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Best PCIe Card: Budget

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: July 2012
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Best PCIe Card For ~£90: Tie

Radeon HD 7770

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

Radeon HD 7770
Codename: Cape Verde
Process:   28 nm
Universal Shaders: 640
Texture Units: 40
ROPs: 16
Memory Bus: 128-bit
Core Speed MHz: 1000
Memory Speed MHz: 1125 (4500 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11.1/SM 5.0
Max TDP:80 W

The Radeon HD 7770 can now be found for £90, which is significantly lower than the inflated price tag AMD suggested at launch and slightly below Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560 SE. At least as powerful as the end-of-lifed Radeon HD 6790, this newer card uses only half the power to get its job done. Now that we see a price we like, the 7770 deserves a full recommendation.

Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 7770 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

GeForce GTX 560 SE

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

GeForce GTX 560 SE
Codename: GF114
Process: 40 nm
Universal Shaders: 288
Texture Units: 48
ROPs: 24
Memory Bus: 192-bit
Core/Shader Speed MHz: 776 / 1552
Memory Speed MHz: 957 (3828 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5
Max TDP:150 W

With a crippled version of the GF114 GPU used in Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560 and GTX 560 Ti, the 560 SE delivers performance similar to the company's defunct GeForce GTX 460 192-bit cards at a lower price point. It also stands up against AMD's similarly-priced Radeon HD 7770, though the AMD board's power consumption is much more conservative.

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

Best PCIe Card For £110:

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

AMD's Radeon HD 6850 proved to be a worthy adversary against the 256-bit GeForce GTX 460 256-bit card. Unfortunately, 256-bit GeForce GTX 460 cards have been phased out, so AMD's offering gets our sole recommendation at this price point.

Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 6850 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.