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

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]dco[/nom]The HD 7870 should not be in a tier above the GTX 660. In all your benchmarks you have shown them to be very similar and even trade positions depending on the game.[/citation]

Actually, current benchmarks show the 660 being closer to the 7850 than it is to the 7870 and the 7870 is closer to the 660 Ti.

 

[dkjravn]

Thanks again. In all honesty, I would rather have the 7870XT by Sapphire, but no stock. 🙁

 

[dkjravn]

Ooo. Just noticed that the picture on Newegg where you can see the box, on the right hand side it says EZ instead Ghz and it is EUFI ready and there is only one DVI port on the back instead of two and it is a diff version and stuff. Thanks blazorthon for making me second guessing my second guessing!

 

[dkjravn]

Ordered!

 

[Evshrug]

PhysX has me wishing the GeForce cards were more price-equivalent :/

 

[Evshrug]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]First page, fourth paragraph in the March Updates section:[citation] Otherwise, the news coming from Nvidia involves price reductions. The GeForce GTX 650 Ti is down to $175. That's better, but still high compared to the faster Radeon HD 7850 1 GB. The GeForce GTX 670 now sells for $360, which is a $10 drop, making it an even more impressive deal on such a high-performance card. Finally, the GeForce GTX 680 is also down $10 to $450, though it's still too pricey compared to most Radeon HD 7970s. With that said, it's almost on par with the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition now. [/citation]That shouldn't be $175 for the GTX 650 Ti, should it?Also, as others have said, the third paragraph of the same section incorrectly states that the GTX 690 uses GK110 GPUs.[/citation]

Yeah, I'm seeing the GTX 650 Ti selling as low as $115 after rebates. By the time you reach a $135 budget, lots of manufacturers have weighed in with available models.
MSI model on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127710&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

 

[jamesedgeuk2000]

[citation][nom]Evshrug[/nom]PhysX has me wishing the GeForce cards were more price-equivalent[/citation]

PhysX is one of the main reasons Nvidia costs more than AMD at the same performance level (that's and stuff like the ability to run stuff like F@H well and superior drivers).

 

[Aegean BM]

The dollar per performance chart doesn't show the same data for the 7870 LE as shown in the chart 3 pages earlier. Just look at the entry bar. One is 58, but other is well over 60.

On a different topic, I suggest the final chart would better convey the bang for the buck curve and reveal the sweet spot if you did money on x axis and power on y axis. You can still have entry, performance, and extreme lines plotted.

 

[dilbert]

I guess the AMD Radeon HD 7790 will have to wait for the April update.

 

[sanilmahambre]

I would go for 7790 instead of 650ti

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

The 650ti is not $175, they go as low as $139. the $175 is the highest for the card. cmon toms......

 

[Evshrug]

[citation][nom]jamesedgeuk2000[/nom]PhysX is one of the main reasons Nvidia costs more than AMD at the same performance level (that's and stuff like the ability to run stuff like F@H well and superior drivers).[/citation]
Oh, I thought AMD performed F@H better because of the compute performance... though maybe I am thinking of bitcoin mining. I could be wrong... Both processes seem esoteric and mostly unfamiliar to me, to be honest.

 

[Evshrug]

Sorry to double post, but I can't add via edit.
The GTX 660, GTX 570, and HD7850 are all grouped on the same performance tier. I understand that they all trade blows on best performance per game, but where would the GTX 660's increased CUDA count be a better advantage vs. the greater memory bandwidth of the GTX 570? I'm trying to make a purchase between the two, and suggestions on the better value would be GREATLY appreciated

 

[anthony8989]

Could you add the Radeon HD 7790 GDDR5 please I know it's going to land somewhere between the 7770 and the 7850 but there's two spots and I'd like to know where exactly you think it should be xD

 

[tobydjones]

Great chart, thanks!
I just have a little difficulty comparing cards in the middle of the chart, since when I search I loose sight of the other card! A minor detail, but could you number the rows please (with 1 at the bottom)? Thanks

 

[icechang]

Hi Don:

Thanks for this chart.
May I know how about the grade of Intel HD Graphics 2500(i3-3220 or i5-3570 ...etc.)?
Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Best sub-$200 card? The Asus overclocked, top core GTX 660 non-ti. The GTX 650ti is currently listed at $150. That is without any discounts or rebates. At newegg, I saw one for $120 after a MIB. I actually bought a GTX 660 for a grand total of $168.99 after new egg cut the price from the original $250 to $210, then an additional $21 off with a promo code instant rebate and then on top of that, Nvidia chipped in with another $20 MIB. The card is still available for $189.99. But, for the performance you get from the 660, it has to be the best sub $200 out right now even though it was $250 when it was released. EVGA has a GTX 660 for the same price and Gigabyte has one for $183. If they raised the cut-off of the $110-$180 to $190 then these cards would completely dominate that class. I already had the same exact card so now I have them in SLI. GTX 660 SLI with 1920 cuda cores, 2 GB RAM, 1080 MHz clock puts its performance 20% better than a reference GTX 680 which will run you $150-$200 more than what 2 GTX 660s would cost.

 

[de5_Roy]

damn. it's gonna take some time to digest geforces at the sweet spot recommendations long occupied by radeons. personally, i favor the radeons for their higher memory bus width. i hope amd reacts by dropping pitcairn prices. users are the winners in price war.

 

[sarinaide]

I do though agree that in the end the end user is winning, we are getting Nvidia power cards needing to be sold at dirt cheap, while you have a distinctly mid range priced card delivering near top end calibre performance, this for a buy is a absolute treat.

 

[tslot05qsljgo9ed]

The GK106 is Kepler not Fermi as is seen throughout this review.

 

[david cassar]

It is nice to see some competition in the gpu market. The gtx 650 ti boost seems to be a very good graphics card for the price.

 

[jessterman21]

Glad to see my own conclusions drawn from price observation reflected in this most recent update! The free games that come with the Radeons are tempting, but the GTX 660 now comes with Metro: Last Light, and can regularly be had for $190 before rebates If the GTX 7xx series doesn't drop before July, I'm getting one.

 

[rgd-5]

Wow, so to get to current comments for your updated article, I have to click "Load more comments," then scroll down, then click it again about 25 times? Unbelievable.You must be trying to make this system as inconvenient as possible.

 

[samwelaye]

god damnit toms, with the new comment system it is so hard to see the recent comments on articles like these that dont clear the comments every month... you have to just keep clicking "more comments" over and over again instead of goign to the last page. this is ridiculous

 

[dragonsqrrl]

This is the worst commenting system I've ever dealt with...