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Best PCIe Card: Budget

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: February 2012
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Best PCIe Card For ~£80:

Radeon HD 5770/6770

Good 1920x1200 performance in most games, some with lowered detail

Radeon HD 5770/6770
Codename: RV840 "Juniper"
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 800
Texture Units: 40
ROPs: 16
Memory Bus: 128-bit
Core Speed MHz: 850
Memory Speed MHz: 1200 (4800 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5.0
Max TDP:108 W

The Radeon HD 5770 (also available re-badged as the Radeon HD 6770, with the added bonus of Blu-ray 3D decode support) is an attractive £80-£85 option that outshines the similarly-priced Radeon HD 6750 and GeForce GTS 450. This card is one of our price/performance favorites. And, with Radeon HD 4870-class performance, it's an excellent starting point for the mainstream gamer.

Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 5770 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~£105:

Radeon HD 6790

Good 1920x1200 performance in most games, some with lowered detail

Radeon HD 6790
Codename: Barts LE
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 800
Texture Units: 40
ROPs: 16
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Core Speed MHz: 840
Memory Speed MHz: 1050 (4200 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5.0
Max TDP:150 W

AMD's Radeon HD 6790 delivers DirectX 11 support, multi-display connectivity via Eyefinity, and high-def (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) bitstreaming capabilities in a modestly-priced gaming card. It runs circles around the similarly-priced GeForce GTX 550 Ti. And, now that the GeForce GTX 460 768 MB is missing in action, we're giving the sole recommendation to AMD's solution. This would have been a shared honor previously.

Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 6790 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For £115:

Radeon HD 6850

Good 1920x1200 performance in most games

Radeon HD 6850
Codename: RV970 "Barts"
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 960
Texture Units: 48
ROPs: 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:127 W

With GeForce GTX 460 1 GB 256-bit prices starting at £120 and going upwards from there, the Radeon HD 6850's in the £115 price gives AMD's card a distinct advantage in any decision between the two similarly-performing parts. This card delivers a solid gaming experience given its asking price. And if you're playing at 1080p resolutions, you really can't go wrong with the Radeon HD 6850.

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

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  • 0 Hide
    tracker45 , 10 February 2012 00:02
    CCL Choice AMD Radeon HD 6770 1GB Graphics Video Card

    70 pounds

    Gigabyte DDr3 version