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Best PCIe Card: Mid-range

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: April 2013
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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.   

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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.