Best PCIe Card: $60 To $110
Source: Tom's Hardware UK – Keywords: radeon, geforce, graphics
Best PCIe Card: $60 To $110
Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For ~$65: Radeon HD 4670 (Check Prices)
Good 1680x1050 performance in most games
| Radeon HD 4670 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV730 |
| Process: | 55 nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 320 |
| Texture Units: | 32 |
| 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 |
Once again, we start with the $65 price point and ATI's Radeon HD 4670. The Radeon HD 4670 is vastly superior to slightly cheaper cards like the GeForce 9500 GT and Radeon HD 4650 because its complex architecture and fast DDR3 memory allow it to deliver remarkable performance at this low price. Its closest competition is the GeForce 9600 GSO, but for $10 more, we don't think it's worth the difference, especially with the superior GeForce 9600 GT at $80. The Radeon HD 4670 is also notable because it's the only card in our recommended list that doesn't require a power connector.
Best PCIe Card For ~$80: GeForce 9600 GT (Check Prices)
Good 1680x1050 performance in most games
| GeForce 9600 GT | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | G94 |
| Process: | 65 nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 64 |
| Texture Units: | 32 |
| 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. It's still a solid choice if $80 is your budgetary limit.
Best PCIe Card For ~$100: Radeon HD 4770 (Check Prices)
Good 1680x1050 performance in most games; 1920x1200 in most titles with some lowered detail
| Radeon HD 4770 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV740 |
| Process: | 40 nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 640 |
| Texture Units: | 32 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 128-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 750 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 800 GDDR5 (3,200 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
The Radeon HD 4770 arrives as the first card to wipe the ages-old GeForce 8800 GT/9800 GT from our recommended list. With enough power to challenge even the Radeon HD 4850 and GeForce GTS 250 in some titles, the Radeon HD 4770 has incredible performance for a $100 graphics card. For most gamers with a 22" or smaller monitor, this low-priced card will give them all they need.
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I currently have a Radeon 3850 512mb, anyone have any opinion on whether its worth crossfiring it up with another or going for a new card completely?
What would SLI or Crossfire do with the cards in the tier system? Push them up 1 or 2 tiers? I have 2 8800 GTX OC2's from BFG which are MUCH closer to the Ultra than they are to the vanilla GTX although they were over £100 cheaper than the Ultra (which is why I bought the first one at the time, the second cost me £100 with an accelero xtreme already bolted on 8 weeks ago). Would me setup be in tier 1, 2 or 3?
maisere from looking at the charts it would be worth spending the extra bit of cash and get either a gtx 260 or the 4870. then you could always claw back some of your cash by selling the 3850
In case anyone was unaware, overclockers.co.uk and novatech are both selling ASUS Radeon 4890's for 165 and 172 Pounds respectively after an ATI distributor offloaded a crapload at below market value! If I didn't have a gaming laptop, I would be straight in there to pick up two!
This Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart is great i use it a lot.What would be even better if a chart or table could be made comparing GPU CPU and RAM
so could find where to spend my money to get maximum performance.
As i recently replaced a 7600gt with a 4670 and used this chart as a simple guide but think my Athlon X2 BE-2350 2.1 GHz may now be a drag
so the chart i mention would be a real asset.
What do you think Don Woligroski
I wanna put my 8800gt in SLI (which would still be a formidable system), but nvidia phooked me over by changing them to 9800gt which are exactly the same card but just got a name change for marketing reasons but now won't work in SLI without flashing the 9800gt's bios and hence voiding your warranty. Im gonna buy ATI from now on I think. Atleast you don't see them changing the names of their products and making them incompatible for the craic.
good review.
Just for anyone in Australia reading this and thinking of getting 2x 4770's just bear in mind that they are sold out with the next shipment (anywhere) not expected until the 24th of June.
I've found that the price of the 4850 has come down to reflect this (between $10 and $30), and I picked up 2 of them yesterday for $189 each.
looking around the best i've found is overclockers.co.uk they are selling 4850's for around £78 which works out to be about $124 I bought one a while back but at the price they are now i'm thinking of getting another to crossfire them. should be a pretty good setup