Tom's Graphics Card Guide: 32 Mid-Range Cards Benchmarked
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Graphics Cards
Last response: in Reviews comments
Anonymous
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Graphics card
July 20, 2011 4:00:03 AM
There are numerous graphics cards in the range between $100 and $250, but which of them delivers the best bang for your buck? Which is the most efficient or least noisy product related to its performance? We set out to find the best graphics cards on the
Tom's Graphics Card Guide: 32 Mid-Range Cards Benchmarked : Read more
Tom's Graphics Card Guide: 32 Mid-Range Cards Benchmarked : Read more
More about : tom graphics card guide mid range cards benchmarked
yukijin
July 20, 2011 4:17:29 AM
Inf3rn0_44
July 20, 2011 4:19:53 AM
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KrazerSK
July 20, 2011 5:02:42 AM
whysobluepandabear
July 20, 2011 5:14:35 AM
dco
July 20, 2011 5:14:42 AM
SteelCity1981
July 20, 2011 5:23:17 AM
Yup, considering its performance, the GTX550Ti should have replaced the GTS450 price point, which was $110. Since the GTX550Ti was included here, I would have liked to see where the cheaper HD5770/6770 would have placed, probably higher than the GTX550Ti.
Also, can you guys do a story on how some classic cards match up to modern games? Stuff like 8800GTX's and 2900XT's which used to cost an arm and leg back in the day. Would be cool to see how the fare today.
Also, can you guys do a story on how some classic cards match up to modern games? Stuff like 8800GTX's and 2900XT's which used to cost an arm and leg back in the day. Would be cool to see how the fare today.
Score
8
fictionforthetame
July 20, 2011 5:33:18 AM
Lobodomy
July 20, 2011 5:53:52 AM
scrumworks
July 20, 2011 5:54:59 AM
Score
14
scrumworks
July 20, 2011 6:06:02 AM
Anonymous
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U
Graphics card
July 20, 2011 6:08:25 AM
Anonymous
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b
U
Graphics card
July 20, 2011 6:11:46 AM
TommyV
July 20, 2011 6:21:58 AM
atawhai007
July 20, 2011 6:33:16 AM
haplo602
July 20, 2011 6:33:18 AM
johnnyb_27
July 20, 2011 6:53:47 AM
The_King
July 20, 2011 7:06:40 AM
Not that I am a Gigabyte fan-boy but other sites show the Gigabyte Windforce idles at 29-35 and load 60-66.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/07/11/gigabyte_gtx_...
http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-gtx-560-ti-soc-r...
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/07/11/gigabyte_gtx_...
http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-gtx-560-ti-soc-r...
Score
5
joshyboy82
July 20, 2011 7:08:14 AM
mayzie
July 20, 2011 7:37:03 AM
Seems to be a lot of unhappy ATI users reading this but I don't know why. Look at best graphics cards for the money and ATI really dominates in a lot of categories.
Bottom line I got from this article is how oversaturated the market is with choice.
Use the car analogy, there are a lot of different mid priced cars and they all do a job but some are more comfortable, some more reliable, some quicker and some have more bells and whistles. Which is best comes down to what you want and maybe you just want that Ferrari that will kill them all but costs a packet.
Bottom line I got from this article is how oversaturated the market is with choice.
Use the car analogy, there are a lot of different mid priced cars and they all do a job but some are more comfortable, some more reliable, some quicker and some have more bells and whistles. Which is best comes down to what you want and maybe you just want that Ferrari that will kill them all but costs a packet.
Score
-5
flong
July 20, 2011 7:57:35 AM
yukijinThis confirms that the 560 ti belongs in TH best graphics cards for the money ( they werent recommomended the past 2 months)
The preamble of the review does not explain itself well. The 560 Ti card in this review are overclocked with custom coolers. The 6950 cards are stock reference cards. This gives the 560 Ti a false appearance of superiority.
If overclocked 6950s with custom cooling were included, they would have topped the charts.
I understand that this is a mid-level card review and I understand that the 6950 stock card was included as a reference. I don't understand that the 560 Tis listed in this review are probably about the same price as the overclocked 6950s which were not included int he reviews.
I think it is a very good review, I just think they didn't explain their criteria very well.
Score
8
dco said:
In every benchmark its the souped up overclocked versions of the GTX 560 Ti that are on top. The standard Geforce GTX 560 Ti is still getting beaten by the standard Radeon 6950
What he said !!
But when a casual gamer searches google and finds this article he will say, wow, nvidia has faster cards. 560ti is the one i will buy. So who make's money?
Score
12
flong
July 20, 2011 8:49:45 AM
ionut19 said:
What he said !! But when a casual gamer searches google and finds this article he will say, wow, nvidia has faster cards. 560ti is the one i will buy. So who make's money?
No one at Tom's is pushing GTX over AMD - just read the forums. In this review, they do not consider the 6950 to be a "mid-range" card and therefore only the "stock" version is included for reference. The reviewer's only fault was not explaining this better. Also it is questionable that the cost of the 560 Ti is not comparable to the 6950.
That being said it is a very informative review with a lot of good information. You have to carefully understand what they are shooting for - a review of "mid-level" video cards (not high-end). They are considering the 6950 to be high-end.
Score
-10
Rizlla
July 20, 2011 8:53:43 AM
Come on TOM's this is not a good review at all. A couple years back when I was in the market for a new Grafix card I look at you reviews and the GTS 250 came out to be the best choice and that was a fair review between Nvidia and ATI, but now I am in the market again and this review does not help me at all. Please fix this asap.
Score
12
jchambers2586
July 20, 2011 9:04:46 AM
scrumworksGeforces dominate benchmarks because we have used 10 variants of overclocked 560Ti cards against stock clocked few Radeons (6950) here and there. And also, we don't show which drivers and control panel settings we have used because that would reveal our trickery. Why is Tom always hating AMD/ATI?
Scrum,
The cards that were tested are what our German office has available to them. They don't get NV-based reference cards because Nvidia's Euro group apparently won't sample them. As a result, all of the cards are aftermarket/overclocked boards. AMD, on the other hand, is must better about this.
Now, if you actually read the story, and you actually get to the Efficiency charts, you'll see how poorly the 560 Ti really fares compared to the AMD cards. The power consumption is pretty ridiculous, overall.
So, yes, there are overclocked retail boards here. However, their attractive performance is still tarnished by the pricing and power usage data that we also include here.
Best,
Chris
Score
-7
hardcore_gamer
July 20, 2011 10:13:56 AM
cangeliniScrum,The cards that were tested are what our German office has available to them. They don't get NV-based reference cards because Nvidia's Euro group apparently won't sample them. As a result, all of the cards are aftermarket/overclocked boards. AMD, on the other hand, is must better about this.Now, if you actually read the story, and you actually get to the Efficiency charts, you'll see how poorly the 560 Ti really fares compared to the AMD cards. The power consumption is pretty ridiculous, overall.So, yes, there are overclocked retail boards here. However, their attractive performance is still tarnished by the pricing and power usage data that we also include here.Best,Chris
Why there is no performance/price chart ?
Score
14
AppleBlowsDonkeyBalls
July 20, 2011 12:19:22 PM
About the only mid-range graphics cards you tested here are the Radeon HD 6790 and the GTX 550 Ti. You're reviewers, you should know this. Anything from the Radeon HD 6850 and up and the GTX 560 and up is in the Performance market (6850, 6870, 560, 560 Ti) or the Enthusiast market (6950). There's no "Gamers" category, only Performance and Enthusiast.
Disregarding that, good and informative article.
Disregarding that, good and informative article.
Score
2
DSpider
July 20, 2011 12:37:00 PM
hardcore_gamerWhy there is no performance/price chart ?
I think it would be useless... Prices change pretty much all the time based on the exchange rate. What is now a 30 euro gap, tomorrow may be 15 or it may be 40. Especially the more expensive the card is, the more variance in the price gap will be.
Plus, I find performance per watt is much more interesting.
Score
-5
Zeh
July 20, 2011 12:47:29 PM
adamcom25334
July 20, 2011 1:20:21 PM
fr8mvr
July 20, 2011 1:40:30 PM
When I saw the first benchmark show with those non-reference GTX50 Ti, I stop reading it as I can tell this review is going to be nonsense. And I was right! THG used to be a good site where I come here to read on items I would like to buy. Now it's a bunch of kissing asses just to make the manufacture happy.
Overall it's a bunch of bullshit. No seriously it really is as the stock GTX 560Ti never made it to the recommended charts. A uneducated person will follow your advice, get a standard GTX 560Ti and wonder why the f*ck the card they buy does not perform like they're suppose to.
Overall it's a bunch of bullshit. No seriously it really is as the stock GTX 560Ti never made it to the recommended charts. A uneducated person will follow your advice, get a standard GTX 560Ti and wonder why the f*ck the card they buy does not perform like they're suppose to.
Score
2
DSpider
July 20, 2011 1:56:08 PM
nameon
July 20, 2011 1:58:47 PM
Those b@$t@rd$ at nVidia keep becoming bigger and bigger fat peaces of meat from selling their card becoz of cr@p reviews like this one.
They probably paid this guy or He's one old,ugly nV fanboy.
realisticly how can you only put 2 refernce hd 6950 boards gainst
5 non-refernce , overclocked gtx 560 ti's!!!
Tom's should fire you,!!
They probably paid this guy or He's one old,ugly nV fanboy.
realisticly how can you only put 2 refernce hd 6950 boards gainst
5 non-refernce , overclocked gtx 560 ti's!!!
Tom's should fire you,!!
Score
3
johnners2981
July 20, 2011 2:28:13 PM
I have to agree that this is a pretty biased review, for a mid-ranged review why is there no price/performance chart. Surely the reason why someone buys mid-ranged cards is for the best price/performance.
Also why only include reference 6950 seeing as the aftermarket 6950 are around the same price.
Shame on you Igor
Also why only include reference 6950 seeing as the aftermarket 6950 are around the same price.
Shame on you Igor
Score
12
kingius
July 20, 2011 2:57:10 PM
If they'd have overclocked the ATI cards then they would have topped the charts; AMD owns ATI and so Toms doesn't do that. Instead, we get overclocked nVidia cards (and likely unstable after hours of gaming) at the top of most of the charts, actually losing to the stock 6950 in some of the benchmarks, and an artificial result that makes nVidia look good, when really, the truth of it is that they have to be overclocked to compete!
Score
4
dstln
July 20, 2011 3:01:58 PM
This is an informative article if you actually read the content
But yes, I agree that it could be done a bit better. For the price of the frozr hawk 560 ti, you could easily find various overclocked 6950 versions which would be right up there in competing, at least in the US market. A price comparison could be nice too but again, prices change daily and even a $5 difference could be huge. I would more welcome overclocking results.
But in my view, the main thing to get out of this is that the twin frozr cards are excellent in general if you can pay the premium, with smart engineering that actually works. If they had a bit more robust warranties, it would be a no-brainer.
But yes, I agree that it could be done a bit better. For the price of the frozr hawk 560 ti, you could easily find various overclocked 6950 versions which would be right up there in competing, at least in the US market. A price comparison could be nice too but again, prices change daily and even a $5 difference could be huge. I would more welcome overclocking results.
But in my view, the main thing to get out of this is that the twin frozr cards are excellent in general if you can pay the premium, with smart engineering that actually works. If they had a bit more robust warranties, it would be a no-brainer.
Score
4
flong
July 20, 2011 3:14:11 PM
Not all of the MSI twin Frozr cards are good. There are several versions for the 6950 and for the 560 Ti and you have check the reviews of the various versions to find the better cards. Some of the different variants of the Frozr are not that great and some of the Frozr cards are ridiculously expensive.
For example, one Frozr 6950 costs nearly as much as a 6970. Now as good as the 6950 is, the 6970 still kicks its ass.
For example, one Frozr 6950 costs nearly as much as a 6970. Now as good as the 6950 is, the 6970 still kicks its ass.
Score
-1
It will take me some time to digest all of this, and figure out where the various data is most relevant. I don't think I could choose a card based on this article alone, but I could rule out the HD6790 and GTX550Ti as general disappointments.
I would like to have seen the 1GB GTX460 included, as it is still available, and is a solid mid-range card. At the lower end, I also always welcome more data on cards like the HD6670 and HD6770.
I would like to have seen the 1GB GTX460 included, as it is still available, and is a solid mid-range card. At the lower end, I also always welcome more data on cards like the HD6670 and HD6770.
Score
1
Also, I'd like to see at least two more resolution/settings combinations tested, as I believe they'd be common: 720p at the highest possible settings (for those wishing to play games on their HDTVs), and 1920x1080 with "Gamer" settings (for those with larg[er] monitors, possible for work, who also want to play games and are willing to lower their settings.
Score
1
caamsa
July 20, 2011 5:10:35 PM
Chris please tell me the point of a video card review like this. You have chosen a very narrow scope of cards....I have always said that you all need to show a better range of cards and include previous generation cards for comparison. To me this is an ok review but not really that great. You all can do better.
Score
4
jurassic512
July 20, 2011 5:22:52 PM
wow this site is very bias. I thought it was a rumor but its true.
32 cards tested and no overclocked/unlocked 6950's? Also, what drivers did you use, because I did not see them on the setup page. WTF?
Did you guys see the "Radeon HD 6970 OC." wtf is that about?! Reference overclocked??
Bye Tom's, you are free from my bookmark bar. Just can't trust you anymore.
32 cards tested and no overclocked/unlocked 6950's? Also, what drivers did you use, because I did not see them on the setup page. WTF?
Did you guys see the "Radeon HD 6970 OC." wtf is that about?! Reference overclocked??
Bye Tom's, you are free from my bookmark bar. Just can't trust you anymore.
Score
1
jurassic512
July 20, 2011 5:25:05 PM
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