Which graphics card under £200? New build

Generally if you might want to run 3 monitors off a card then ATI is the way to go. If you use games or programs that can take advantage of nVidia's CUDA or physX features, then nVidia has the advantage. If neither, then look to the ratings for specific games you play and look at price - including the advantage of any significant sales.

You are right to question the lesser known brands - I like to stick with the majors. You can find out more about nVidida vs. ATI/AMD, and upgrading video cards in general at:

http://www.upgradevideocards.com/

Other pages at that website cover other topics and this one addresses brands:

http://www.upgradevideocards.com/brands.html


XFX is a highly rated brand and often offers a longer guarantee than others. ASUS and Gigabyte are both good brands. I generally prefer nVidia cards and the EVGA brand.

Did you review the THG list of best cards for different budget levels:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,...

I am not familiar with prices in GB, but would be inclinded to go with a GTX 560 over the GTX 560 Ti - there is a difference. The Ti is faster but usually costs more than I feel the difference is worth. You might want to look at this THG review addressing this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-560-amp...

If you provide a link to your online shopping source, perhaps people here could help more and be more specific as prices can make a big difference with so many cards performing about the same.

sapphire flex series offer really good eyefinity performance

id consider one of these

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

good luck

Newegg is pointless as the OP is in the UK.  

oops sorry i shoulda known ......where could you get a 560Ti for 170$


bout' this instead

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Card...!+?productId=43097

A GTX560Ti is way cheaper.

i thought triple screen was a factor tho???


hmmmmm....

guess i should'a read the op

It would be useful if you did.  

Thanks for the recommendations guys.

Triple screen gaming is not a feature i'm going to use any time soon, although i might use dual monitors for other things than gaming. In terms of gaming i'll be playing 1920 x 1200 and would like to play most games on max or very high settings especially new games.

I'm still pretty torn between the 6950 2gb and a gtx 560 ti, as i see it for some games the 6950 is better and for others the 560 ti wipes the floor.

I'm leaning towards the Gigabyte 560 TI Super clocked (£203) as it seems to be close to a 570 in performance but then some users reviews like on newegg state the card has severe problems.

If i get an XFX 6950 2gb card do you think i could achieve similar levels by oc'ing it?

Thanks again

Ok i've managed to narrow it down to some select cards and at the same time i've streatched my budget to around the £250 mark   which it seems would be like purchasing a $350 ish card.

The cards i am now looking at are:

eVGA GTX 570 Superclocked £260
Palit GTX 570 Sonic Platinum £260
XFX Radeon 6970 2gb £250
Powercolor 6950 2gb PCS++ £234

From what i gather the 570's are better overclockers so in the loong run may give me better performance than an 6970...? Also the powercolor 6950 comes with the ability to unlock it to a 6970 by flicking a switch.

Not sure which one to bite the bullet on and go for.

Any thoughts?

Don't forget that you can overclock the video card yourself, it is easy to do, and you can save some money.
Be wary of labels they use = there may or may not be any difference between OC and "Superclock" - you need to check the actual speeds.
Also, I would purchase an EVGA or XFX card but personally would not go with Palit or Powercoler.
Further consider that it is a little apples to oranges comparison when you compare an OC 570 to a reference clock 6970 if you could also OC the 6970 - unless off course you have already decided you would not OC the latter yourself.

Also overclocking (either at the factory or by yourself) increases the power draw. We have not discussed PSUs up to this point. Are you sure your PSU will handle the faster and with it OC? What make and model of PSU do you have?

I think i'm going to go for an evga card, now i'm looking at the:

eVGA GTX 570 Superclocked
eVGA GTX 570 HD Superclocked

Apperently the difference is that the HD doesn't have a reference design, is slightly shorter, has a display port and blows some hot air into the case and some out of the back, whereas the non HD blows all air out of the back.

Not sure which of these would be better, i wouldn't mind overclocking myself but not anytime soon and so would prefer a pre clocked card at the moment. I'm also wondering whether the non ref HD card would have more overclocking headroom, in order to ger more performance. Any thoughts?

I ordered the psu a few days ago (850w) and it seems like a decent one, at £96 it sure it is anyway  . This is the one i went for:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129282