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Best PCIe Card: High-end

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: October 2012
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Best PCIe Card For ~£200: Tie

Radeon HD 7870

Excellent 1920x1200 performance, Good 2560x1600 performance in most games with lowered detail

Radeon HD 7870
Codename: Pitcairn
Process: 28 nm
Universal Shaders: 1280
Texture Units: 80
ROPs: 32
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Core Speed MHz: 1000
Memory Speed MHz: 1200 (4800 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11.1/SM 5
Max TDP:175 W

The Radeon HD 7870 sets a new standard for what we expect from a sub-£250 GPU. With performance kissing the heels of AMD's own Radeon HD 7950 and the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, this card represents one of the best enthusiast-oriented values we've seen. A recent price drop makes it hard to recommend those more expensive cards because the extra speed they offer is relatively minor compared to what you'd need to pay for them.

Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 7800 series for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

GeForce GTX 660

Excellent 1920x1200 performance, Good 2560x1600 performance in most games with lowered detail

GeForce GTX 660
Codename: GK106
Process: 28 nm
Universal Shaders: 960
Texture Units: 80
ROPs: 24
Memory Bus: 192-bit
Core (Boost) Speed MHz: 980 (1033)
Memory Speed MHz: 1502 (6008 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5
Max TDP:
140 W

Nvidia's GeForce GTX 660 is a strong contender compared to the Radeon HD 7870. It serves up fairly similar performance as the AMD card, so long as you use reasonable levels of anti-aliasing. Because the GeForce GTX 660 usually sells for a little less than the Radeon HD 7870's street price, we're sharing the recommendation between them.

Read our full review of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 660 series for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~£280: None

Two Radeon HD 7850 1 GB cards in CrossFire might have received a recommendation. However, we'd rather spend extra to get a Radeon HD 7970 and get similar specifications, but more consistent performance and three times as much graphics memory.

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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)