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Best PCIe Card: Entry-level

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: April 2013
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Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For £50:

Radeon HD 6670 DDR3

Good 1680x1050 performance in most games

Radeon HD 6670 DDR3
Codename: Turks
Process: 40 nm
Unified Shaders: 480
Texture Units: 24
ROPs: 8
Memory Bus: 128-bit
Core Speed MHz: 800
Memory Speed MHz: 800 (1,600 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5.0
Max TDP:66 W

We're still bummed that the Radeon HD 5670 was discontinued. Although it's true that the Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 has a more capable GPU featuring a 25 MHz-faster core clock, four more texture units, and 80 additional shader cores, the 5670 wields more than two times the memory bandwidth thanks to its 1 GHz GDDR5 subsystem.

Nevertheless, without any significant competition, the Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 assumes the £50 recommendation for a budget gaming card..

Best PCIe Card For ~£80:

Radeon HD 7750

Good 1920x1200 performance in most games, some with lowered detail

Radeon HD 7750
Codename: Cape Verde
Process: 28 nm
Unified Shaders: 512
Texture Units: 32
ROPs: 16
Memory Bus: 128-bit
Core Speed MHz: 800
Memory Speed MHz: 1,125 (4,500 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11.1/SM 5.0
Max TDP:55 W

The Radeon HD 7750 is the fastest graphics card you can get right now that doesn't require an auxiliary power input; it draws all that it needs from a 16-lane PCIe slot. If you're upgrading an older machine with limited power supply capacity, that's an attractive point to consider.

And it's a decent performer, too, particularly in light of AMD's most recent Catalyst driver packages.

Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 7750 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For £110:

GeForce GTX 650 Ti

Good 1920x1200 performance in most games, some with lowered detail

GeForce GTX 650 Ti
Codename: GK106
Process: 28 nm
Unified Shaders: 768
Texture Units: 64
ROPs: 16
Memory Bus: 128-bit
Core Speed MHz: 925
Memory Speed MHz: 1,350 (5,400 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5
Max TDP:110 W

Nvidia's GeForce GTX 650 Ti is the best £110 card out there, notably faster than the slightly less expensive Radeon HD 7770. It's not quite as quick as the Radeon HD 7790, but that card costs more, pitting it against the superior GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 1 GB.

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

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  • 0 Hide
    Blahman11 , 19 April 2013 17:49
    I have seen DDR5 6670s on ebuyer for not much more than £50. It's worth stretching to the DDR5 version, the available bandwidth doubles
  • 0 Hide
    Hazzacanary , 21 April 2013 14:56
    A 7750 for £80? I'm pretty sure you can get the 7770 for £80-£90 on numerous websties, making it much more competitive. Also, some special offers on the 7790 get it down to £110-£120, making it stiffer competition for the 650 ti surely (unless you also point out that the 650 ti can be had for around £100 now anyway)? Where were the quoted prices from, as they all seem slightly high.
  • 0 Hide
    jakjawagon , 24 April 2013 19:14
    Missing chart on the last page.