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

[lunyone]

This chart helped me immeasurably this weekend in a search for a new video card. I'd been out of the hardware game since I built my rig about 5 years back. The trusty GTX 280 I had was getting a bit long in the tooth and some of the newer games I was trying to play required trade-offs to run at 1080p. My budget was under $200 but after looking at this chart I realized there weren't a lot of significant gains I could achieve unless I bumped my budget up slightly (the three tier or more bump rule). I wound up grabbing an R9 270X - five tiers up from my 280 - for slightly more than my $200 ceiling and the performance gain is fantastic! Thanks a lot for putting this info out there!

So you did that despite the fact that the 270x was not one of the recommended cards at that price range?

It's possible that he wanted an AMD card and that one fit close to his budget. I'm not saying it was a bad decision, but some people like to vote with their wallet and might not always select the best option. I don't know this for sure, but that could make sense in this case.

I just thought it was odd that he was praising the guide, but not following its recommendations. And then going from 5 solid years of Nvidia ownership to suddenly switch to AMD just adds to the mystery. In the end, all that matters is that he's happy and the guide helped in some way.

Yeah I hear ya. I sometimes can't persuade someone to buy the better/right parts, but as long as they are happy with what they bought, what can you say?

 

[thespaceduck]

Ok there is a "TITAN" engraving on the GTX 770. Why? 😀

 

[spookyman]

What no 295X or Titan Z? I mean they should be faster then the GTX 690

 

[de5_Roy]

What no 295X or Titan Z? I mean they should be faster then the GTX 690

neither are available for purchase yet.

 

[RedJaron]

So a 750 Ti gets an honorable mention for being the best non-aux-powered card available right now, but the 7750 never did during its reign? That's a little odd.

And seriously, Tom's, Mods, SOMEONE: can we PLEASE get new threads for these Best of Monthly articles? Seriously how long do we need to ask? two years and 23 pages aren't enough?

 

[logainofhades]

The 7750 was routinely mentioned about being the fastest without a PCI-E connector. Been awhile, but it was mentioned quite often during its reign, as you put it. What gets me is that the 750ti review showed that it was comparable to a 7850 not a 260x. It is like they just write this stuff without looking at their own reviews on the cards in question.

Average gaming performance according to the review.

While the Radeon R7 260X offers similar performance for considerably less money, gamers who want to upgrade an entry-level PC with a low-output power supply may consider the GeForce GTX 750 Ti, which is rated at 60 W (a little more than half of the 260X's 115 W).

A 260x =/= HD 7850. It is an HD 7790. A 265 is more HD 7850. So which is right? The review or the quote? IMO, it should be the review.

 

[RedJaron]

I meant that the 7750 was mentioned elsewhere, but the past six months or so it was left off this article.

The 265 is the same silicone as 7850, but it's been clocked much higher ( as you can see in your own graph, it's nearly 20% above the 7850. ) The 260X, while technically an OCd 7790, is only 5% behind the stock 7850. So yes, the 750 Ti is much closer to 260X than 265.

No, silicone-wise the 260X != 7850. But after clocks and actual performance are considered, it pretty much does match it.

 

[Sakkura]

The 7750 was routinely mentioned about being the fastest without a PCI-E connector. Been awhile, but it was mentioned quite often during its reign, as you put it. What gets me is that the 750ti review showed that it was comparable to a 7850 not a 260x. It is like they just write this stuff without looking at their own reviews on the cards in question.

On that chart, the 750 Ti and 260X are pretty much within the margin of error. Choosing different games or changing the benchmarking sequence or graphics settings can easily make a 6% difference.

 

[outlw6669]

I would love to see a comparison/shootout between the $80 value champion + budget platform and an A10-7850K.

For the platform price, I have a feeling that the APU might just be a better option for someone looking to build an extreme budget mainstream gaming build.
Looking at the current prices ($80 - GT 640, $185 - A10-7850K) and with both having similar graphics performance; I would be interested to see what, if any, CPU's would offer better performance to the A10 for $105 with a similarly priced/featured platform.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

I would love to see a comparison/shootout between the $80 value champion + budget platform and an A10-7850K.

For the platform price, I have a feeling that the APU might just be a better option for someone looking to build an extreme budget mainstream gaming build.
Looking at the current prices ($80 - GT 640, $185 - A10-7850K) and with both having similar graphics performance; I would be interested to see what, if any, CPU's would offer better performance to the A10 for $105 with a similarly priced/featured platform.

The FX4300 runs about $100, the FX6300 about $110 and both would have more cpu power than the 7850K

 

[anthony8989]

The FX4300 runs about $100, the FX6300 about $110 and both would have more cpu power than the 7850K

That's odd, every benchmark comparison I've seen shows the A10-7850k beat out the FX-4300 by a considerable amount. Is that not the case?

I think that he's got a point. As of right now the cheapest FX-6300 on Newegg is $119.99. That leaves you $65 left over to find a GPU that roughly equals the HD 7750. Plus there's the added bonus of HSA and Mantle support etc. And to be honest, even though the GT 640 is a nice little card, nvidia doesn't really pay any extra attention to the lower end of its line-up. In fact, anything under the GTX 650 TiB is pretty much ignored.

 

[s17speedex]

what about intel 4600 GPU in the hierarchy chart? Not too hard to forget though.

 

[Sakkura]

The FX4300 runs about $100, the FX6300 about $110 and both would have more cpu power than the 7850K

That's odd, every benchmark comparison I've seen shows the A10-7850k beat out the FX-4300 by a considerable amount. Is that not the case?

I think that he's got a point. As of right now the cheapest FX-6300 on Newegg is $119.99. That leaves you $65 left over to find a GPU that roughly equals the HD 7750. Plus there's the added bonus of HSA and Mantle support etc. And to be honest, even though the GT 640 is a nice little card, nvidia doesn't really pay any extra attention to the lower end of its line-up. In fact, anything under the GTX 650 TiB is pretty much ignored.

The A10-7850K is only a little faster than the A10-6800K, because although the new architecture is better, clocks are lower. The A10-6800K is like an FX-4300 without L3 cache but with an integrated GPU. The lack of L3 cache obviously hurts performance, and that also applies to the 7850K. So I would expect the FX-4300 and A10-7850K to be about equal.

 

[Wisecracker]

The lack of L3 dinks performance but it's not as much as folks make it out to be --- typically around 5-10% at 1080p.

For the most part it still the video card. Resolutions higher than 1080p are effectively a non-issue in the overwhelming majority of cases -- 1440p with even the fastest of video cards is still GPU-limited (with single cards) so that even an AMD Athlon X4 750K runs with the big dogs (as would an i3 Sandy/Ivy/Haswell).

 

[ykki]

Just waiting for the 295X2 to be added to the chart

 

[anthony8989]

Well subjectivity aside the A10-7850k appears to best the FX 4300 considerably in benchmarking scenarios . I haven't tested them side by side so I'm just going by the numbers floating around rather than looking at specifications on paper and drawing my own conclusions. I haven't gotten my hands on any of the 3 units so Idk for sure

 

[randemar]

I'm a follower of Hierarchy Chart since some years ago. I think it's a very good guide for understand graphic card's difficult world.
However, I think Hierarchy Chart haven't some explanation about new Intel IGP beyond of known HD 2000, 3000, and 4000.
I'd appreciate some references and notes about new Intel embedded solutions (NM10, 65, 70, etc) and new Haswell graphics (HD 4400, 4600, 5000, 5200...)
Sorry for my bad English.
Thanks.

 

[Tal Greywolf]

I think the thing to remember about recommendations here (be it graphic cards, CPUs or drives) is that the site is geared towards the gamer. That's why a lot of the reviews talk about overclocking and getting the most performance out of your machine, while overlooking the average person who is simply looking for advice on a good system or a good upgrade.

So my personal advice is consider what you're going to use your computer for on a daily basis, and do some serious research on what sort of upgrade you want. For the time being, I'm quite happy with my GTX 650Ti Boost card, but when I get ready to seriously look at investing in a graphics card *for graphics work* then I'll get something that will have sufficient horsepower to do what I need. (Of course, that'll be about the time I get a Cintiq 13HD for graphics work... *chuckle*)

 

[hixbot]

I'm a follower of Hierarchy Chart since some years ago. I think it's a very good guide for understand graphic card's difficult world.
However, I think Hierarchy Chart haven't some explanation about new Intel IGP beyond of known HD 2000, 3000, and 4000.
I'd appreciate some references and notes about new Intel embedded solutions (NM10, 65, 70, etc) and new Haswell graphics (HD 4400, 4600, 5000, 5200...)
Sorry for my bad English.
Thanks.

From the reading I've done, the Intel 5200 GT3e belongs in the same tier as Nvidia 8800gs and ATI HD 3850 512mb. 5000 is one tier below that.
4400 and 4600 are pretty much the same tier as the Intel HD4000. I'm not sure why Tom's wont add these Intel SKUs to the chart, there's plenty of Benchmarks available.

 

[Novuake]

From the reading I've done, the Intel 5200 GT3e belongs in the same tier as Nvidia 8800gs and ATI HD 3850 512mb. 5000 is one tier below that.
4400 and 4600 are pretty much the same tier as the Intel HD4000. I'm not sure why Tom's wont add these Intel SKUs to the chart, there's plenty of Benchmarks available.

Because Integrated graphics is VERY much bound to the platform it running on. RAM specs especially.

 

[anthony8989]

I'm a follower of Hierarchy Chart since some years ago. I think it's a very good guide for understand graphic card's difficult world.
However, I think Hierarchy Chart haven't some explanation about new Intel IGP beyond of known HD 2000, 3000, and 4000.
I'd appreciate some references and notes about new Intel embedded solutions (NM10, 65, 70, etc) and new Haswell graphics (HD 4400, 4600, 5000, 5200...)
Sorry for my bad English.
Thanks.

From the reading I've done, the Intel 5200 GT3e belongs in the same tier as Nvidia 8800gs and ATI HD 3850 512mb. 5000 is one tier below that.
4400 and 4600 are pretty much the same tier as the Intel HD4000. I'm not sure why Tom's wont add these Intel SKUs to the chart, there's plenty of Benchmarks available.

You cannot upgrade to or from the Intel Iris Pro 5200 or 5000. They are for All-in-one built in PC solutions. It doesn't make sense to put them in a chart to advise you of a viable upgrade for graphics. The performance of the Iris Pro integrated graphics solution is also dependent on the power envelope of the system it's in. In addition to thermal limitations. Those graphic solutions have no place on this chart. It has been said many , many times before already.

 

[logainofhades]

Just as an FYI, Broadwell will have Iris Pro. 😀

 

[klomaxian]

The R7 260x is also available with 2GB memory (the chart only mentions 1 GB).

Despite of the 128 Bit interface, the 260x and her green sister 750ti^^ performing very well in their class.

 

[Nevinvv]

why this list is not updated with the latest Intel hd graphics 4600 etc and amd 7860D... and the integrated graphics in amd a10 7850k?

 

[Novuake]

why this list is not updated with the latest Intel hd graphics 4600 etc and amd 7860D... and the integrated graphics in amd a10 7850k?

Sigh. Ill just copy paste this :
"Because Integrated graphics is VERY much bound to the platform it running on. RAM specs especially."