Best PCIe Card: ~$90 To $190
Best PCIe Card For ~$95:
Radeon HD 4850 512MB (Check Prices)
Exceptional 1680x1050 performance in most games, 1920x1200 in most games with some lowered detail
| Radeon HD 4850 512MB | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV770 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 800 |
| Texture Units: | 40 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 625 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 993 (1,986 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
With Radeon HD 4850 512 MB prices dropping to a surprisingly low $95, this card easily takes the price/performance crown from the Radeon HD 4770 (which is still about $110 due to availability issues).
Featuring generally-better performance compared to the Radeon HD 4770 and comparable performance with the more expensive GeForce GTS 250, the pressure is on Nvidia to drop prices.
Best PCIe Card For ~$130:
Radeon HD 4870 512MB (Check Prices)
Good 1920x1200 performance in most games
| Radeon HD 4870 512MB | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV770 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 800 |
| Texture Units: | 40 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 750 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 900 (3,600 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
This is the sweet spot, folks. If someone told us the Radeon HD 4870 would be marked down to $130 four months ago, we'd have laughed in their face. Well, who is laughing now? Gamers are, with this very powerful card and its fast GDDR5 memory available at bargain-basement prices.
Best PCIe Card For ~$145:
Radeon HD 4870 1GB (Check Prices)
Good 1920x1200 performance in most games
| Radeon HD 4870 1GB | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV770 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 800 |
| Texture Units: | 40 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 750 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 900 (3,600 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
For $15 more than the 512MB version, you can have the 1GB Radeon HD 4870.
For about $20 dollars less than the GeForce GTX 260, the Radeon card offers a little more RAM and comparable performance.
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Still the best monthly feature here at Tom's and the hierarchy chart is a great reference list. As always a great job.
I agree, a good article but really there is nothing new to report. The graphics card market has been very stagnant for the past year... We want 5XXX and 3XX series please.
I have always browse through first 3 pages and the hierarchy page ONLY
Yeah call me cheapskate 
Oh well I'm always on a budget for everything.
Anyway was it last month or earlier did Tom's update the hierarchy chart with 'discrete','integrated','mobile' tags?
Didn't notice it till today, and I found it very useful for quick lookup.
adding the best price listings just hit you in the face ... 9600GT 129.99$ :-) talk about cheap cards ...
GTX 260 is out of the picture I see. I had to go check prices for myself and sure enough NVidia seems to be having trouble competing. Hopefully they'll have something going by next month.
There's only a few games where i'd pop for the extra $20 or $30 for a Nvidia card right now, and only for the games (WoW is one) where Nvidia has a large edge.
Just waiting for the 5xxx already...
My main concern.. What will the power consuption of the 5870 be?
Will I need a new PSU just to use one, nevermind crossfire?
I bought a 4870 1GB, but I regret not getting a 4890. =/
Is it me, or, other than a few prices, this chart hasn't changed in a long long time? (excluding 4770)
The lower part of the hierarchy chart looks messy...
Are they really offering that many varieties of mobile graphic cards out on the market at the moment?
@ Cleeve : Two things :
1) page 1 : "The flagship will of course would be the Radeon HD 5870 X2" not brillaintly written.
2) Are you sure all those dual card setups with 512mb memory are actually a good recommendation? I know you're recommending them every month, but still. Even my single 4870 is appearently more often limited by its 512 memory than it is by computation power - and crossfire only adds computation power. Sure it'll add more fps in most games, but as you often point out yourself, the improvement is only relevant if it's improving the gameplay experience.
I found an XFX 4870x2 for $299 at mwave.com about a month ago. I wasn't looking for a new card but I immediately purchased it when I saw it. Replaced my 8800GT.
what do they mean with Discrete, when they write "Discrete: HD 4850 X2" any able to enlighten me?
what do they mean with Discrete, when they write "Discrete: HD 4850 X2" any able to enlighten me?
Discrete: Separate; distinct; individual; Non-continuous. All Video Cards are discrete. The only video that isn't, is called "integrated" graphics, like Intel GMA. Some Mobos have Integrated, some dont. Integrated is built in with the mobo and already has a VGA or DVI port.
ok i have a question....where it always says "cards in SLI offer advantages in titles that run better with Nvidia's GT200 architecture" , what games actually run better for Nvidia ? and what games are favored for ATi
any help...
MICK
ok i have a question....where it always says "cards in SLI offer advantages in titles that run better with Nvidia's GT200 architecture" , what games actually run better for Nvidia ? and what games are favored for ATi any help...MICK
Check out the i5 platform comparison by Chris. That clearly sais that, at least in the games they tested, sli scales a lot better than cf. Ofc. most ati cards perform better than nvidia ones (taking price into account), but they don't scale as well.
Typical scaling for sli I'd say would be around 30-50% more performance (ie 130-150% of single card performance), and for cf it's often more like 20-40% or something. It's highly dependant on the game, resolution and driver though, so it's like impossible to say. In genenral games with the 'nvidia' logo in the intro are supposed to work better with sli than cf, but even that isn't always the case.
Nice article. Still no big news since the release of the ATI 4800 series, just miniature price adjustments.
I think there should be a new user category for GPU apps like BadaBoom: Crunchers. Like Gamers, they want a GPU that screams through whatever they throw at it. Rating new video cards on the apps they run will be easier when the universal GPU API eventually launches, but knowing how well the existing card-specific apps work will help some of us out...
I can't understand why you couldn't have waited a pair of days for the new radeons to be released so that they could be included in your review (should they make the cut).
I am curious as to why there has been no listing for 8800GT 512MB SLI on the performance charts in a long time. I have 1 rig with 2 of those oldies but goodies and am curious as to where they stack up so I can determine if it's time to replace them
I'm still amazed the venerable 8800GTX sits so high up in the hierarchy chart after almost three years. It has served me very well and despite the excellent pricing over the past several months on some great cards like the 4870 and GTX 260, it just hasn't been worth the money to get an incremental upgrade when the next generation of cards is rapidly approaching. Crossing my fingers that the upcoming wave of DX11 cards from AMD and Nvidia will be as impressive as the 8800GTX was when it was first released.