Best PCIe Card For ~£350:
Radeon HD 7970
Great 2560x1600 performance
| Radeon HD 7970 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | Tahiti |
| Process: | 28 nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 2048 |
| Texture Units: | 128 |
| ROPs: | 32 |
| Memory Bus: | 384-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 925 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 1375 (5500 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 11.1/SM 5 |
| Max TDP: | 250 W |
AMD's altered the Radeon HD 7970's value proposition significantly by dropping its price to around £350. Now it's only a little more expensive than the GeForce GTX 670, which isn't as fast. Also, we also don't think that paying an extra £50 or more for a GeForce GTX 680 makes much sense when its performance is similar.
You might be able to find a Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition card selling in the £350 range, and if you do, it might make a good buy. But for the pricemost GHz Edition cards are currently selling for, we'd skip them. As they stand, the Radeon HD 7970s are already pretty overclockable, meaning you can coax much of that performance from a cheaper card anyway.
Read our full preview of AMD's Radeon HD 7970 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.
Honourable Mentions over £350:
Assorted Multi-Card Configurations
The Radeon HD 7970 delivers such impressive performance at £350 that we find it hard to recommend higher-performing (but sometimes-inconsistent) multi-card configurations for more money. We'll call out some of the most promising options, though, mostly for folks with one of these cards already installed: two Radeon HD 7850 2GB cards in CrossFire, two Radeon HD 7870s in CrossFire, and finally, two Radeon HD 7970s in CrossFire.
Best PCIe Card For ~£800:
GeForce GTX 690
Excellent 2560x1600 performance
| GeForce GTX 690 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | 2 x GK104 |
| Process: | 28 nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 3072 (2 x 1536) |
| Texture Units: | 256 (2 x 128) |
| ROPs: | 64 (2 x 32) |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 915 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 1502 (6008 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 11/SM 5 |
| Max TDP: | 300 W |
Nvidia's GeForce GTX 690 is the fastest graphics card in the world. It's essentially two GeForce GTX 680 cards on a single PCB, with a slightly lower core clock and a 300 W TDP. The company sets this card's MSRP right around £800, which is two times higher than a single GeForce GTX 680. That's not a bad deal if you were planning to go with a pair of GTX 680s in SLI anyway. The card can now be found for around £800-£850 without too much trouble.
For all intents and purposes, AMD appears to have dropped plans for a dual-GPU Radeon HD 7990 to compete with this card, so it looks like Nvidia will keep the single fastest card title this generation.
Read our full review of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 690 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.
Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart -
You've got GTX 295, 480, 570, listed twice - one line after another.
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.
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 ... !