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Best PCIe Card: Budget

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: April 2013
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Best PCIe Card For ~£140
GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 1 GB

Good 1920x1200 performance in most games

GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 1 GB
Codename: GK106
Process: 28 nm
Universal Shaders: 768
Texture Units: 64
ROPs: 24
Memory Bus: 192-bit
Core Speed (Turbo) MHz: 980 (1,033)
Memory Speed MHz: 1,502 (6,008 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5
Max TDP:
140 W

With performance right on par with the Radeon HD 7850, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 1 GB delivers an incredible gaming experience for £140. In essence, this card is a GeForce GTX 650 Ti with clock rates and a 192-bit memory interface borrowed from the GeForce GTX 660. There's not much more to add, except that this card is our gaming value favorite under £150.

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

Best PCIe Card For ~£150
GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2 GB

Good 1920x1200 performance in most games

GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2 GB
Codename: GK106
Process: 28 nm
Universal Shaders: 768
Texture Units: 64
ROPs: 24
Memory Bus: 192-bit
Core Speed (Turbo) MHz: 980 (1,033)
Memory Speed MHz: 1,502 (6,008 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5
Max TDP:
140 W

There are plenty of cases where 1 GB of memory can hold back the performance of a game running at high resolutions, or with lots of eye candy turned on. For an extra £10, you can get a GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost with 2 GB instead. In most cases, you're not going to notice much of a difference. However, in a bottlenecked situation, the extra memory is going to help frame rates scale the way you'd expect, rather than falling off of a cliff.

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

Best PCIe Card For ~£170
GeForce GTX 660

Good 1920x1200 performance

GeForce GTX 660
Codename: GK106
Process: 28 nm
Universal Shaders: 960
Texture Units: 80
ROPs: 24
Memory Bus: 192-bit
Core Speed (Turbo) MHz: 980 (1,033)
Memory Speed MHz: 1,502 (6,008 effective)
DirectX/Shader Model: DX 11/SM 5
Max TDP:
140 W

Up until now, the GeForce GTX 660 was overpriced compared to the slightly-faster Radeon HD 7870. But after a considerable reduction, Nvidia's GK106-based board is one of the better values currently available.

Simultaneously, the Radeon HD 7870 goes from best-in-class to, frankly, a hard sell. Particularly with the Tahiti-based Radeon HD 7870s floating around for £200, Pitcairn-based boards just aren't as attractive.

Read our full review of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 660 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.