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Best PCIe Card:High-end and Beyond

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: January 2013
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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

We really like AMD's Radeon HD 7970. There's really no reason to pay extra for a similar-performing GeForce GTX 680 unless its 55 W-lower thermal ceiling is necessary in your small form factor enclosure. In that case, spending more for better efficiency is something we can get behind.

You might be able to find a Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition card selling in the £350 range. If you do, that'd be a good buy too. But for the money 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 the performance difference out of a cheaper card anyway.

Read our full preview of AMD's Radeon HD 7970 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Honorable Mentions over £350:
Assorted Multi-Card Configurations

The Radeon HD 7970 delivers such impressive performance 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, two Radeon HD 7870s in CrossFire, two GeForce GTX 670s in SLI, and finally, two Radeon HD 7970s in CrossFire.

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 Nvidia's flagship. This hasn't stopped a few companies from releasing dual GPU-equipped Tahiti cards. PowerColor currently has one selling for £700, but that's more expensive than a couple of Radeon HD 7970s operating in tandem. 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
    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.