Best PCIe Card: $60 To $90
Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For ~$70: Radeon HD 4670
Good 1680x1050 performance in most games
| Radeon HD 4670 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV730 |
| Process: | 55 nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 320 |
| Texture Units: | 32 |
| Raster-Operation Processors (ROPs): | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 128-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 750 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 1,000 (2,000 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
Why are we starting at the $70 Radeon HD 4670 this month instead of the $60 Radeon HD 4650? While the Radeon HD 4650 is an excellent gaming baseline, we really try hard to ensure there is a meaningful dollar amount spread between our recommendations. For a $10 difference, the 4670 is vastly superior. Its higher core clock speed and much faster DDR3 memory allow it to leave its Radeon HD 4650 sibling and GeForce 9500 GT competition far in the dust. Its closest competition is the GeForce 9600 GSO, but for $10 more, it's not worth the spread, especially with the superior GeForce 9600 GT available at $5 more.
Best PCIe Card For ~$85: GeForce 9600 GT
Good 1680x1050 performance in most games
| GeForce 9600 GT | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | G94 |
| Process: | 65 nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 64 |
| Texture Units: | 32 |
| Raster-Operation Processors (ROPs): | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 650 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 900 (1,800 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10/SM 4.0 |
A slim $15 spread gives us just enough room to recommend the GeForce 9600 GT, which offers enough performance over the Radeon HD 4670 to justify that price increase if you have it in your budget. The GeForce 9600 GT is a great performer thanks in part to its high-end 256-bit memory interface and speedy DDR3 memory. The worst thing we can say about the 9600 GT is that it's sandwiched between the ~$70 Radeon HD 4670 and the ~$100 GeForce 9800 GT cards.
you should add the 9400m. I would love to see where that falls in performance.
the 780/790 G chipsets would be good to see in this lineup...
I’d be interested to see if these price points were always the same over the years. Possible resolutions and game demands filtering down. But no real gain at any point. Today’s Fair 1920x1200 was Yesterdays Fair 800x600. You still paid $130 so you didn’t have to put up with 640x480
In short.
Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For ~$70:
Good 1680x1050 most games
Best PCIe Card For ~$85:
Good 1680x1050 most games
Best PCIe Card For ~$100 :
Good 1680x1050 most games
Fair 1920x1200
Best PCIe Card For ~$130 :
Fair 1920x1200
Best PCIe Card For ~$180 :
Great 1920x1200 most games
Best PCIe Card For ~$260 : (X2)
Great 1920x1200 most games
Fair 2560x1600
Best PCIe Card For ~$330 : (X2)
Great 1920x1200
Fair – Good 2560x1600
Best PCIe Card For ~$400: (X2)
Exceptional 1920x1200
Fair – Good 2560x1600
Best PCIe Card For ~$500:
Exceptional 1920x1200
Good 2560x1600
Huh, how can you say about two GTX260s in SLI "as with the single cards, we recommend the older core 192 versions due to the lower price" when the GTX 260 comment is "we are recommending the newer 'Core 216' version of the GeForce GTX 260, instead of the older version with 192 shader processors."
There's a decent little stat typo in your $180 recommendation. You specifically recommend the "GeForce GTX 260 (Core 216)", yet in its specifications you list "Universal Shaders: 192"
So which one are you recommending? The Core 216, or the original GTX 260?
This is also con fuddled more by the error pointed out by aje21.
Oh yeah, I should point out. I just ordered an MSI GTX 260 Core 216 through NewEgg.com a couple days ago. The Core 216 can be had for $189 before MIR (currently $30MIR = $159). So really, I think I'd be hard pressed to recommend the original GTX 260 based on price.
GTX 260 prices in general have come down recently. And with the original GTX being phased out entirely for the Core 216, I'd think the Core 216 would be the best bet for someone who intends to do SLI later on.
I'd love to see the recent IGP's (780G/790G, G35, G43/G45 etc) included in the hierarchy list. Would be usefull to assess when adding a discreet card actually starts making sense.
Thanks for the interesting article.
Mobile GPUs have a separate page accessible from the homepage, and IGPs, even NVidia's, don't need to be compared here as that isn't the point of the article.
You guys got one fact wrong, a GTX 295 is 2x 260's not 280's hence the same amount of cores per gpu and memory bandwidth.
And if CF was as good as SLI then dual 4870 1gb's would outpace the GTX 295 for $140 cheaper.
In my part of the EU prices are MUCH higher -.-
9600gt cost around 90~120euro in grece how do set at 85$ ok. 100euro it's not 85$. 85$ are less euros or the shop here are extremly expenisve
9600gt cost around 90~120euro in grece how do set at 85$ ok. 100euro it's not 85$. 85$ are less euros or the shop here are extremly expenisve
USA and Canada definately seem to enjoy cheapest graphics cards prices for the most part.