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Best PCIe Card: High-end and Beyond

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: December 2012
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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

The Radeon HD 7970's value proposition at up to £350 is substantial. We don't think that paying an extra £40 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 £300 range, and if you do, it might make a good buy. But for the price most 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 £260:
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 2 GB cards in CrossFire for £260, two Radeon HD 7870s in CrossFire for £370, and finally, two Radeon HD 7970s in CrossFire for £700.

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 one of the fastest graphics card in the world. It's essentially two GeForce GTX 680s 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 used to be two times higher than a single GeForce GTX 680, but is now a little pricier. Still, that's not a bad deal if you were planning to go with a pair of GTX 680s in SLI anyway. Although it used to suffer from availability issues, the card can be found for its £800 launch price without much trouble.

For all intents and purposes, AMD appears to have dropped plans for an official dual-GPU Radeon HD 7990 to compete with this card. This hasn't stopped a few companies from releasing dual GPU-equipped Tahiti cards, but these have proven to be practically impossible to find at retail. 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.

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  • 0 Hide
    sam_p_lay , 18 December 2012 04:25
    GTX680s have been available at £370 (and less) for months... are you getting these prices from Amazon or something?
  • 0 Hide
    sam_p_lay , 18 December 2012 04:28
    Also GTX670s have been at £270 for months, not £310... and you say it's £140 for a 2GB 7850, or £260 for two. Is that like a bulk-buy discount?
  • 0 Hide
    Brett928S2 , 18 December 2012 07:09
    Hi :) 

    Umm WHO is this reviewer ??

    7990`s are available from MANY retailers....

    I just bought one for my own gaming machine and my shops have just started stocking them to order....

    And...it BEATS the 690.....

    Please at least TRY and stay up to date....:( 

    Toms Hardware for me and many others is read because of its reviews of up to date hardware, this is now becoming a bit of a joke....

    All the best Brett :) 
  • 1 Hide
    bemused_fred , 18 December 2012 14:40
    Brett928S2Hi Umm WHO is this reviewer ??7990`s are available from MANY retailers....I just bought one for my own gaming machine and my shops have just started stocking them to order....And...it BEATS the 690.....Please at least TRY and stay up to date....Toms Hardware for me and many others is read because of its reviews of up to date hardware, this is now becoming a bit of a joke.... All the best Brett


    Did you see Tom's hardware's review of the 7990? While it does brute-force wins against the 690 in terms of performance, its power consumption and noise are both so high that the 690 is really the better option. Not to mention that there are only 2 vendors for the 7990 as opposed to about 10 for the 690.

    http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-hd-7990-devil13-7970-x2,review-32563.html
  • 0 Hide
    Brett928S2 , 18 December 2012 16:44
    Quote:
    Did you see Tom's hardware's review of the 7990? While it does brute-force wins against the 690 in terms of performance, its power consumption and noise are both so high that the 690 is really the better option. Not to mention that there are only 2 vendors for the 7990 as opposed to about 10 for the 690.

    http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-hd-7990-devil13-7970-x2,review-32563.html


    Hi :) 

    Yes I have seen and read it, but the monthly reviewer obviously missed it :( 

    All the best Brett :) 
  • 1 Hide
    Ceee9 , 18 December 2012 20:49
    Typo on high end gpu, gtx 670 on title, gtx 660 on the columm
  • 0 Hide
    gandyhehe , 18 December 2012 22:36
    id like to know y toms hardware doesnt seem to know u can get a 6670 with gdd5, they have been on ebuyer for ages, they alwasy moan about the ddr3 on the 6670 when its fairly common place to get gdd5
  • 0 Hide
    Brett928S2 , 19 December 2012 00:21
    Quote:
    id like to know y toms hardware doesnt seem to know u can get a 6670 with gdd5, they have been on ebuyer for ages, they alwasy moan about the ddr3 on the 6670 when its fairly common place to get gdd5


    Hi :) 

    Yes the reviewer seems to be a little out of date...lol :) 

    All the best Brett :) 
  • 0 Hide
    brianthesnail , 20 December 2012 22:27
    when will the HD6670 be toppled from the entry level card of choice ... personally i thinks its hampered by the gddr3 downgrade compared to the gddr5 version of the card ( the HD5670 was and still is hard to beat when you can find one )
    the GT640 is nvidia,s only offering at this price range and can keep up with the HD6670 across most titles ... but will there be a HD7670.... and will it come with gddr3 memory or gddr5 .. if its the latter then it shall replace the HD6670 without a doubt.. infact even a gddr3 version would probally replace the HD6670 since thats whats currently at the top of the entry level charts
    note for anyone after gddr5 versions of the HD5670 and HD6670.. check out ... HD5670 ( http://www.videocardshop.co.uk/viewproduct.aspx?part=HD-567X-ZNH4&from=http%3a%2f%2fwww.videocardshop.co.uk%2fsearch.aspx%3fsub%3dRadeon%2bHD5000%2bSeries ) and HD6670 ( http://www.videocardshop.co.uk/viewproduct.aspx?part=HD-667X-ZQFC&from=http%3a%2f%2fwww.videocardshop.co.uk%2fsearch.aspx%3fsub%3dRadeon%2bHD6000%2bSeries ) ..
  • -1 Hide
    mrbeanladen , 21 December 2012 07:23
    bemused_fredDid you see Tom's hardware's review of the 7990? While it does brute-force wins against the 690 in terms of performance, its power consumption and noise are both so high that the 690 is really the better option. Not to mention that there are only 2 vendors for the 7990 as opposed to about 10 for the 690.http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/rade [...] 32563.html

    if you give a crap about a few couple of watts more THEN YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T CONSIDER BUYING A GODDAMN 1000 DOLLAR GPU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • -1 Hide
    Brett928S2 , 21 December 2012 07:34
    Quote:
    if you give a crap about a few couple of watts more THEN YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T CONSIDER BUYING A GODDAMN 1000 DOLLAR GPU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



    Hi :) 

    Very true lol...

    Same reason I don't worry about 10-12 mpg in my Porsche...

    The 7990 is not loud normally , but does get louder while gaming, but not unpleasantly so...

    All the best Brett :) 
  • 0 Hide
    bemused_fred , 21 December 2012 14:57
    mrbeanladenif you give a crap about a few couple of watts more THEN YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T CONSIDER BUYING A GODDAMN 1000 DOLLAR GPU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


    I personally don't consider paying $1000 for a card only to get coil whine and 50+ Db load noise acceptable.
  • 0 Hide
    Brett928S2 , 22 December 2012 01:26
    Quote:
    I personally don't consider paying $1000 for a card only to get coil whine and 50+ Db load noise acceptable.



    Hi :) 

    There is no coil whine and its nowhere near 50 db...

    All the best Brett :) 
  • 0 Hide
    bemused_fred , 22 December 2012 04:23
    Quote:
    Hi :) 

    There is no coil whine and its nowhere near 50 db...

    All the best Brett :) 


    Check the revieiw.
  • 0 Hide
    Brett928S2 , 22 December 2012 05:09
    Quote:
    Check the revieiw.



    Hi :) 

    I HAVE A 7990 !!!

    I repeat there is no coil whine and its nowhere near 50db.... their test was probably done on a test bench...

    Mine is in a Lian-Li case on a carpet.... its NOT any noisier than my previous 5870`s ...

    All the best Brett :) 
  • 0 Hide
    bemused_fred , 22 December 2012 15:37
    Quote:
    Hi :) 

    I HAVE A 7990 !!!

    I repeat there is no coil whine and its nowhere near 50db.... their test was probably done on a test bench...

    Mine is in a Lian-Li case on a carpet.... its NOT any noisier than my previous 5870`s ...

    All the best Brett :) 


    Fair dos.

    I'm still not thrilled about its efficiency though.
  • 0 Hide
    Anonymous , 21 January 2013 20:37
    Is it worth picking up a 7870 or would it be much better to wait until the amd 8800 series comes out?