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.
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