Best PCIe Card: $400 And Up
Best PCIe Card For ~$400: Tie
Two Radeon HD 4890 cards in CrossFire Configuration (Check Prices)
Good 2560x1600 performance in most games
| 2 x Radeon HD 4890 in CrossFire Configuration | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | 2 x RV770 |
| Process: | 55 nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 1,600 (2 x 800) |
| Texture Units: | 80 (2 x 40) |
| ROPs: | 32 (2 x 16) |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 850 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 975 (3,900 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
Two Radeon HD 4890 cards should, on average, perform on par or better than a single GeForce GTX 295, and the Radeons cost less. If you have a CrossFire motherboard and want some serious performance at high resolutions, this is the way to go.
Two GeForce GTX 275 cards in SLI Configuration (Check Prices)
Good 2560x1600 performance in most games
| 2 x GeForce GTX 275 in SLI Configuration | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | GT200b |
| Process: | 55 nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 480 (2 x 240) |
| Texture Units: | 160 (2 x 80) |
| ROPs: | 56 (2 x 28) |
| Memory Bus: | 448-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 633 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 1,134 (2,268 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10/SM 4.0 |
It's funny that we're recommending two GeForce GTX 275 cards in SLI over a single GeForce GTX 295, when you consider that each GeForce GTX 275 is essentially half of a GeForce GTX 295. Saving the $100 compared to the GeForce GTX 295 doesn't result in a performance penalty, though. If anything, a pair of GeForce GTX 275s will display a slight performance edge due to their faster clock speeds.
Best PCIe Card For ~$500: None
Honorable Mention: GeForce GTX 295 (Check Prices)
Good 2560x1600 performance in most games
| GeForce GTX 295 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | 2 x GT200b |
| Process: | 55 nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 480 (2 x 240) |
| Texture Units: | 160 (2 x 80) |
| ROPs: | 56 (2 x 28) |
| Memory Bus: | 448-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 576 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 999 (1,998 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10/SM 4.0 |
Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295 with SLI-on-a-card is the most powerful single graphics card on the planet. Essentially two conjoined GeForce GTX 275 cards, the GeForce GTX 295 offers very notable gains over the Radeon HD 4870 X2 in the great majority of game titles. Even more impressive is that it does so while consuming less power than ATI's flagship card (no small feat).
To get more performance than what Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295 brings to the table, you'd have to look at extreme solutions such as multiple GeForce GTX 285s in SLI or Radeon HD 4870 X2s in CrossFire. But unless you have a 30" monitor, that would be a gratuitous waste of cash considering the small performance gains you'd get for spending a whole lot more money.
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Bunch of old cards bumped down to lower price brackets.
Bring on the new cards, ATI & Nvidia!
the review states the HD 4870 X2 has exceptional 1920x1200 but 2 HD 4890's in crossfire only have good 1920x1200?? if this is true why would anyone pay more for less?
Nothing new. Almost the same as the previous article last month. I hope it would differ next month with the intro of dx11 cards.
For me, AMD's discontinuing Linux support for cards as recent as 1 year old as being "antiquated" has caused me to lose all respect for them. After all, you can't just upgrade a laptop card, if you could, I would. But since not, I'm sorry, I have lost all confidence in them. After all, you could buy a card from them now, and have them cease support for it in a mere year. They screwed us once, what is supposed to make me believe they may not do it again, with my x1700?
For me, AMD's discontinuing Linux support for cards as recent as 1 year old as being "antiquated" has caused me to lose all respect for them. After all, you can't just upgrade a laptop card, if you could, I would. But since not, I'm sorry, I have lost all confidence in them. After all, you could buy a card from them now, and have them cease support for it in a mere year. They screwed us once, what is supposed to make me believe they may not do it again, with my x1700?
LoL, you sir are an idiot! You don't need the latest drivers for your card to work! Even if they would support your card they won't bring any performance gains after a year. Drivers are generally focused to fix and improve performance on new models with no effect on the old ones.
So stop crying like a baby and use the drivers that worked best for you. Be informed next time you start to state such childish whines and stay on topic!
About the article, indeed pretty much the same thing as last month with some price drops. It has been stated on Tom's that ATI would launch its new generation on Sept 11th. No mention of that in the article?
Anyone knows when Nvidia is going to announce their cards to counter ATI's launch in near future?
OT: I have been hanging around this site for the last few days, trying to get some info to make various hardware decisions. I've read a lot of articles, and a lot of comments, and find the comments to be of at least as much value as the articles. I just figured out, though, why some comments are in the barely-readable light gray color: they are anonymous.
Grow the f*** up, Tom's sitemasters/designers/administration! Just because someone doesn't want to waste time signing up for your data-mining/brand-building operation just to say some pithy words about a subject doesn't mean you should treat their opinions as second-class. (And when you understand that, your site will be that much closer to serving users' interests as effectively as possible, instead of serving your own at users' expense.)
Say what you will about the relative merits of anon vs. registered comments. All I know is that I just figured out the root cause of something that has been annoying the s*** out of me for the last several days, and it's YOU and you're doing it ON PURPOSE! Not cool.
LoL, you sir are an idiot! You don't need the latest drivers for your card to work! Even if they would support your card they won't bring any performance gains after a year. Drivers are generally focused to fix and improve performance on new models with no effect on the old ones. So stop crying like a baby and use the drivers that worked best for you. Be informed next time you start to state such childish whines and stay on topic! About the article, indeed pretty much the same thing as last month with some price drops. It has been stated on Tom's that ATI would launch its new generation on Sept 11th. No mention of that in the article?
way to shoot yourself in the foot ... using old ati linux drivers means you are stuck with old linux kernels and old X versions. the OSS drivers do realy not provide enough 3D support to be viable for other than X compositing.
next time try to learn a bit about linux before commenting ...
HD 4870.. best buy, hands down. But, that said, I would wait if you were buying, at least until the next gen DX11 cards come out.
OT... Toms.. Please, oh please, get rid of that God forsaken Gate.com ad. That thing is the most annoying ad I have yet to come across on this site, it drops down into every article and page I'm trying to read.. gets old real quick.
I can't believe the prices some of these cards have dropped to. 4870 1GB for $150?? Was $300 not too long ago.
We've been waiting for new cards from Nvidia and ATI for ages......
HD 4870.. best buy, hands down. But, that said, I would wait if you were buying, at least until the next gen DX11 cards come out.OT... Toms.. Please, oh please, get rid of that God forsaken Gate.com ad. That thing is the most annoying ad I have yet to come across on this site, it drops down into every article and page I'm trying to read.. gets old real quick.
Firefox + Adblock Plus add-on would solve your problem.
Having recently purchased 3 video cards for different systems (4670, 4850, and 4890), I didn't truly need this article to tell me they were the "bang-for-buck" cards in their price bracket, but it's a great resource none the less. For me, the list at the end of the article is the true gem within it.
LoL, you sir are an idiot! You don't need the latest drivers for your card to work! Even if they would support your card they won't bring any performance gains after a year. Drivers are generally focused to fix and improve performance on new models with no effect on the old ones. So stop crying like a baby and use the drivers that worked best for you. Be informed next time you start to state such childish whines and stay on topic!About the article, indeed pretty much the same thing as last month with some price drops. It has been stated on Tom's that ATI would launch its new generation on Sept 11th. No mention of that in the article?
YOU sir, are an idiot for calling someone an idiot. Your ingnorant for your way of thinking. Most of the time, a new version of a driver is specifically released to address flaws in new games. There are many many reasons to upgrade your video card driver to the latest version and that is just one of them.
OT... Toms.. Please, oh please, get rid of that God forsaken Gate.com ad. That thing is the most annoying ad I have yet to come across on this site, it drops down into every article and page I'm trying to read.. gets old real quick.
+1
Please get rid of that crap.
@ Don Woligroski, author of the article:
I feel that the wording in these articles needs to be defined, and/or redone. First of all, what do you mean when you say that a single HD 4850 gets good performance on 1920X1200 in most games? From looking at the benchmarks, I was looking for good 1920x1200 performance, so I bought an HD 4890 and would not have even considered a 4850. Also why does it say that two HD 4870 1GB cards in Crossfire gives exceptional 1920x1200 performance, and two HD 4890's in Crossfire only offer good performance at 1920x1200?
Always the same conclusion...with the same words...exactly the same words...
For the $50 bracket, wouldn't the 9600GSO be a better choice than 4650?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814121320
$40 after MIR.
the review states the HD 4870 X2 has exceptional 1920x1200 but 2 HD 4890's in crossfire only have good 1920x1200?? if this is true why would anyone pay more for less?
Thanks, fixed!
Remember, those resolution recommendations are general guidelines, not perfect rules that apply to every game out there.
I put them in so that folks with a 1280x1024 monitor would know that it was a waste to go and buy an ubercard like a 4870 X2 or GTX 295.
For the $50 bracket, wouldn't the 9600GSO be a better choice than 4650?http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814121320$40 after MIR.
Absolutely! From the article:
"Prices and availability change on a daily basis. We can’t base our decisions on always-changing pricing information, but we can list some good cards that you probably won’t regret buying at the price ranges we suggest, along with real-time prices from our PriceGrabber engine, for your reference."
HD 4870.. best buy, hands down. But, that said, I would wait if you were buying, at least until the next gen DX11 cards come out.OT... Toms.. Please, oh please, get rid of that God forsaken Gate.com ad. That thing is the most annoying ad I have yet to come across on this site, it drops down into every article and page I'm trying to read.. gets old real quick.
That thing is annoying as hell.