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Best PCIe Card: Entry-level

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: October 2012
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Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For £55:

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 £55 recommendation.

Best PCIe Card For ~£80:

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

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 limited power supply capacity, that's an attractive point to consider.

And it's a decent performer, too, particularly in light of AMD's most recent Catalyst driver packages. The GeForce GTX 650 delivers comparable performance, but its typical £95 sticker price is too close to the higher-performing Radeon HD 7770.

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

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  • 1 Hide
    TuffLittleUnit , 23 October 2012 02:54
    Bizarre ... so according to Tom's there's no role for the GTX670? I'm no fanboy - I've happily swapped between red and green depending who has the strongest offering but this feels like a strange position to take when a GTX670 is available from Scan etc starting at £280 and the HD7970 is over £30 more (i.e. more than 10% cost and it doesn't consistently offer a proportional performance gain)
  • 1 Hide
    bemused_fred , 23 October 2012 12:53
    Seconded. The gtx 670 is still cheaper than the HD 7970 and still packs a hefty bang for its buck. Heck, if you're gaming in 1080p rather than high resolutions, it meets or beats the 7970 in all games. It's a bit confusing.
  • 1 Hide
    sam_p_lay , 23 October 2012 18:39
    Same here. I still don't think the price increase of the GTX670 over the GTX660 is worth it for the performance gain, but it's certainly the bang-for-buck model of its price range.
  • 1 Hide
    someoneelse , 24 October 2012 16:52
    Yay - my chance to be pedantic

    Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart -

    You've got GTX 295, 480, 570, listed twice - one line after another.
  • 0 Hide
    jakjawagon , 26 October 2012 05:23
    So three days later, just not going to fix the duplicate entries on the chart? We going to have to wait another month to know what's going on?
  • 0 Hide
    sam_p_lay , 26 October 2012 05:31
    jakjawagonSo three days later, just not going to fix the duplicate entries on the chart? We going to have to wait another month to know what's going on?


    I think only some of the THG authors actually read the comments on their articles. I think these 'best for the money' roundups attract a lot of criticism so maybe Don doesn't bother with the comments. If there's specific performance differences you want to know about though, just say and I'll try to help.
  • 0 Hide
    brianthesnail , 30 October 2012 23:57
    its good to see the HD7750 in the entry level charts.. with its miniscule 55w tdp and 4500mhz effective memory clock ( due to the gddr5 memory ) this is the touch of genius from AMD ... and with prices starting at £65 this should be the card of choice for end users with intergrated graphic solutions who want to experience superior performance without any psu upgrade
    allthough AMD recommends a 450w psu i would feel safe running the HD7750 with a branded 300w psu or a budget 400w ... and with no 6pin connector required older psu,s may suffice
    in terms of performance i expect this to be able to run games such as crysis 2 and far cry 2 at medium detail settings at 1680x1050 ....
    its a shame no nvidia cards are showing in the entry level range ... !
  • -1 Hide
    Deathstalker1 , 31 October 2012 03:29
    670 get's no love here ( must be an amd fan)