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Best PCIe Card: Budget

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: September 2012
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Best PCIe Card For ~£100: 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 roughly £100, which is significantly lower than the over-ambitious price AMD wanted for the card when it launched (it's even more affordable than 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

Armed 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 now-defunct GeForce GTX 460 192-bit card 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. This card is getting harder to find, and we expect it to be displaced by new Kepler-based options in the near future.

Best PCIe Card For £135:

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. Unfortunately, those competing boards from Nvidia were phased out not too long ago, leaving AMD's offering as our sole recommendation at this price point. It seems that the Radeon HD 6850 is also being end-of-lifed, based on the low stock we've seen recently.

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

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  • 1 Hide
    simon12 , 11 September 2012 20:58
    These prices are way off you can get a 7770 £84 7850 £132 7870 £195 7950 £228 7970 £300 all from aria
  • 0 Hide
    ryanwyvill1 , 12 September 2012 02:34
    simon12These prices are way off you can get a 7770 £84 7850 £132 7870 £195 7950 £228 7970 £300 all from aria

    Thats why there's a ~before the price.
  • 0 Hide
    aje21 , 12 September 2012 05:08
    The price gaps seem to be a bit strange: £50, ~£90, £100, £135, ~£150, ~£180. I would have expected smaller gaps at the low end, e.g. cheapest discrete card worth having, then a couple of £20 gaps, then start to look at £30 to £35 gaps. So how about a ~£70 recommendation, then £90-100, then £125-150 - that kind of thing. I never buy to an exact price.
  • 0 Hide
    theodoros theodorou , 20 November 2012 01:10
    Discrete:HD 6870 normally goes to Discrete:GTX 470