Best PCIe Card For ~£190: 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-£200 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 just a little less than the Radeon HD 7870's, 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 ~£270: None
Two Radeon HD 7850 1 GB cards in CrossFire might have received a recommendation. However, we'd rather spend the extra to get a Radeon HD 7970 and get similar specifications, but more consistent performance and three times as much graphics memory.
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