Best PCIe Card: ~$90 To $190
Best PCIe Card For ~$95:
Radeon HD 4850 512MB (Check Prices)
Exceptional 1680x1050 performance in most games, 1920x1200 in most games with some lowered detail
| Radeon HD 4850 512MB | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV770 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 800 |
| Texture Units: | 40 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 625 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 993 (1,986 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
With Radeon HD 4850 512 MB prices dropping to a surprisingly low $95, this card easily takes the price/performance crown from the Radeon HD 4770 (which is still about $110 due to availability issues).
Featuring generally-better performance compared to the Radeon HD 4770 and comparable performance with the more expensive GeForce GTS 250, the pressure is on Nvidia to drop prices.
Best PCIe Card For ~$130:
Radeon HD 4870 512MB (Check Prices)
Good 1920x1200 performance in most games
| Radeon HD 4870 512MB | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV770 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 800 |
| Texture Units: | 40 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 750 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 900 (3,600 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
This is the sweet spot, folks. If someone told us the Radeon HD 4870 would be marked down to $130 four months ago, we'd have laughed in their face. Well, who is laughing now? Gamers are, with this very powerful card and its fast GDDR5 memory available at bargain-basement prices.
Best PCIe Card For ~$145:
Radeon HD 4870 1GB (Check Prices)
Good 1920x1200 performance in most games
| Radeon HD 4870 1GB | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV770 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 800 |
| Texture Units: | 40 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 750 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 900 (3,600 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
For $15 more than the 512MB version, you can have the 1GB Radeon HD 4870.
For about $20 dollars less than the GeForce GTX 260, the Radeon card offers a little more RAM and comparable performance.
My God! AMD are trouncing NVidia this month! roll on 58x0!
Also looking forward to where the mobility 4000 series sit against NVidia.
My my, how things have changed. AMD/ATI are beating NVidia where it matters most, i.e. the mainstream market.
This is big for AMD, i hope they do well
its about time
nexted year or 2 maybe they will get some decent cpu's