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Best PCIe Card: High-end

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: January 2012
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Best PCIe Card For ~£230: None

Honourable Mention:
2 x Radeon HD 6850 in CrossFire

Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, Good 2560x1600 performance

2 x Radeon HD 6850 in CrossFire
Codename: RV970 "Barts"
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 1920 (2 x 960)
Texture Units: 96 (2 x 48)
ROPs: 64 (2 x 32)
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Core Speed MHz: 775
Memory Speed MHz: 1000 (4000 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5.0
Max TDP:254 W (2 x 127 W)

We already know that two Radeon HD 6850s in CrossFire are fast. However, based on our recent exploration of micro-stuttering, there's a fair chance that enthusiasts sensitive to this phenomenon might not be satisfied with the way a pair of these cards behave. If you already know this doesn't affect you, then you're in the clear.

Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 6850 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~£270: Tie

GeForce GTX 570

Excellent 1920x1200 performance, Good 2560x1600 performance in most games

GeForce GTX 570
Codename: GF110
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 480
Texture Units: 60
ROPs: 40
Memory Bus: 320-bit
Core/Shader Speed MHz: 732 / 1464
Memory Speed MHz: 950 (3800 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5.0
Max TDP:219 W

The GeForce GTX 570 and Radeon HD 6970 offer exceptional performance for around the £270-mark. Both cards perform slightly slower than GeForce GTX 460 cards in SLI and Radeon HD 6850 cards in CrossFire, but they do so without the hassles associated with a multi-card rig (including power, cooling, motherboard slot spacing, and in some cases, micro-stuttering).

Read our full review of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 570 for more information on this card and its underlying architecture.

Radeon HD 6970

Excellent 1920x1200 performance, Good 2560x1600 performance in most games

Radeon HD 6970
Codename: "Cayman"
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 1536
Texture Units: 96
ROPs: 32
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Core Speed MHz: 880
Memory Speed MHz: 1375 (5500 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5.0
Max TDP:250 W

Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 6970 for more information on this card and its underlying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~£290: None

Honourable Mention:
2 x Radeon HD 6870 in CrossFire

Great 2560x1600 performance

2 x Radeon HD 6870 in CrossFire
Codename: RV970 "Barts"
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 2240 (2 x 1120)
Texture Units: 112 (2 x 56)
ROPs: 64 (2 x 32)
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Core Speed MHz: 900
Memory Speed MHz: 1100 (4200 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5.0
Max TDP:302 W (2 x 151 W)

Two Radeon HD 6870 cards in CrossFire and two GeForce GTX 560 cards in SLI are very powerful, capable combinations. Just keep in mind that, if you plan to employ resolutions above 1080p with anti-aliasing enabled, you may want to consider boards with more than 1 GB of RAM.

These solutions are demoted to honourable mention status based on Micro-Stuttering And GPU Scaling In CrossFire And SLI.

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

Honourable Mention:

2 x GeForce GTX 560 in SLI

Great 2560x1600 performance

2 x GeForce GTX 560 in SLI
Codename: GF114
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 672 (2 x 336)
Texture Units: 112 (2 x 56)
ROPs: 64 (2 x 32)
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Core/Shader Speed MHz: 810 / 1620
Memory Speed MHz: 1002 (4008 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5

320 W (2 x 160 W)

Read our full review of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560 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