Best PCIe Card For ~£185:
Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE)
Excellent 1920x1200 performance, Good 2560x1600 performance in most games with lowered detail
| Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | Tahiti LE |
| Process: | 28 nm |
| Unified Shaders: | 1,536 |
| Texture Units: | 96 |
| ROPs: | 32 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed/Boost MHz: | 925/975 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 1,500 (6,000 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 11.1/SM 5 |
| Max TDP: | 200 W |
Although these cards bear the Radeon HD 7870 model designation, a number of 7870s are floating around with handicapped Tahiti GPUs, rather than the Pitcairn graphics processor you'd expect. We recently took a look at this derivative's potential in Tahiti LE, Tested: PowerColor's HD7870 PCS+ Myst Edition, and are therefore confident replacing the Pitcairn-based 7870 with this card as our sole recommendation at £200.
Best PCIe Card For ~£250:
Radeon HD 7950 Boost Edition
Excellent 1920x1200 performance, Good 2560x1600 performance in most games with lowered detail
| Radeon HD 7950 Boost Edition | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | Tahiti |
| Process: | 28 nm |
| Unified Shaders: | 1,792 |
| Texture Units: | 112 |
| ROPs: | 32 |
| Memory Bus: | 384-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 850 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 1,250 (5,000 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 11.1/SM 5 |
| Max TDP: | 200 W |
As the price of Radeon HD 7950 cards with AMD's Boost technology drop closer to their reference-class predecessors, they start offering better value for somewhere between the Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) and GeForce GTX 670. The allure is that you get slightly more performance without the need to overclock manually and void your warranty coverage.
Best PCIe Card For ~£300:
GeForce GTX 670
Excellent 1920x1200 performance, Good 2560x1600 performance in most games with lowered detail
| GeForce GTX 670 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | GK104 |
| Process: | 28 nm |
| Unified Shaders: | 1,344 |
| Texture Units: | 112 |
| ROPs: | 32 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core (Boost) Speed MHz: | 915 (1,033) |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 1,502 (6,008 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 11/SM 5 |
| Max TDP: | 170 W |
The GeForce GTX 670 is a battle-hardened contender. Offering performance slightly below the Radeon HD 7970 and a lower price to match, this was one of our favorite cards right when it launched. It remains a cool, quiet, and attractive option today.
Read our full review of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 670 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.
Create a new thread in the UK Article comments forum about this subject
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0 HideBlahman11 , 19 April 2013 17:49I have seen DDR5 6670s on ebuyer for not much more than £50. It's worth stretching to the DDR5 version, the available bandwidth doubles
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0 HideHazzacanary , 21 April 2013 14:56A 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.
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0 Hidejakjawagon , 24 April 2013 19:14Missing chart on the last page.