Best PCIe Card: ~$360 And Up
Best PCIe Card For ~$380:
Two Radeon HD 4890 cards in CrossFire Configuration (Check Prices)
Good 2560x1600 performance in most games
| 2 x Radeon HD 4890 in CrossFire Configuration | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | 2 x RV770 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 1,600 (2 x 800) |
| Texture Units: | 80 (2 x 40) |
| ROPs: | 32 (2 x 16) |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 850 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 975 (3,900 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
Two Radeon HD 4890 cards should, on average, perform on par or better than a single GeForce GTX 295. Plus, the Radeons cost less. If you have a CrossFire-compatible motherboard and want some serious performance at high resolutions, this route is the way to go.
Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 4890 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.
Best PCIe Card For ~$390: None
Honorable Mention: Radeon HD 5870 (Check Prices)
Good 2560x1600 performance in most games
| Radeon HD 5870 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | Cypress |
| Process: | 40nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 1,600 |
| Texture Units: | 80 |
| ROPs: | 32 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 850 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 1,200 (4,800 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 11/SM 5.0 |
For $10 less, a couple Radeon HD 4890's will easily beat a single Radeon HD 5870. From a raw price/performance standpoint, this makes the Radeon HD 5870 a hard sell. But that is not to say this card is underpowered: it sports the fastest single GPU on the planet, relatively low power usage (remarkably low at idle), and DirectX 11 support. For folks without a motherboard that supports CrossFire and a hefty power supply, the new Radeon HD 5870 is definitely a more-than-viable option.
Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 5870 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.
Best PCIe Card For ~$465: None
Honorable Mention: GeForce GTX 295 (Check Prices)
Good 2560x1600 performance in most games
| GeForce GTX 295 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | 2 x GT200b |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 480 (2 x 240) |
| Texture Units: | 160 (2 x 80) |
| ROPs: | 56 (2 x 28) |
| Memory Bus: | 448-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 576 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 999 (1,998 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10/SM 4.0 |
Despite ATI's new Radeon HD 5800-series, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295 (with SLI-on-a-board) is the most powerful single graphics card on the planet. Essentially two conjoined GeForce GTX 275s, the GeForce GTX 295 offers very notable gains over the Radeon HD 5870 in the great majority of game titles, although the Radeon will use far less power doing so.
To get more performance than what Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295 brings to the table, you'd have to look at more expensive solutions costing over $500, say a couple of Radeon HD 5850s in CrossFire. But unless you have a 30" monitor, that would be a gratuitous waste of cash considering the small performance gains you'd get for spending a whole lot more money.
Read our full review of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.
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...