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

[littleleo]

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

Amen!!

 

[littleleo]

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:

Yeah it's the Litecoin guys creating the shortage in the AMD R9 models and driving up the prices.

 

[mr91]

I agree lol

 

[Supernova1138]

Soon followed by the Dogecoin miners and the Coinye West miners. I hope this cryptocurrency silliness ends soon and the high end GPU market can be more competitive as a result.

 

[Onus]

IMHO, Cryptocurrency WILL be a / the viable means of conducting commerce in the future. While it has its own issues, many of the problems of fiat currency (money that's money only because elected parasites say it is) do not apply to cryptocurrency, which cannot merely be "printed" at will, inflating away the value of existing money. At this early stage, any of it must still be considered highly speculative.

 

[Dax corrin]

All the really smokin' cards are now, regretfully, out of my price range. I can at least look though.

 

[Onus]

For a variety of reasons, my gaming time has diminished, such that I haven't had time for anything really demanding lately. My HD7970 is unused on a shelf, sitting all pretty and future-resistant for me there (rather than wasting power I don't need right now). I suppose I could start mining LTC with it; it is winter after all, so the extra heat in my little corner would not be a bad thing right now.

 

[thebest108]

No 770M on this list?

 

[Novuake]

No 770M on this list?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-770M.88995.0.html

 

[Phillip Wager]

so with much of the high-end video cards focusing on super high resolution gaming at what point is the videocard "overkill" for 1080p gaming? I am in the market and im just wondering what video card will play most games (skyrim, bf4, Planetside2, starcraft2, and a few others) at max quality with very good frame-rate (60fps or more) is the GTX 780 overkill? Will the 770 work just fine? or can i make due with a single 760 and enjoy high end graphics with stable frame rates? i just don't want to buy something and kick myself for not spending more cash but i also don't want to invest money on hardware that is too powerfull and could go elsewhere in my system (new cpu, a ssd, better headphones, you get the point) i hope i get a response on this i would love to know everyone's thoughts.

 

[vertexx]

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:

Yeah it's the Litecoin guys creating the shortage in the AMD R9 models and driving up the prices.

You can look at it that way - nothing wrong with that, because obviously the Litecoin boom has increased demand for AMD GPUs.

I look at it more favorably. I can buy an AMD GPU, game on it, but when I'm not gaming I can have it mining and paying for itself.

That logic led me to AMD for two GPU purchases for my boys this last Christmas. If it were not for Litecoin mining, I would have bought a single GTX 760 to be shared. With the ability to Litecoin mine, I purchased an R9 280x for one of my boys and an R9 270x for the younger one. So that's two AMD purchases from what would have been a single GTX purchase. I'm sure I'm not the only one out there following that logic.

At 8:30pm each night, their PCs have scripts scheduled that fire up the mining, and it will run all night and day until they get home from school (and finish their homework). But I don't view myself as a "Litecoin Miner". I'm not going out and buying cards off ebay, putting together rigs in milk crates, etc. I look at it more like collecting Aluminum cans when I was a kid to fund a day at Great America.

The kids are into it. With 3 total AMD GPUs in the house right now, we're counting our LTCs until those GPUs pay for themselves, while the lowly GTX 660 sits quiet in the entertainment center PC. Then, if there's anything left over (if the difficulty doesn't keep going thru the roof), then we may have a day at Bush Gardens.

 

[Onus]

Phillip, the most demanding game I have is GW2, and I max that game with a HD7870. The game still looks good on a HD7750 though, on a mix of mostly High settings. If you're willing to lower a few extraneous settings from "Ultra" to "High," a GTX760 should do quite well. One exception might be Tomb Raider though, I understand that TressFX is extremely demanding. You'd want a HD7970 or GTX770 for that one.

On another note, I bought the HD7970 even though it was more than I needed, specifically because I also intended to mine with it. I made about 2 BTC with it before the ASICs took over. At current prices (I've not sold them yet), it's paid for itself four times over.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I just need to point out that the R9-270 is not an HD 7870, it's an HD 7850. The numbering scheme has X at the end of what would otherwise end in 70 and no suffix at the end of cards that would end in 50 with the old numbering system. Therefore, the R9-270X is the HD 7870 just like the R9-280 is the HD 7950 and the R9-280X is the HD 7970.

 

[de5_Roy]

^^ the shader count is 7870's. 7850 has less shaders than r9 270.

 

[logainofhades]

I just need to point out that the R9-270 is not an HD 7870, it's an HD 7850. The numbering scheme has X at the end of what would otherwise end in 70 and no suffix at the end of cards that would end in 50 with the old numbering system. Therefore, the R9-270X is the HD 7870 just like the R9-280 is the HD 7950 and the R9-280X is the HD 7970.

False statement there. Essentially that is what the 270 is, a rebadged 7870. The R9 270 performs equal to an HD 7870. Also, there isn't even an R9 280.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-270-review-benchmarks,3669.html

 

[Mike Hackett]

come on ppl, enough is enough, the question is still relevant, the posts from 2012 are not, freshen things up.

 

[Mike Hackett]

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.

Definitely agree, bout to get myself a gigabyte windforce 280x for £224.49 before dabs.com joins amazon in selling at the 299 mark.

 

[logainofhades]

I am glad I bought my HD 7970 off a friend of mine for $230 when I did. :lol:

 

[Mike Hackett]

I am glad I bought my HD 7970 off a friend of mine for $230 when I did. :lol:

hows it treating you ?

 

[logainofhades]

It has been doing well. I have had it for couple months or so now.

 

[Mike Hackett]

im hoping to be able to game at a high-moderate level for a few years with the 280x thats why i went with the 3 fan version, if it gets a bit long in the tooth i can put a mild oc on it and squeeze a few more months out of it. Unless Mantle turns out to be godly good i doubt i get another and xfire mainly as psu wont handle it lol

 

[logainofhades]

My PSU will not handle a second one for CF either. :lol: PC partpicker puts me at about 766w with 2, 7970GHE.

 

[Onus]

Mine is the Gigabyte model with the Windforce-3 cooler on it. It stays quiet, and relatively cool even when running at 98% (e.g. when mining). Overall, the quality of this card has moved Gigabyte to or near the top of my list for AMD graphics cards.

 

[Mike Hackett]

My PSU will not handle a second one for CF either. :lol: PC partpicker puts me at about 766w with 2, 7970GHE.

puts me at about 435w, which i hope is accurate as i got a 550w psu, the gpu asks for 600w alone but as we all know gpu manufacturers are dirty rotten liars with their power requests, but as i plan to oc the cpu 500w would be cutting it a bit fine. may head to a 750w psu in future if i need to

 

[logainofhades]

Mine is the Gigabyte model with the Windforce-3 cooler on it. It stays quiet, and relatively cool even when running at 98% (e.g. when mining). Overall, the quality of this card has moved Gigabyte to or near the top of my list for AMD graphics cards.

My AMD/ATI GPU's are all Sapphire with the exception of an old HD 3870 that is a Diamond. I wouldn't touch a gigabyte gpu. http://www.xcpus.com/reviews/gigabyte-gv-r797to-3gd