Best Video Cards For Your Money: March 2013

The Geforce GTX Titan, the fastest single-GPU video card.

The best video cards for your money?

By that, I mean the cards that offer the best performance at a given price. Why would you want that, you ask?

Because you want the best bang for the buck, because you want the best possible card for your hard-earned money and because you want the highest FPS possible!

However, I do realize that not everyone has the time to read detailed video card reviews and/or have the ability to make sense of video card specifications.

This is why I write this guide for you: To help you save your time and money by doing the research for you and letting you know what are the best video cards for your money.

Keep in mind:

1- These video cards recommendations are for gamers who desire the best bang for their buck, or in other words, the best performance/features for their money. These video cards are way overkill if you don’t play videos games.
2- This list is based on the best U.S. prices for new video cards from NewEgg and/or Amazon that I’ve seen as of March 20th 2013.
3- Each video card performance will vary depending on the game. Some games run better on Nvidia cards and some run better on AMD cards.
4- The resolution that I mention below should only be used as a guideline to give you an idea of the capability of the video card on recent games.

Best video card for $70:

$68 – Radeon HD 6670 1 GB DDR3

Available for $58 after a $10 mail-in rebate.

If you’re on a very tight budget or if you only play older, not so demanding games or finally, if you play on a low resolution (1366 x 768/720p) monitor/HDTV, the Radeon HD 6670 is an entry level video card perfectly capable of matching your needs.

Good to know:
This video card will do the job at 1440 x 900 and 1680 x 1050, although you might have to lower details in some games. It also doesn’t need any additional power connector, it gets all the power that it needs from the PCI-Express 16x slot.

Best video card for $90:

$90 – Radeon HD 7750 1GB GDDR5

For $20 more, the Radeon HD 7750 is significantly faster than the Radeon HD 6670 and so, if you can afford it, it’s clearly the better choice.

As you can see here on AnandTech’s bench, the Radeon HD 7750 is easily 40 to 60% faster on average than the Radeon HD 6670.

If you can’t find it for anything less than $100, you’d be wise to spend an extra $10 and get the more powerful Radeon HD 7770 which is only $110 as I write these words.

Good to know:
This video card will do the job at 1440 x 900, 1680 x 1050 and in less demanding games, 1920 x 1080 is possible, although you might have to lower details in some games. It also doesn’t need any additional power connector, it gets all the power that it needs from the PCI-Express 16x slot.

Best video card for $110:

$110 – Radeon HD 7770 1GB

Available for $95 after a $15 mail-in rebate

The Radeon HD 7770 HD outperforms the Geforce GTX 550 Ti in the vast majority of games and also consumes roughly 35 Watts less under load, resulting in also a more quiet card. Nearly as fast as the now discontinued but previously recommended for $140-150 Radeon HD 6850, while consuming a whole lot less power, the Radeon HD 7770 is an excellent choice at its current price.

What games can this video card handle?
This card is capable of handling the vast majority of games at 1600 x 900, although you might have to lower details for the most demanding games. 1920 x 1080 should be playable too, although with lower graphic settings in some cases.

Best video card for $140:

$140 – Geforce GTX 650 Ti 1GB

Available for $130 after a $10 mail-in rebate

I’m recommending the Geforce GTX 650 Ti over the now discontinued Radeon HD 6850 1GB simply because it’s faster in nearly every game, it consumes roughly 35 Watts less under load and it’s more quiet.

It performs in the same performance ballpark as the Geforce GTX 560 and Radeon HD 6870 while consuming significantly less power.

What games can this video card handle?

The Geforce GTX 650 Ti will do the job at 1680 x 1050 and even 1920 x 1080 although you might have to lower details in more recent and more demanding games.

Watch out for price variations:
The GTX 650 Ti price has been fluctuating quite a bit lately. If the GTX 650 Ti is selling for $150 or more, I’d spend the extra $20 for the much faster Radeon HD 7850 recommended below.

Best Video Card for $185:

$185 – Radeon HD 7850 2GB

Performance:
Replacing the previously recommended Radeon HD 6870

Faster than the Radeon HD 6870 in every game, and faster than the Geforce GTX 650 Ti recommended above, the Radeon HD 7850 simply is the logical recommendation at this price point.

The Radeon HD 7850 is capable of handling most games at 1920 x 1080, although you might have to lower details in more recent and more demanding games.

If you can find it for $170: Radeon HD 7850 1GB
The Radeon HD 7850 1GB based on the same GPU as the card recommended above, except that it comes with 1GB of VRAM instead of 2GB. Most games don’t take advantage of 2GB, so if you can find a Radeon HD 7850 for $170 or less, that is $15 (or more) less expensive than the 2GB edition, it’s worth considering the 1GB version.

Best Video Card for $240:

$235 – PowerColor Radeon HD (Tahiti LE) 2GB

Available for $205 after a $30 mail-in rebate

Everybody, this is THE deal of Spring 2013.

The $250 – PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 MYST. Edition (Tahiti LE) 2GB and the $235 – PowerColor Radeon HD (Tahiti LE) 2GB with their name (7870) may seem to be based on the same GPU as the Radeon HD 7870 recommended above at first sight, but dig deeper and you’ll realize that they are based on a Tahiti GPU, the same GPU used for the more powerful Radeon HD 7950 and 7970 video cards.

More precisely, they are based on a Tahiti LE GPU, a slightly crippled Tahiti chip that’s still far more powerful than the Pitcairn GPU found on the Radeon HD 7870. Personally, I wonder why AMD just didn’t call it a Radeon HD 7930 (or 7890) to avoid the confusion with the 7870.

Performance wise, it easily outperforms the Radeon HD 7870 and with its high base frequency and Boost setting, it’s just a hair slower than the first generation Radeon HD 7950 (without Boost). Its downside is that it’s power consumption is far higher than the Radeon HD 7870, even slightly higher than the Radeon HD 7950, resulting in higher temperatures and higher noise levels. It’s not an extremely noisy card, but it’s not exactly quiet either.

Both models above should offer identical performance, the difference being the cooler that’s slightly different in look between the two model. I recommend the $235 model, as it’s less expensive to boot and it’s $45 cheaper if you take into consideration the $30 Mail-in rebate.

On top of that, you get free Bioshock and Tomb Raider game coupons with the purchase of a Radeon HD 7870 card

What games can this video card handle?
This card is capable of handling pretty much any game at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 with maximum visual quality, although you might have to scale back details in the most demanding games.

 

Best video card for $300:

$300 – Radeon HD 7950 3GB

I now recommend the Radeon HD 7950 Boost over the Geforce GTX 660 Ti for three reasons:

1. AMD introduced performance improvements that lowered the average latency in their newer driver, resulting in the Radeon HD 7950 outperforming the GTX 660 Ti more often than not.
2. The price of the Radeon HD 7950 went down.
3. You get free Crysis 3 & BioShock game coupons with purchase of a Radeon HD 7950 card.

What games can this video card handle?

This card is capable of handling pretty much any game at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 with maximum visual quality, although you might have to scale back details in the most demanding games.

Best video card for $350:

$350- GeForce GTX 670 2GB

The Geforce GTX 670 is a solid performer for $350.

At stock frequencies, it either performs on par or outperforms the Radeon HD 7950 3GB Boost, consumes quite a bit less power and offers great overclocking potential.

See the following links to see how it performs v.s. its big brother, the Geforce GTX 680.

What games can this video card handle?

This card will run any game at 1920 x 1200 (or 1080 for 1080p) maxed out, with less or more AA/AF, depending on the game, as well as most games at 2560 x 1600 without any problem. Gaming on multiple monitors is also possible, although you might have to turn settings down, depending on the game.

Best Video Card For $400:

$400 – Radeon HD 7970 3GB

I now recommend the Radeon HD 7970 over the Geforce GTX 680 for three reasons:

1. AMD introduced performance improvements that lowered the average latency in their newer driver, resulting in the Radeon HD 7970 being pretty much on par performance wise with the GTX 680.
2. The price of the Radeon HD 7970 went down and is lower than the GTX 680
3. You get free Crysis 3 & BioShock game coupons with purchase of a Radeon HD 7970 card.

Unless you have a small case with resricted airflow and need a video card that emits less heat than the Radeon HD 7970 with similar performance, there’s no point in paying more for the Geforce GTX 680.

Alternative

• $460 – GeForce GTX 680 2GB – If you do want a card with a lower TDP that emits less heat, while getting similar performance to the Radeon HD 7970, the Geforce GTX 680 is the way to go.

Best Video Card for $600:

$600 – Two Radeon HD 7950 3GB in Crossfire

If you want higher performance than what the fastest video card offers, what do you do?

You team up two video cards together!

For $600, you get two Radeon HD 7950 Boost in Crossfire, which have no problem outperforming a single Radeon HD 7970 or GTX 680.

Best video card for $700:

$700 – Two GeForce GTX 670 2GB in SLI

Two Geforce GTX 670 in SLI offer performance between two Radeon HD 7950 in Crossfire ($600) and two Radeon HD 7970 in Crossfire ($800).

They are also accordingly priced at $700 ($350 x2).

On the plus side, they also consume less power, emit less heat and thus are less noisy than two Radeon HD 7950 in Crossfire or two Radeon HD 7970 in Crossfire.

Simply put, if you have no less and more than $700 to spend, two Geforce GTX 670 in SLI are the way to go.

Best Video Card For $800:

$800 – Two Radeon HD 7970 3GB in Crossfire

Upside: A lot of performance for $800
Offering higher performance overall than the Geforce GTX Titan, while costing $200 less, two Radeon HD 7970 are still a force to be reckoned with.

The downside: Power consumption, heat, noise and Crossfire profiles
Two Radeon 7970 in Crossfire will consume a lot of power, emit a lot of heat and consequently, a lot of noise.

You also will have to deal with Crossfire profiles, updates and games that sometimes need an update to perform properly.

Is it worth saving $200 vs the $1000 Geforce GTX Titan?
If all you care about is raw performance, sure. If you care about power consumption, heat, noise and possible game issues due to Crossfire (this happens with Nvidia SLI too), the Geforce GTX Titan might be the better option. Also, you can add a second Geforce GTX Titan if you want even more performance!

Best Video Card for $1000:

$1000 – GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB

Simply put, this card features the fastest single-GPU on the market.

If you want the fastest video card without messing with Crossfire, SLI or dual-GPU video card setups, this is the way to go.

While some may complain that it’s very highly priced, keep in mind that it offers a 45%-55% performance improvement over the GTX 680, the sort of performance improvement that you usually see when you jump from one generation of GPUs to the next one.

It’s also by far the fastest single-GPU solution and as such, has no direct competition from AMD, allowing Nvidia to charge pretty much whatever they want at this point.

So, is it a good deal, from a performance/price point of view? Far from it. But if you want THE fastest single-GPU video for a micro-shutter free experience, this is the price to pay to get it.

Best Video Card for $2000:

$2000 – Two GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB in SLI

If you want the best performance possible, without consideration for anything else, two Geforce Titan in SLI are the way to go.

If you want to play video games on multiple monitors, if you want to future-proof your PC and/or if you want to play games with texture games that can use more than 2GB of VRAM (e.g. Skyrim), this is as good as it gets. 

Overkill:

You are considering getting three or four Geforce Titan in SLI, thinking that more is better? As a matter of a fact, more often than not, it’s a bad idea.

Simply put, drivers support for Triple or Quad SLI is overall pretty poor, resulting in equivalent or even lower performance than two cards too often to be worth it in my opinion. If you don’t run in a CPU bottleneck before that is. In other words, it’s not worth dropping that much cash for a solution that doesn’t work at its best more often than not. Not to mention the issue of cooling the cards and the insane power requirements.

Worse of all?

Most of the time, such setups are bottlenecked by the CPU anyway, even with an Ivy Bridge CPU (less if you overclock it, but still). I avoid recommending such setups as they are not suitable for most of you. Besides, if you know that you want such a setup and are ready to pay for it, you most likely know what you’re doing and don’t need this guide to begin with.

A few important recommendations and notes regarding video cards:

1- Get the latest version of the video card drivers directly from AMD or Nvidia. This will ensure that you get the latest bug fixes and the best performance possible from your video card(s).
2- To confirm whether Crossfire or SLI is working or not, use GPU-Z which will show that information to you in the last field at the bottom of the program.
3- SLI Guide: How to enable SLI, check if SLI is enabled, actually working in your game and what to do if it’s not is a great guide from the Notebook Review forums.
4- When using two or more video cards in Crossfire or SLI, you want to connect your monitors into the top video card, i.e. the video card that is the closest to the CPU.
5- Most video cards require one or two PCI-Express 6 or 8 pin power connector(s) to be plugged into them to function properly. Make sure that your power supply comes equipped with enough 6 and/or 8 pin connectors for your video cards.