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Best PCIe Card: Mid-range

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: January 2012
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Best PCIe Card For ~£145: Tie

Radeon HD 6870

Great 1920x1200 performance, 2560x1600  in most games with lowered detail

Radeon HD 6870
Codename: RV970 "Barts"
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 1120
Texture Units: 56
ROPs: 32
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Core Speed MHz: 900
Memory Speed MHz: 1050 (4200 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5.0
Max TDP:151 W

Offering performance comparable to Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560, the Radeon HD 6870 is another attractive option selling for less than £150. It uses more power at idle than the GeForce GTX 560. However, under load, the AMD card is the more power bill-friendly solution.

Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 6870 for more information on this card and its accompanying architecture.

GeForce GTX 560

Great 1920x1200 performance in most games

GeForce GTX 560
Codename: GF114
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 336
Texture Units: 56
ROPs: 32
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Core/Shader Speed MHz: 810 / 1620
Memory Speed MHz: 1002 (4008 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5

160 W

The new GeForce GTX 560 is essentially a highly overclocked GeForce GTX 460, and it provides good competition for the Radeon HD 6870. Both options introduce impressive game performance that we simply haven't seen before under the £150 price point.

Read our full review of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~£180: Tie

Radeon HD 6950 1 GB

Excellent 1920x1200 performance, Good 2560x1600 performance in most games with lowered detail

Radeon HD 6950 1 GB
Codename: "Cayman"
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 1408
Texture Units: 88
ROPs: 32
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Core Speed MHz: 800
Memory Speed MHz: 1250 (5000 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5.0
Max TDP:200 W

AMD dropped half of the on-board memory from its reference Radeon HD 6950 to give us this 1 GB model, designed to compete with Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560 Ti. While the Radeon shows a slight performance edge, the GeForce can be purchased for a few pounds less, evening out the recommendation.

In addition, some models may be modified to enable all of the GPU's 1536 shader cores through a firmware update, transforming this board into an underclocked 1 GB version of AMD's Radeon HD 6970. This procedure works more consistently with the more expensive Radeon HD 6950 2 GB reference boards, though.

Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 6950 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Excellent 1920x1200 performance, Good 2560x1600 performance in most games with lowered detail

GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Codename: GF114
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 384
Texture Units: 64
ROPs: 32
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Core/Shader Speed MHz: 822 / 1644
Memory Speed MHz: 1002 (4008 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5

170 W

Read our full review of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560 Ti for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~£215: None

Honourable Mention:
Radeon HD 6950 2 GB

Excellent 1920x1200 performance, Good 2560x1600 performance in most games with lowered detail

Radeon HD 6950 2 GB
Codename: "Cayman"
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 1408
Texture Units: 88
ROPs: 32
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Core Speed MHz: 800
Memory Speed MHz: 1250 (5000 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5.0
Max TDP:200 W

The Radeon HD 6950 offers similar performance as AMD's previous-generation single-GPU flagship, the Radeon HD 5870. A pair of these cards in CrossFire are a force to be reckoned with, as the company noticeably improved scaling compared to some of its previous efforts. 

In our testing, this product shows no advantage over the cheaper 1 GB flavour of Radeon HD 6950 unless you're playing at high resolutions (where it'd likely run out of steam anyway). However, it does deserve an honourable mention because many folks have had luck modding reference-based boards into a fully-functional Radeon HD 6970s through a firmware update. If you can pull that off, the value of the 2 GB Radeon HD 6950 seems pretty clear.

Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 6950 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

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  • 0 Hide
    wildpluckings , 5 January 2012 03:02
    I use SLI GTX 560 ti and game at 2560x1440. A significant factor is that games like Battlefield 3 or Crysis 2 with the very highest texture settings will stutter under this configuration due to the GPU memory usage being maxed out (1GB per card). Usually it is only a case of reverting to the second from top texture quality setting in order to achieve extremely smooth motion and high framerates.
  • 0 Hide
    fuggles , 5 January 2012 08:02
    where can you get the 6670 for 65 pounds ??? you can't

    this article is a lie
  • -1 Hide
    mikesk , 6 January 2012 00:14
    Oh yes you cannnn.....

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-Graphics-PCI-Express-CrossFireX-Technology/dp/B004XANOCO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1325786997&sr=8-2
  • 0 Hide
    Mousemonkey , 7 January 2012 15:51
    Quote:
    where can you get the 6670 for 65 pounds ??? you can't

    this article is a lie

    http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/gpu-amd/radeon-hd6670-pci-e-%28480-cores%29
  • -1 Hide
    tulx , 8 January 2012 20:24
    fuggleswhere can you get the 6670 for 65 pounds ??? you can'tthis article is a lie


    owned
  • 0 Hide
    fuggles , 15 January 2012 20:49
    the over clocked 460 is basically a 470 which is basically a 560