Conclusion
What about this other card that’s not on the list? How do I know if it’s a good deal or not ?
This will happen. In fact, it’s guaranteed to happen, because both stock levels and prices change quickly. So how do you know if that card you’ve got your eye on is a good buy in its price range?
Here are two resources to help you judge if a card is a good buy or not. The first is the graphics card hierarchy chart, which groups graphics cards with similar overall performance levels into tiers. The top tier contains the highest performing cards available and performance decreases as you go down the tiers from there.
You can use this hierarchy to compare the pricing between two cards, to see which one is a better deal, and also to determine if an upgrade is worthwhile. I don’t recommend upgrading your graphics card unless the replacement card is at least three tiers higher. Otherwise, the upgrade is somewhat parallel and you may not notice a worthwhile difference in performance.
At the request of readers, I have added mobile graphics and integrated chipsets to the hierarchy chart. I want to make it clear that there is very little performance data available for these graphics solutions. While the discrete video cards in the chart are placed in tiers based on a lot of information, many of the mobile and integrated devices in the chart are guesstimates based on their specifications. At worst, I don’t think they’re more than one tier away from their actual performance, but this is something to keep in mind when considering mobile graphics chipsets.
| GeForce | Radeon |
|---|---|
| GTX 295 | |
| 4870 X2 | |
| GTX 280, GTX 285 | 4850 X2 |
| 9800 GX2, GTX 260 | 4870 |
| 8800 GTX, 8800 Ultra, 9800 GTX, 9800 GTX+, GTS 250 | 3870 X2, 4850 |
| 8800 GT 512 MB, 8800 GTS 512 MB, 9800 GT | 4830 |
| 8800 GTS 640 MB, 9600 GT | HD 2900 XT, 3870 |
| 8800 GS, 9600 GSO | 3850 512 MB, Mobility 3870, 4670 |
| 8800 GT 256 MB, 8800 GTS 320 MB, GO 8800M | HD 2900 PRO, 3850 256 MB, Mobility 3850 |
| 7950 GX2 | X1950 XTX, 4650 (DDR3) |
| 7800 GTX 512, 7900 GTO, 7900 GTX | X1900 XT, X1950 XT, X1900 XTX |
| 7800 GTX, 7900 GT, 7950 GT | X1800 XT, X1900 AIW, X1900 GT, X1950 PRO, HD 2900 GT |
| 7800 GT, 7900 GS, Go 7950 GTX, 8600 GTS, 9500 GT (GDDR3) | X1800 XL, X1950 GT, Mobility X1800 XT, 4650 (DDR2) |
| 6800 Ultra, 7600 GT, 7800 GS, Go 7800 GTX, Go 7900 GTX, 8600 GT (GDDR3), 9500 GT (DDR2) | X800 XT (& PE), X850 XT (& PE), X1650 XT, X1800 GTO, Mobility X1900, HD 2600 XT, 3650 (DDR3), 3670, Mobility 3670 |
| 6800 GT, 6800 GS (PCIe), Go 7800, Go 7900 GS, 8600 GT (DDR2) | X800 XL, X800 GTO2/GTO16, Mobility X800 XT, HD 2600 PRO, Mobility HD 2600 XT, 3650 (DDR2), Mobility 3650 |
| 6800 GS (AGP), Go 6800 Ultra, Go 7600 GT, 8600M GT, 8700M GT | X800 GTO 256 MB, X800 PRO, X850 PRO, X1650 GT, Mobility HD 2600 |
| 6800, Go 6800, 7300 GT GDDR3, 7600 GS, Go 7700, 8600M GS | X800, X800 GTO 128 MB, X1600 XT, X1650 PRO, Mobility X1800 |
| 6600 GT, 6800LE, 6800 XT, 7300 GT (DDR2), Go 7600 (128-bit), 8500 GT, 9400 GT | 9800 XT, X700 PRO, X800 GT, X800 SE, Mobility X800, X1300 XT, X1600 PRO, HD 2400 XT, HD 3300, Mobility 3470, HD 4350, HD 4550 |
| FX 5900, FX 5900 Ultra, FX 5950 Ultra, 6600 (128-bit), Go 6800 (128-bit) | 9700, 9700 PRO, 9800, 9800 PRO, X700, X1300 PRO, Mobility X1450, X1550, Mobility X1600, Mobility X1700, HD 2400 PRO, Mobility HD 2400 XT, Mobility X2500, HD 3200, Mobility 3450 |
| FX 5800 Ultra, FX 5900 XT, Go 6600, Go 7600 (64-bit) | 9500 PRO, 9600 XT, Mobility 9800, 9800 PRO (128-bit), X600 XT, Mobility X700, X1050 (128-bit), Mobility X1350, Mobility X1400, Mobility X2300, Mobility HD 2400 |
| 4 Ti 4600, 4 Ti 4800, FX 5700 Ultra, 6200, 8400 GS | 9600 PRO, Mobility 9700 (128-bit), 9800 LE, X600 PRO, Mobility X600, Mobility X1300, Xpress 1250, Mobility HD 2300 |
| 4 Ti4200, 4 Ti4400, 4 Ti4800 SE, FX 5600 Ultra, FX 5700, 6600 (64-bit), 7300 GS, 8400M GS, 9300M G, 9300M GS | 9500, 9550, 9600, Mobility 9600, X300, X1050 (64-bit) |
| 3 Ti500, FX 5200 Ultra, FX 5600, FX 5700 LE, Go 5700, 6200 TC, 6600 LE, 7200 GS, 7300 LE, 8200M, 9200M GS, 9100M | 8500, 9100, 9000 PRO, 9600 LE, Mobility 9700 (64-bit), X300 SE, X1150 |
| 3, 3 Ti200, FX 5200 (128-bit), FX 5500, Go 5600, Go 6200, Go 6400, Go 7200, Go 7300, Go 7400 (64-bit) | 9000, 9200, 9250, Mobility 9600 (64-bit), Mobility X300 |
| FX 5200 (64 bit), 6100, 6150, Go 7200, Go 7400 (32-bit) | 9200 SE, Xpress 200M, Xpress 1000, Xpress 1150 |
| 2 GTS, 4 MX 440, 2 Ultra, 2 Ti, 2 Ti 200 | 7500 |
| 256, 2 MX 200, 4 MX 420, 2 MX 400 | SDR, LE, DDR, 7000, 7200 |
| Nvidia TNT | Rage 128 |
Summary
There you have it folks: the best cards for the money this month. Now all that’s left to do is to find and purchase them.
Don’t worry too much about which brand you choose, because all of the cards out there stick pretty close to Nvidia’s and AMD’s reference designs. Just pay attention to price, warranty, and the manufacturer’s reputation for honoring the warranty if something goes wrong.
Also remember that the stores don’t follow this list. Things will change over the course of the month and you’ll probably have to adapt your buying strategy to deal with fluctuating prices. Good luck!
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.