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Best PCIe Card: Budget

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: November 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 £100 and under, which is significantly less than the over-ambitious price AMD wanted for the card when it launched. Now it's even more affordable than Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560 SE.

Almost as powerful as the end-of-lifed Radeon HD 6850, this newer card uses only half the power to get its job done. Now that we see a price we like, the Radeon HD 7770 receives 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 hope the GeForce GTX 650 Ti will drop in price and displace it in the near future.

Best PCIe Card For £120: None

Honourable Mention:

GeForce GTX 650 Ti

Good 1920x1200 performance in most games, some with lowered detail

GeForce GTX 650 Ti
Codename: GK106
Process: 28 nm
Universal Shaders: 768
Texture Units: 64
ROPs: 16
Memory Bus: 128-bit
Core Speed MHz: 925
Memory Speed MHz: 1350 (5400 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5
Max TDP:110 W

The new GeForce GTX 650 Ti is the best £130 card out there, so why does it only get an honourable mention? Unfortunately, right now, the price of this card is a little inconsistent with most models too close to the superior Radeon HD 7850 1 GB cards.

If you're limited to £120, or if you can find a GeForce GTX 650 Ti with a big-enough rebate, this is a viable option. But gamers with a few more pounds to spend are better off shopping for Radeon HD 7850 1 GB cards.

Read our full review of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 650 Ti for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

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  • 4 Hide
    sam_p_lay , 21 November 2012 15:37
    Some pretty inconsistent/inaccurate price details here... firstly, GTX670 is not £310 as stated on the first page. You could easily find one at that price, but they've been available below £270 for a while now (check Scan).

    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?
  • 2 Hide
    sam_p_lay , 21 November 2012 15:38
    Also GTX660 is not £190 - check Scan, Novatech etc. £160.
  • 3 Hide
    MajinCry , 21 November 2012 20:26
    Also, the 6670 GDDR5 can be found for £3 more than the 6670 DDR3...Might want to include that.
  • 2 Hide
    TuffLittleUnit , 22 November 2012 04:03
    sam_p_laySome pretty inconsistent/inaccurate price details here... firstly, GTX670 is not £310 as stated on the first page. You could easily find one at that price, but they've been available below £270 for a while now (check Scan).


    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.
  • 1 Hide
    sam_p_lay , 22 November 2012 04:07
    Yeah I think Don is not putting in much effort any more... clearly no proof-reading and I wonder if he's even aware of where to get the best UK prices?
  • 0 Hide
    Anonymous , 22 November 2012 04:25
    Why oh why is the 7950 not reccomended at all, they are priced around £240 if you look hard, even £220 for the xfx models, and can overclock to 7970 performance, and outclass the 7870,
  • 0 Hide
    brianthesnail , 22 November 2012 16:32
    its like groundhog day seeing the HD6670 topping the entry level chart every month,however at the end of the day theres nothing that can touch it at this price point ..... the GT430 cant compete and nvidia have yet to release a card that can take the crown at the £50 range
    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 .....
  • 0 Hide
    sam_p_lay , 22 November 2012 16:42
    How would a GT630 compare? I believe it's a rebadged GT440. Seen them for under £45.
  • 0 Hide
    brianthesnail , 22 November 2012 23:27
    well the GT630 has the same 28gb/sec memory bandwidth and 128bit memory interface and the 800mhz core clock on the HD6670 is slightly slower than the 810mhz core clock on the GT630,and both cards have a 1800mhz memory clock ( some versions of the HD6670 have slower memory clocks )
    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 )
  • 0 Hide
    sam_p_lay , 22 November 2012 23:32
    That's nuts that the two are so close in so many ways! I'm thinking of picking one up as a testing/diagnostics/emergency backup card since my main card just died and I'm now on my backup. If this one dies too, I don't want to be forced to buy a current gen card when the new lines are only a few months away. Course if this card died within a few weeks of the GTX700 launch, I'd probably just grab a GT210 to be going on with for such a brief time :-)
  • 0 Hide
    eodeo , 1 December 2012 10:20
    Thank you for this amazingly helpful and easy to read hierarchy chart you made! Its super helpful.
  • 0 Hide
    Brett928S2 , 13 December 2012 07:11
    Hi :) 

    And NO 7990 (6gb)... he says, disappointed as hes just bought one....

    I await Decembers chart for it...hopefully...

    All the best Brett :) 
  • 0 Hide
    Anonymous , 17 December 2012 11:59
    I always seem to learn something new when I check out your blog. Thanks so much for all the info.
    Rinoplasti