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Best PCIe Card: Entry-level

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: July 2012
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Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For £60:

Radeon HD 6670 DDR3

Good 1680x1050 performance in most games

Radeon HD 6670 DDR3
Codename: Turks
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 480
Texture Units: 24
ROPs: 8
Memory Bus: 128-bit
Core Speed MHz: 800
Memory Speed MHz: 800 (1600 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5.0
Max TDP:66 W

We're still sad that the Radeon HD 5670 was discontinued. Although it's true that the Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 has a more capable GPU featuring a 25 MHz-faster core clock, four more texture units, and 80 additional shader cores, the 5670 wields more than two times the memory bandwidth thanks to its 1 GHz GDDR5 subsystem.

Nevertheless, without any significant competition, the Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 assumes our £60 recommendation.

Best PCIe Card For ~£80: None

The Radeon HD 5770 (also available re-badged as the Radeon HD 6770) used to be an easy recommendation at £80. But its price recently jumped in the USA, so we've decided to drop our approval of it.

Honourable Mention:
Radeon HD 7750

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

Radeon HD 7750
Codename: Cape Verde
Process: 28 nm
Universal Shaders: 512
Texture Units: 32
ROPs: 16
Memory Bus: 128-bit
Core Speed MHz: 800
Memory Speed MHz: 1125 (4500 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11.1/SM 5.0
Max TDP:55 W

At £80, AMD's Radeon HD 6770 actually outperforms the company's newer Radeon HD 7750. The only problem is that its old card uses twice as much power in the process. The Radeon HD 7750 is the fastest graphics card you can get right now that doesn't require an auxiliary power input; it draws all that it needs from a 16-lane PCIe slot.

If you're upgrading an older machine with a power supply limitation in mind, this point warrants an honourable mention.

Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 7750 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

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  • 3 Hide
    houldendub , 11 July 2012 00:24
    Why does everyone ONLY look at Newegg when looking for stock?

    Scan have a huge number of 670s, a large number of 680s and a few 690's still in stock.

    "Soooo hard to find!"
  • 0 Hide
    MajinCry , 11 July 2012 03:42
    Newegg actually has V.Good prices. Compared to the UK's stores, Newegg "pounds" 'em into the ground.
  • 0 Hide
    Andykins , 11 July 2012 06:00
    Ordered a 6770 off Novatech at weekend for £68. Still some on there selling for £70.

    UK e-tailers will have 20% VAT on, which makes them more expensive but yeah... rip-off Britain and all that.
  • -1 Hide
    ismaelf10 , 11 July 2012 22:16
    the is awesome, I recommend it to all PNY GF GTX 670, its quality and 3D performance are unique and best of all is its low cost
  • -1 Hide
    jay_nar2012 , 29 July 2012 01:18
    Has anyone tried gaming with a Nvidia Geforce 6100?
  • 0 Hide
    MajinCry , 29 July 2012 05:00
    I think me dad has one of those kicking about. I think I played the Feeble Files quite well with that card.
  • 0 Hide
    sam_p_lay , 2 August 2012 22:44
    Is it really necessary to give recommendations for so many price points? Is there really anyone out there unwilling to spend £300 on a GTX670 but happy to spend £290 on a 7950?

    Also, I've always been dubious as to the accuracy of 'great at 1920x1080' etc, due to huge variance in how demanding specific games are (say Modern Warfare vs Metro 2033) but if you're going to insist on doing it, maybe it's time to step up to resolutions beyond 2560x1600 (i.e. multi-display setups). We're now reaching 'great at 2560x1600' at at the start of the 3rd of 4 of pages. So the entire second half of the roundup!
  • 0 Hide
    Jony93 , 12 August 2012 21:42
    But what about 580,the price has lowed very hight and the video cards are very good.