Best PCIe Card: Under $75
Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For ~$50:
Radeon HD 4650 (Check Prices)
Great 1280x1024 performance in most games, 1680x1050 with lowered detail
| Radeon HD 4650 DDR3 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV730 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 320 |
| Texture Units: | 32 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 128-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 600 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 400 (800 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
When you slide in under the $50 price point, you will not find a card that packs more punch than ATI's Radeon HD 4650. With solid stock performance and an overclockable GPU, this card is an excellent starting point for our recommendations, and a wholly worthwhile upgrade if you're currently stuck using a motherboard with integrated graphics.
Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For ~$65: Tie
Radeon HD 4670 (Check Prices)
Good 1680x1050 performance in most games
| Radeon HD 4670 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV730 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 320 |
| Texture Units: | 32 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 128-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 750 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 1,000 (4,000 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
The Radeon HD 4670 continues to retain the distinction by being the most powerful reference card that doesn't require a dedicated power connector. Performance is excellent and power usage is very low, making this product an impressive performer all-around. Its accelerated clock rates and modestly-higher price tag are worth considering if you originally had your eye on the Radeon HD 4650.
GeForce 9600 GSO (Check Prices)
Good 1680x1050 performance in most games
| GeForce 9600 GSO | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | G94 |
| Process: | 65nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 48 |
| Texture Units: | 48 |
| ROPs: | 12 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core/Shader Speed MHz: | 550/1375 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 800 (1,600 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10/SM 4.0 |
This is another card that seems to be getting harder to find, in terms of availability. Nevertheless, the GeForce 9600 GSO is a powerful competitor when you compare it to the Radeon HD 4670. While the GeForce requires a dedicated PCIe power connector to supply more juice than the Radeon, it does offer better performance in some situations.
That was a while ago though and hopefully they've overcome those problems by now. Plus half the idea of the first 40nm chips being released in the mid-range was because there would be less of a rush on them if I remember correctly.
FYI - in the chart the single Radeon 4850 is down as 485, not terrible but could be irritating if people search the page for it
Can you say how many tiers sli/crossfire of a particular card might bump it up the chart? Would 2 8800 ultra's be the same as a single GTX280 or 285? For example.
$75 = £45
$80-$130 = £48-£78
$140-$200 = £84-£120
$200-$300 = £120-£180
$300-$350 = £180-£210
$360$+ = £216+
Usefull info for people using the british version of THG who dont understand american currency
You seem to have forgotten VAT at 15% on that list. UK prices tend to be pretty much $1 to £1 by the time things get here
Fantastic reviews as usual.
However....
The new 5850 was a little underrated in my opinion for the following reasons:
It easily overclocks to the within a whisker of a 5870
It is almost silent
It looks so cool
It's performance is almost double the 4870
It's idle power consumption is so negligable
It supports DX11
Where the hell has Nvidia gone??????
Tips:
Dirt (original) runs BAD on Vista with 5850 (not sure on Widows 7) but on XP its gotta be seen to be belived!!!!! Just lovely!
Turn off Autogen on Flight simulator X.....it looks beautiful!
I bought a 5850 and agree with the previous post. Low idle noise, power consumption, better power management all round than 48xx and hardware protected against overheating. Overclocked the core from 725 to 850 and memory from 1000 to 1250 without raising the voltage. ATI Tool and Crysis Warhead stable. Raising the voltage will give you even higher core clocks - is this even possible with any other card? Asus card with 3 year warranty and voltage tweak advertised on the retail box - you really should factor this into any performance comparisons.
Please can anyone tell me whats the best video card between these 2?
Video Card ATI Mobility RADEON® HD 4670 – 1GB
NVIDIA GTX 260M 1GB VRAM DDR3 Graphics Card
Another good review Don but I think your being very sympathetic to NVidia considering their availability of some of these cards is far worse than ATI.
The DX 11 factor will also become increasingly important ... pushing the current NVidia cards to the back of the heap.
How well do their cards stack up on frame rates against the new ATI cards on Win7 then?
TNX Tom's Hardware... Big Help!..
^_^
Looks like a 5850 for me then...