Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For £45:
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 (1600 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 £45 recommendation as our entry-level gaming card.
Best PCIe Card For ~£80:
Radeon HD 7770
Good 1920x1200 performance in most games, some with lowered detail
| Radeon HD 7770 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | Cape Verde |
| Process: | 28 nm |
| Unified Shaders: | 640 |
| Texture Units: | 40 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 128-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 1000 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 1125 |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 11.1/SM 5.0 |
| Max TDP: | 80 W |
The Radeon HD 7770 can now be found for £80, which is significantly less than the over-ambitious price AMD wanted for the card when it launched. In light of this recent price drop, the Radeon HD 7770 offers a fairly fantastic price/performance ratio. Almost as fast as the Radeon HD 6850 you can't buy any more, this newer board uses only half as much power to get its job done.
Read our full review of AMD's Radeon HD 7770 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.
Wonder when prices will come down to Earth.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=1914&subid=2294
(Really hope this doesn't get me the bannhammer)
Proposed system:
AMD X4 740 (four cores and 65 watts for only $80!)
Motherboard (is there much difference in power draw between brands?)
8GB Corsair Ballistix Memory
Samsung 840 SSD 500GB
Asus GTX650-E-2GD5 (only about 65 watts!)
Rosewell 80 plus Gold PSU
All told this system will max out at 200 watts, or so that is the estimate. Any recommendations?
Thanks,
Newbie Eric