchmarks to back up that claim.

Well...

I recently spent some quality time with AMD's Radeon R7 240 DDR3 and Radeon R7 250 GDDR5, and the review of those two cards will be published in an upcoming look at sub-$100 gaming cards. Make sure to catch that piece when it goes live

= "Soon", I guess.

 

[logainofhades]

Soon isn't good enough. 😛

 

[CaptainTom]

GPU shopping really sucks right now huh? I will say that the 270X 4GB is better buy than the $20 more expensive 760 2GB though....

 

[airplanegeek]

As a result, this GK104-powered car is one of our favorite recommendations for frame rate-hungry gamers. That car...xD

 

[lmaonade200]

Actually it's pretty easy to argue these prices (though not relative to this month's offerings I suppose)remember when the Radeon R's were about to debut and every major retailer had their HD 7850s out for 100 bucks after MIR (120 before)? Or back in I think it was September/October when HD 7950s had their 200 buck period? Hell, during the holiday season GTX 650Ti's were often found for 100 bucks or less tooJanuary's a pretty stale month for graphics it seems.

 

[Sakkura]

GPU shopping really sucks right now huh? I will say that the 270X 4GB is better buy than the $20 more expensive 760 2GB though....

4GB is kinda overkill with a single card, so I'd say the GTX 760 is better value there. It easily has $20 of extra performance over the 270X.

 

[dalethepcman]

Its a new year. For the love of god, reset the comments...

 

[littleleo]

I really like reading comments from 2012 about cards reviewed in 2014, NOT!

 

[logainofhades]

Actually it's pretty easy to argue these prices (though not relative to this month's offerings I suppose)remember when the Radeon R's were about to debut and every major retailer had their HD 7850s out for 100 bucks after MIR (120 before)? Or back in I think it was September/October when HD 7950s had their 200 buck period? Hell, during the holiday season GTX 650Ti's were often found for 100 bucks or less tooJanuary's a pretty stale month for graphics it seems.

Bitcoin miners have made things worse price wise for gamers.

 

[Onus]

It isn't BTC any more, it's Litecoin (LTC). Even a 5GHash ASIC is hardly worth running for BTC now, but ASICs cannot mine LTC. Until / unless ASICS for LTC are released, mining them will continue on AMD GPUs.

 

[littleleo]

What about the Radeon r7 240? I was waiting for this month's list in the hopes that it would at least appear on the hierarchy.

It's the 1st card in the article and it's in the chart about 21 brackets up from the bottom, or 4 down from the R7-250(DDR3).

 

[logainofhades]

It isn't BTC any more, it's Litecoin (LTC). Even a 5GHash ASIC is hardly worth running for BTC now, but ASICs cannot mine LTC. Until / unless ASICS for LTC are released, mining them will continue on AMD GPUs.

I am really behind the times as I have never even heard of Litecoin. :lol: