Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For £50:
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 £50 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 £80 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.
The 7750 (at £80) is recommended, yet at £80, the comparable GTX650 is priced too close to the 7770?
And then you have the 1GB 7850 at £140 and the 2GB model at £150, and state there's a £20 price gap between them?
The QA on the article is poor as the intro states "Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 670 is slightly cheaper at £310, putting some much-needed space between itself and the Radeon HD 7970. Now this GeForce card reclaims a full recommendation in our list" but I can't find any such recommendation.
you can still find a few GDDR5 versions of the HD6670 however you generally pay a premium for these ( around £65 to £70 ) .. however for that you could buy the HD7750 which is much superior and has around the same power requirements ....
until nvidia can release a card that can take on the HD6670 it will remain the entry level choice for budget gamers .....
however since nvidia and AMD have different methods of calculating their shader/stream processors this is were its harder to compare.. as a rule theres 3 shader processors to every one nvidia shader processor ( cuda core ) so with 96 cuda cores ( x 3 = 288 ) this in theory makes the HD6670 ( with its 480 stream processors ) the winner,but not by much
in terms of power both cards have low power usage with the HD6670 drawing a maximum of 61w at load compared to the GT630 with 65w.. and this allows both cards to run without any 6pin pci-e power connectors ( they can draw enough power from the 75w pci-express x16 bus )
so it looks like the GT630 is a worthy opponent and with physx and cuda support this may give it the edge ....
that said the HD6670 is still prefered by many budget gamers and with the guys at toms hardware recommending it every month its going to be hard to replace at the entry level
personally for the small outlay the HD7750 is the better choice with low power requirements and excellent performance .... and within 6 months it should replace the HD6670 as the entry level card of choice ( when prices drop )
And NO 7990 (6gb)... he says, disappointed as hes just bought one....
I await Decembers chart for it...hopefully...
All the best Brett
Rinoplasti