Detailed graphics card specifications and reviews are great—that is, if you have the time to do the research. But at the end of the day, what a gamer needs is the best graphics card within a certain budget.
So if you don’t have the time to research the benchmarks or if you don’t feel confident enough in your ability to pick the right card, fear not. We at Tom’s Hardware have come to your aid with a simple list of the best gaming cards offered for the money.
April Review and March Updates:
The big news over the last month was, of course, the introduction of ATI's Radeon HD 4770. This new card's raw speed doesn't break any records, performing somewhere between the Radeon HD 4830/GeForce 9800 GT and Radeon HD 4850/GeForce GTS 250. The real story is that its price and performance levels make it a fantastic value. The card can be purchased for as low as $100, which is about the same price as the Radeon HD 4830/GeForce 9800 GT. The Radeon HD 4770 also outperforms these two cards. It even nips at the heels of the more expensive Radeon HD 4850 and GeForce GTS 250.
What allows AMD to generate profits at this price? It designed the Radeon HD 4770, which is based on a 40 nm process, so that it boasts the most efficient manufacturing technology associated with a graphics card to date. Its architecture is almost identical to its older brother, the Radeon HD 4830, sporting 640 shader processors and 16 raster-operation processors (ROPs). But at 750 MHz, the new card's core clock speed runs 175 MHz faster than its Radeon HD 4830 sibling and even 125 MHz faster than its big brother, the Radeon HD 4850. Because of this, it can calculate almost the same amount of shader instructions per second as the Radeon HD 4850 and even more raster operations per second.
To keep costs down (and probably to keep the Radeon HD 4770 from embarrassing its larger brothers), its memory bus was narrowed to 128-bits. But AMD didn't leave the card completely crippled in this respect, as the Radeon HD 4770 comes with new GDDR5 memory that doubles the usable bandwidth per clock, effectively negating the memory bus limitation (compared to a GDDR3 board, for instance). This is a smart move for a cost-effective part, keeping the GPU die simpler and cheaper to produce and guaranteeing it will get even cheaper to manufacture the card as the price of memory inevitably falls.
The bottom line is that the new Radeon HD 4770 is definitely on our recommended list this month, taking the place of the Radeon HD 4830 and GeForce 9800 GT. At almost the same price, there isn't much of a contest. Two Radeon HD 4770s in CrossFire also take the $200 spot in the recommendations, beating out the Radeon HD 4890 for less money.
Editor's Note: ATI sent along the following statement regarding the availability of its Radeon HD 4770s. It indeed seems that the company is struggling to keep up with demand, which is based in large part to TSMC's 40nm yields:
"With TSMC’s current 40nm yields, AMD was able to deliver a significant quantity of high-quality 40nm GPUs to ensure a worldwide hard launch, with every region receiving a supply of ATI Radeon HD 4770 cards. Although initial demand was met, AMD couldn’t foresee the tremendous enthusiasm from the marketplace for the ATI Radeon HD 4770, and is currently working closely with TSMC on supply. In addition, we are working with our AIB partners to deliver a compelling solution in the same price band that will ensure supply long-term. Even today, many users are opting instead to purchase a higher-performance ATI Radeon HD 4850 card, whichis available at e-tailers worldwide starting around $100 or 99 EUR including VAT."
Otherwise, we've seen the usual price shifting here and there but nothing earth shattering. One thing we've noticed is that the GeForce GTX 295 cards are a little harder to find. Radeon HD 4890 prices seem to have dropped a little as well.
With the monthly updates out of the way, let's get to the recommendations, shall we?
Some Notes About Our Recommendations
A few simple guidelines to keep in mind when reading this list:
- This list is for gamers who want to get the most for their money. If you don’t play games, then the cards on this list are more expensive than what you really need;
- Prices and availability change on a daily basis. We can’t offer up-to-the-minute accurate pricing info, but we can list some good cards that you probably won’t regret buying at the price ranges we suggest;
- The list is based on some of the best U.S. prices from online retailers. In other countries or at retail stores, your mileage will most certainly vary;
- These are new card prices. No used or open-box cards are in the list—they might be a good deal, but it’s outside the scope of what we’re trying to do.
- You'll notice the Newegg themes are similar to what you see in our System Builder Marathons (SBMs). Before this story went live, we hunted down the best prices on these recommendations. That doesn't mean prices won't change later, but you should at least get a good idea of the low prices for most of our suggestions.
Great article, keep it up.
I was on Newegg recently lookin for the 4770s, they were all out of stock. Newegg has a habit of also announcing new products and featuring them promenintly on home page.... like the 4890s or Phenom II etc...
IMO seems they would like to advertise these cards. At least I would.
remember the days when spending $150 got you something that can barely game and now (thanks to ati) we can get beasts for that price.
Oh ya, and PLEASE stop referencing the GTX 280, it is dead. Refer to the better and same priced GTX 285.
I count seven GTX 280 SKUs still selling on Newegg for as low as $259 and 16 GTX 285 SKUs selling for as low as $319, just FYI.
I'll let Don comment on the Radeon HD 4850 X2, as I've never had the chance to test the card myself and couldn't give it a thumbs up or down.
With that said, a pair of GTX 275s is also a sweet setup, as suggested in this piece right here.
Memory Speed for the 4890 is 975 (3900 effective not 3750).
Memory Speed for the 4870x2 is 900 (3600 effective not 3200).
Great and very useful article as usual!
Memory Speed for the 4890 is 975 (3900 effective not 3750).
Memory Speed for the 4870x2 is 900 (3600 effective not 3200).
Great and very useful article as usual!
The inverse to the comment about the 4850 X2 being too long, all of the other "high performance" cards are over 9 inches in length. I recently built 2 systems where the number 1 requirement was that they be built in a "larger desktop" style case. (As opposed to a mid-tower.)
Luckily, I found a case that could support a full size ATX MB, but even it could not handle any video cards longer than the 4770.
This is getting interesting!
One thing I dislike is the notes "good ????x???? performance......some with lowered details". I believe they give false impression since they don't apply to all or even "most" games. In fact, games vary so much in their requirements.
A few articles on micro stutter:
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,653711/PCGH-proves-micro-stuttering-on-the-Radeon-HD-4870-X2/Practice/
http://www.overclockers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4420:microstutter&catid=60:videocards&Itemid=4266
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,631668/Video-proof-Micro-stuttering-may-destroy-the-performance-gains-from-current-multi-GPU-technologies/Grafikkarte/Test/
I want to see what is the best available card in one slot, even if it s a multi-GPU card (GTX 295; 4870X2; 4850X2). Leave the multi-card setups for the specialty articles, such as the recent "GTX 295 vs. GTX 275 SLI" article.