Best Video Cards For The Money: Sept '08 : The Best Graphics Cards for the Money: September 2008
Source: Tom's Hardware – Keywords: Best, Graphics, Card
The Best Graphics Cards for the Money: September 2008
Detailed graphics card specifications and reviews are great—that is, if you have the time to do the research. But at the end of the day, what a gamer needs is the best graphics card within a certain budget.
So if you don’t have the time to research the benchmarks, or if you don’t feel confident enough in your ability to make the right decision, fear not. We at Tom’s Hardware have come to your aid with a simple list of the best gaming cards offered for the money.
August Review and September Updates:
As the new GPUs from AMD and Nvidia flood the market, previous generation cards keep getting cheaper and cheaper. The amount of very powerful graphics cards at the $100 price point is staggering: The Radeon HD 3850, Geforce 8800 GS, 9800 GSO, GeForce 9600 GT, and GeForce 8800 GT 512MB can all be had in the neighborhood of this very low price.
In August, the Radeon HD 4870 X2—AMD’s dual-4870s-on-a-card—arrived in force, becoming the highest-performing single graphics card in the world. At a $550 price tag however, it’s too hard on the budget to easily recommend when two separate 4870 cards can be purchased for slightly less and used in a CrossFire configuration. Having said that, it is notable that AMD has the championship title in its ring again.
Nvidia hasn’t been resting on its laurels, however, and has introduced stronger competition for the Radeon HD 4870 by lowering prices on both the GeForce GTX 260 and GeForce 9800 GX2 to a similar level. This has really softened the Radeon HD 4870’s thunder and it now shares the $270 recommendation with these two excellent high-performing cards.
As far as rumors go, it is speculated that AMD will be releasing the 4600 series in the near future as a mid-range line that offers technical specifications similar to the powerful 3800 series, but with a throttled-back 128-bit memory interface (compared to the 3800-series’ 256-bit memory interface). This would make a great mid-range product, but the problem is with all of the inexpensive, high-performing cards at the $100 price point, the 4600 series will need to be available at about $80 to offer desirable price/performance. We’ll see what happens.
Some Notes About Our Recommendations
A few simple guidelines to keep in mind when reading this list include:
- This list is for gamers who want to get the most for their money. If you don’t play games, the cards in this list are more expensive than what you really need;
- Prices and availability changes on a daily basis. We can’t offer up-to-the-minute accurate pricing info, but we can list some good cards that you probably won’t regret buying at the price ranges we suggest;
- The list is based on some of the best U.S. prices from online retailers. In other countries or retail, your mileage will most certainly vary;
- These are new card prices. No used or open box cards are in the list; they might be a good deal, but it’s out of the scope of what we’re trying to do.
- Next page PCI Express Interface: $0 to $130
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"Remember, the GeForce GTX 280 costs about $80 more than two Radeon HD 4850 cards!"
And? When the GTX 280 gets its price slashed with the next generation product just grab one, SLI the motherbitch and piss all over the two 4850s
Yes, it may be cheaper to get the two 4850s for similar performance, but isn't it rather shortsighted to recommend that approach for long-term investment?
Also...
"Best PCIe Card For Over $350: None"
Since when was this monthly segment about comparative value for money? I always thought the point was the best cards within each price bracket.
So, if I'm going to purchase a top-end graphics card, what's the best one in the $350+ bracket, especially if I DO want to play above 1920x1200 (this 30" screen ain't gonna fill itself y'know).
Christ can anybody be bothered any more?
These reviews are getting rediculous..
First, the title is best "video cards" for the money, not "best video card configurations", so Single Card configs really should definitly take priority over CF configs. The GTX 280, while on average slower then the CF 4850's, offers a much simpler solution with comparable performance, and definitly should get a mention (THIS is coming from an AMD/ATI supporter).
And WHY NOT put configs above $400 there, if people want a higher performing setup then 2 4850's can offer then why not put out the 4870x2, 4870 CF and GTX 260/280 SLI. There are perfectly noticable differences in capabilities with these setups then you would see with 2 4850's, if people wat to spend $500-600 on a graphics card/s then THIS is the review people want to read to determine the best option. Especially when there are many people who have spent in the $7-1000 regeon on the rest of the setup, or more!!
Come on guys, do some work, even I could have done something much more conclusive then this//
another fault, the nvidia cards doesn't support DX 10.1 as far as I know, because nvidia deems it worthless.
very very little text to each card, not very conclusive
I agree, nvidia does not support DX 10.1 on any of their cards. Something to consider when planning your purchase...
"Yes, it may be cheaper to get the two 4850s for similar performance, but isn't it rather shortsighted to recommend that approach for long-term investment?" there aint much more shortsighted than to recomend the gtx 280. Its a dead man walking waiting for its replaceent to show up. Plus it is dx10.1 which will be important some day.
anyone wanting to spend over $350 should be taking the time to read the detailed reviews themselves. there's only a few cards/configurations in that bracket and you shouldn't trust a small roundup alone when considering spending that much money anyway.
4870x2 would beat out the gtx 280 anyway in a higher segment.
Only 3-way SLI GTX 280's can churn out more performance than a 4870x2 CF rig. And the cost is SO high you may consider building 2 whole other gaming rigs for the same money.
ONLY MORONS HAVE BOUGHT INTO THE GTX 280 YUPPINESS.
A sign of either more money than brains, or ... no, just a sign of more money than brains
And again....
an article focusing on price, posted on the UK site, is priced up in Dollars rather than pounds. I can understand that it takes time and effort to do a conversion and actually look up local prices etc... but why bother having a .co.uk site if all you're ever going to do is just post exactly the same articles as the .com site???
I see 4870 with 512Mb slighty lower priced then the GF260 with 896Mb, while the 4870 with 1Gb is equally priced as the GF260.
Any recommendations for these cards?
There getting lazy, i rember this used to be the definite answer to which one to buy with your budget, ive come here to decide between 260 and 4870 and nune the wiser. i know its only there opinion but i would like to know which one they would recommend i know its down to the games atm but which one has the most potential for the future, rather than sittin on the fence and saying a draw. I ALSO STRONGLY AGREE WITH GARYRW_42, i go to uk sites to get uk prices not to know whats good to buy in amercia
COME ON CATER FOR THE UK FANBASE!!!
I remember the good old days , when ATI was king and the X1900XTX was the card to buy for my $ 600 dollars . Now I need crossfire but my mobo is sli . The 280 hampered by my system , the 260 slower than 4870 . Prices so cheap they make my head spin . I'll go with the 260 as I am sli ready . If that $ 10. scratch ticket is a winner make it two . Till its time to play Crysis 3 .