Best Graphics Cards For The Money: July 2011

[General_Terror]

There are DDR3 and GDDR5 versions of 5670 and 6670 available. But, the list only mentions an HD 5670 and an HD 6670.

 

[General_Terror]

[citation][nom]ChiefTexas_82[/nom]Best Graphics *CARDS* for the money. Llano is a APU, not GPU.[/citation]

Intel HD Graphics *CARDS* ?

 

[11796pcs]

Could Tom's start putting CF/SLI setups on the hierarchy chart? It would make choosing whether to go with a CF/SLI setup vs. a single card alot easier.

 

[hasappra]

Um so the HD 5850 is better then the 6850? That some how doesn't make any sense...

Yep, better performance and Sapphire HD5850 Xtreme is much cheaper than any cheap HD6850s in the market.

 

[tomfreak]

Where the Heck is Radeon 6310? u guys forgot to add Zacate into the Hierarchy Chart!!!

 

[mike8472]

I love your articles! They are very helpful for anyone who is building their own system. I just built mine about a year ago with an XFX Radeon HD 5770, AMD Phenom II x4 3.2GHz 955BE, MSI 890FXA (on sale for 109.99 at the time (regular 199.99)). Your articles helped me to get exactly what I wanted from my build at my price point. The only problem I made is my PSU I guess. It just died a week ago so I've started the whole RMA process. Is there any way to contact article writers directly? Thanks again for these awesome articles!

-Michael

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]pjmelect[/nom]There is a mistake in the Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart; there are two entry's for the 7600 GT but no entry for the 7600 GS. I think that one of the GT entry’s should read GS.[/citation]

Look again, it's there: one is the 7600 GT discrete, and one is the 7600 GT mobile. The 7600 GS is in the tier below the mobile one.

 

[DSpider]

[citation][nom]11796pcs[/nom]Could Tom's start putting CF/SLI setups on the hierarchy chart? It would make choosing whether to go with a CF/SLI setup vs. a single card alot easier.[/citation]
Probably because scalability depends very much on the drivers and even more so when they're in their first stages (which is usually when most reviews are done). This changes over time, obviously, but the scalability is more... what's the word here... variable? Variability? Yes, it varies from brand to brand, motherboard chipset, etc.

Even this chart isn't completely accurate. I remember Sapphire HD5850 Toxic was factory overclocked and it could compete very well against HD5870, same for "SSC" Nvidia cards from EVGA, etc. They try to stick to "stock" and "reference" cards and give a general perspective, but there are alternatives which could even skip a tier (like how GTX 460 is overclock-friendly and it can even bite on GTX 470's heels).

 

[icechang]

Hi Tom:

How about the grade of Intel HD Graphics 2500(i3-3220 or i5-3570 ...etc.)?
Thanks!

 

[icechang]

Hi Tom:

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