How Do I Know If It's A Good Deal?

This will happen! In fact, it's guaranteed to happen, because both stock levels and prices change quickly. So how do you know if that card you've got your eye on is a good buy in its price range?

Here are two resources to help you judge if a card is a good buy. The first is the graphics card hierarchy chart, which groups graphics cards with similar overall performance into "tiers." The top tier contains the highest performing cards available, and performance decreases as you go down the tiers from there.

You can use this hierarchy to compare the pricing between two cards, to see which one is a better deal and also to determine if an upgrade is worthwhile. I personally don't recommend upgrading unless the new card is at least three tiers higher on the chart than your current one. Otherwise, the upgrade is somewhat parallel and you won't notice a worthwhile difference in performance:

Summary

There you have it folks: the best cards for the money this month. Now all that's left is to find and purchase them, and we leave that part up to you. The best prices will almost certainly be found online, but sometimes large retail outlets might surprise you with a good sale.

Don't worry too much about which brand you choose, because all of the cards out there stick pretty close to the reference designs by Nvidia and ATI. Just pay attention to price, warranty and the manufacturer's reputation for honoring the warranty if something goes wrong.

Also remember that the stores don't follow this list. Things will change over the course of the month, and you'll probably have to adapt your buying strategy to fluctuating prices. Good luck!

Check the The Best Gaming Graphics Cards for the Money Series Overview for more articles in this series.

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