Best Graphics Cards For The Money: June 2010

[cleeve]

May saw the introduction of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 465 and AMD's Radeon HD 5550. It may come as a bit of a surprise which of these cards has more potential to impress at its respective price point. We'll tell you more in this month's Best Graphics column!

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: June 2010 : Read more

 

[The_King]

The best investment I made my 4870x2 and really if you own one why upgrade? Still awesome too bad there was not a 4890x2 !

 

[pinkfloydminnesota]

How on earth can you give an honorable mention to the 5970 when it's about equal to the Xfired 5850s and 20% more $$? Do you really believe single slot motherboards exist on any systems with $600 invested in graphics?

 

[enzo matrix]

Still no reason to upgrade from a radeon 3870 to any new card below $100.

 

[xc0mmiex]

4850 & 4870 are still the kings of value, and it doesn't seem they are going away anytime soon

 

[p1n3apqlexpr3ss]

Kinda annoying reading the same blurb for all the cards each month....
Monthly updates is the most interesting part, be interesting to see where the 5550 end up in a review performance wise compared to last gen cards

 

[stickmans88]

Don't know about enzo matrix ,but I need to update my tri 3870... Any ideas with a $200 budget?

 

[xurwin]

no gtx 465?

 

[alikum]

[citation][nom]xurwin[/nom]no gtx 465?[/citation]
Take a close look at intro

 

[ta152h]

[citation][nom]pinkfloydminnesota[/nom]How on earth can you give an honorable mention to the 5970 when it's about equal to the Xfired 5850s and 20% more $$? Do you really believe single slot motherboards exist on any systems with $600 invested in graphics?[/citation]

The performance isn't equal, and with very high end parts, the last few percent do tend to cost a lot more. But more to the point, if you have your 5850s cross-fired, that's as far as you go. If you have a one-slot solution, you still have possible expansion.

Also consider the brain-damaged lga1156 platform. Many of the solutions use PCIe lanes from the processor for the USB 3.0. Even without that you'd be forced to use them with 8-lanes instead of 16, but with it you'd see some degradation either in USB or your video card.

Also, some motherboards have PCIe 16 slots kind of close to each other, and the cooling can be an issue. One card allows for better airflow.

So, there are good reasons for wanting the one card solution, some of which depend on the existing platform and configuration.

 

[The_King]

[citation][nom]stickmans88[/nom]Don't know about enzo matrix ,but I need to update my tri 3870... Any ideas with a $200 budget?[/citation]

You running three 3870s ? I think you maybe got a 3870x2 and and 3870 x-fire setup I don't think you going to get much of an improvement with the $200 budget since the 3870x2 has the similar performance to the 5830 which is $220.

If your budget excludes selling the 3870's try selling them and going for a 5850

 

[cobot]

[citation][nom]pinkfloydminnesota[/nom]How on earth can you give an honorable mention to the 5970 when it's about equal to the Xfired 5850s and 20% more $$? Do you really believe single slot motherboards exist on any systems with $600 invested in graphics?[/citation]

Tom's always gives the currently fastest card an honorable mention because of the simple reason that it is...the fastest..

 

[tharkis842]

Hm, i dunno. Prices are still too high to "upgrade" at this point. I don't see any reason to re-buy a card i already have with a couple extra features at a higher price point.

 

[Onus]

Dual Radeon HD 5750s in CrossFire make for a much more powerful option than a single Radeon HD 5830, if the buyer is willing to pay the extra money required for a CrossFire motherboard and a beefier power supply.

Or, skip the bigger PSU, keep your microATX mobo, and use the money on the more powerful single HD5850.

 

[fizzr]

Well 5750s in CrossFire don't need any bigger PSU than for a single 5850. In the worst possible case the energy intake can be a max. 30watts higher during Furmark. They're more silent in 2D and use less energy. And for the mainboard these two are fine with just 8x PCIe lanes to work at their full potential.

 

[mitch074]

Two years after it single-handedly swept the market, the 4850 is still a recommendation.

Long term investment usually doesn't rhyme with It, but dang, is it reaching for the name of '440BX of GPUs'!

(note: the 440BX, although limited in tech, was sold en masse for more than 3 years after it came out due to its unparalleled performance and incredible stability - even on a +70% overclock)

 

[bebangs]

err i guess gtx 260 and gtx275 has been removed.
mostly ati are the winners in terms of value.

 

[Onus]

Sad to see my secondary's HD4670 finally dropped off the list. Oh well, life goes on. I'll probably use it to test the low end on my upcoming mini-ITX build, then either get a HD5670 or HD5750 for it since it will probably be too weak for 1920x1080.

 

[jgv115]

Haha!! I've had my 4850 for agesssssssssss now and it's still going strong! I can play most games at 1920x1080 maxed out (well not with full anti-aliasing but who needs that anyway?)

4850 for the win!!!!!!!

 

[pirateboy]

how about writing some real articles instead of this "best something for the money" B.S.

 

[guid_aaa000001]

Good timing for me. I am upgrading my Graphics card after 4 year, saving for months for a Radeon 5850. Finally buying this f#%k*!$ card....

 

[amdfangirl]

Mmmf!

I don't think the GTS 250 is 65nm.

 

[cobot]

how about writing some real articles instead of this "best something for the money" B.S.

These best GPU and CPU lists are very appreciated by most of us, so shoo.

 

[desolationjones]

The 470 in sli actually outperforms the 5970 for the same price. Sometimes even more than two 5870s in sli. This should probably get a mention. Although I'm not sure how credibly you can include this because it hasn't been tested in tomshardware specifically.

 

[nforce4max]

Why bother buying most of the cards on that list for the exception of the 5850/5870 when one can get dirt cheap 3870/4850/4870 on the second hand market. Even a 4870x2 is cheaper than a 5830. I'll stick with my 3870, 8800gtx, and my two 9800gt 1gb editions.