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Best PCIe Card: Budget

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: January 2013
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Best PCIe Card For ~£90:

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 £90, which is significantly less than the over-ambitious price AMD wanted for the card when it launched.

Almost as powerful as the end-of-lifed Radeon HD 6850, this newer board 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.

Best PCIe Card For £120:

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

Nvidia's GeForce GTX 650 Ti is the best £120 card out there. It performs in the same league as the Radeon HD 6870 and GeForce GTX 560 at medium detail settings, but gives up some of its advantage when moderate anti-aliasing is applied due to a memory bandwidth bottleneck. Nevertheless, there is no competition in the price range able to touch it.

The GTX 650 Ti is slower than AMD's Radeon HD 7850 1 GB. However, we've seen that solution's price hit £150, giving Nvidia's more affordable option some space to make its value proposition.

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

Best PCIe Card For ~£150:

Radeon HD 7850 1 GB

Excellent 1920x1200 performance, Good 2560x1600 performance in most games with lowered detail

Radeon HD 7850
Codename: Pitcairn
Process: 28 nm
Universal Shaders: 1024
Texture Units: 64
ROPs: 32
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Core Speed MHz: 860
Memory Speed MHz: 1200 (4800 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11.1/SM 5
Max TDP:130 W

The Radeon HD 7850 1 GB is one of our price/performance favorites, so long as it's more than a few dollars cheaper than the 2 GB version. It's significantly more powerful than Nvidia's GeForce GTX 650 Ti, and you don't run into a problem with just 1 GB of graphics memory unless you push aggressive levels of anti-aliasing at high resolutions (usually above 1080p).

Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 7800 series for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

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  • 0 Hide
    MajinCry , 18 January 2013 23:20
    £56 inc Delivery: 6670 GDDR5 from dabs.com

    http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-ati-radeon-6670-hd-810mhz-1gb-pci-e-hdmi-7MMC.html?q=6670&src=16

    For an extra £, you get 10-20% better performance.

    Easy decision.
  • 0 Hide
    bemused_fred , 19 January 2013 02:29
    So buzzed for the next generation of cards. Any idea when they'll be?
  • 0 Hide
    sam_p_lay , 21 January 2013 01:12
    Quote:
    In essence, you're looking at a Radeon HD 7950 with one less compute unit and a 256-bit memory bus (cut down from 386 bits).


    You mean 384 bits.
  • 0 Hide
    kristi_metal , 28 January 2013 01:20
    If it wouldn't be for that inconsistent frame latencies, AMD would be the way to go.
  • 0 Hide
    rhx123 , 30 January 2013 17:12
    You can get a 7850 1GB for Under £130 from scan.co.uk, it beats the 650Ti for only £6 more.
  • 0 Hide
    rhx123 , 30 January 2013 17:15
    rhx123You can get a 7850 1GB for Under £130 from scan.co.uk, it beats the 650Ti for only £6 more.


    Saying that, You can get a 650ti 1GB from scan.co.uk for £105 now.