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

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heero yuy

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Archived comments are found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2170289/graphics-cards-money-january-2012.html


oh at last the comments section is new and I can read actual new comments instead of ones from 10 years ago
 

emad_ramlawi

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I dont see any reason in recommending the GeForce GT 730 64-bit GDDR5
i understand you need to fit a price point, but its shame if some user bought it by your recommendation, and if he only added 30 more, he will have world of change (HD 7770), i reckon its just better to force users to spend more, and saying the truth, i dont believe there is person capable of shelling 70$ and cant shell 100$, also this way we help enhance future games, cause all the rigs will have good GPUs

 

IRONBATMAN

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As usual, AMD beats Nvidia in terms of price per performance. But of course, easch card's counterpart of the opposite company is always better in its own enhanced game.

For instance, AMD cards would run better in tomb Raider than in the Batman Arkham series.

I assume that the article in implementing that the GTX 760 beats the R9 280. If so, I disagree. Recently, AMD cards from XFX dropped in price. My friend got a R9 280 for $260, while the GTX 760 stays in the $250 price range. $10 more for more power and VRAM. Of course the R9 280 beats the GTX 760 both in performance and price.
 
This article is just plan incorrect with the 280, 280x, 290, and 290x prices...

280 sapphire 220$: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202099&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

280x XFX 270$: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150678&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

290 XFX 400$: http://www.ncixus.com/products/?usaffiliateid=1000031504&sku=93750&vpn=R9-290A-EDFD&manufacture=XFX&promoid=1060

290x XFX 520$: http://www.ncixus.com/products/?usaffiliateid=1000031504&sku=93753&vpn=R9-290X-EDFD&manufacture=XFX&promoid=1060

Not to mention all these cards have Non-reference coolers and all of them come with 10$+ rebates for cheaper than what was stated on this article without the rebates.


[Answer by article author:]

There will ALWAYS be options cheaper than the price we list. We list a low average price, not the lowest possible sale you can find. That would be futile, because sales come and go on a daily basis. That's not the point of this article.

As we state clearly on the first page:

"Prices and availability change on a daily basis. We can’t base our decisions on always-changing pricing information, but we can list some good cards that you probably won’t regret buying at the price ranges we suggest, along with real-time prices for your reference."

Obviously its good practice to find the best sale price possible. But we're dealing in generalities here, not specifics, which would be impossible unless we were re-writing this article on a daily basis.

Hope that helps you understand where we are at,

- Don Woligroski
 
Looking at the hierarchy chart, I see lots of competing cards in the same performance tier at similar prices. For example, the R9-270X at $195 is recommended. On the same tier, the GTX660@$170 and GTX660ti@$190 are not.
Similarly, The R9-280X @$310 is recommended, while the GTX770@$310 is not.
Are there other factors involved such as quality?

As a suggestion, perhaps the hierarchy list could be reformatted to include the best price at the time of each card.
 

gallovfc

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You guys at TomsHardware need another monthly section named "Best CPU and GPU combos fot he money" where, as you might have guessed helps us choose what gpu goes better with each CPU, explaining bottlenecks. Would be a quick article to edit after the first one is done.
 

Jak Atackka

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I dont see any reason in recommending the GeForce GT 730 64-bit GDDR5
i understand you need to fit a price point, but its shame if some user bought it by your recommendation, and if he only added 30 more, he will have world of change (HD 7770), i reckon its just better to force users to spend more, and saying the truth, i dont believe there is person capable of shelling 70$ and cant shell 100$, also this way we help enhance future games, cause all the rigs will have good GPUs

You've obviously never been in their shoes. They're called budget gamers for a reason - they have a very specific budget. The whole point of these different recommendations is to cover people with various budgets, some more flexible than others. Believe me, if they could afford to shell out the extra $30 to get a better GPU they would.

If we're going to force people to use a certain level GPU, why not just use a console? If you want hardware standardization, go get an Xbox One or PS4. That's not what the PC platform stands for, nor what it'll ever stand for.
 

hass34

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I just bought a sapphire tri x r9 290 for $359 .. I don't know where these guys get their prices from
 

deedubbadoo

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So at the expense of sounding like an idiot. I'm looking at building a little steambox for the living room. I'll be using a Intel G3220 CPU and 4GB RAM to start with. I'm looking for a card around $80-$90. I'm torn between the HD7770/250X and the R7 260. All three can be had on Newegg for around that price point. What would be my best bet?
 

cleeve

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Assuming the same price, the 260 is the best.

Definitely worth a few dollars more for a 260X is you can afford it though. :)

 

Rambler101

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Sold my Titan two months back while it had good value after purchasing it around the release date and bought a 2nd hand 290x with a EK waterblock... The prices of 290x/290 are just too good to pass up, especially 2nd hand non miners... Performance is nearly the same depending on the game and was nice to pocket $300... I really enjoy reading this article every month to keep up with current changes, thx Don
 

The_Icon

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Really Really hope Nvidia works price competitiveness with their next cards, I am really happy with my Sapphire Trix R9 290 overclocked absolutely no issues with drivers whatsoever as people like to complain. However, it is almost a norm for me to change things around every upgrade, so if Nvidia is more price competitive, I will definitely get their card next time.
 

Mike Friesen

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Hey tom's hardware: It would be nice (if oversimplifying the problem) if there was a direct price/performance bar beside each gpu on the performance per dollar graph.
(I realize the cost of the build greatly influences performance per dollar, but I'd still like to see it there. Maybe even include a $500 and/or $700 "surrounding build cost" to go with the price/perf?)

On the other hand, maybe these graphs would be too big...
 

darth_adversor

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I take issue with the multi-card recommendations. Two GTX 660's for $370? NAAAH!

Looking at the first five R9 270's that came up on Amazon, I get a median price of $160. Since prices fluctuate, however, and to also take other retailers into account, let's assume an average price of $170.

That's R9 290-ish performance for $340! Waaay better than two GTX 660's, and for less money (according to your prices).

With a Core i5 2500k (@ 4.4) and two R9 270's, I get 8000 on the newest 3DMark. Not bad (I got my cards factory refurb for a total of $260).
 

flipman

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Nice article but 1 small issue was with the 740GT GDDR5 bandwith is 80Gb/s not 40 :)
1250 x 4 x 128 / 8 = 80Gb/s
 
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