Best video card in the $100ish category

[Fallengod]

Just curious what others might think. I need to get some type of video card in the next week or so. I am looking for something to replace my dead 9800GT. Something with only a max of 1 pcie power connector required.

Ive been doing a lot of researching prices and looking for best bang 4 buck. Here is what I have been considering. What would you guys pick?

Nvidia Camp



- GT 440: Got kind of crappy reviews after poking around due to the price and such low performance. But still a decent card. Significantly slower than my previous 9800GT but uses very little power. The main issue here is the ATI 5670 blows it away at pretty much the same price.

Best deal found: ($64AR) PNY GT 440 1GB DDR5 @ bhphotovideo.com


- GTS 450: Seems to be a recommended buy. A little pricey when it comparison to some other ATI cards, which is basically the reason I didnt jump on it.

Best deal found: ($110AR) PNY GTS 450 XLR8 (5-year warranty) @ amazon
Also: ($95AR) Evga GTS 450 SuperClocked 882mhz (2-year warranty) @ amazon


- GTX 550ti: Kind of "blah" because of its fairly high price for only being about 10FPS over a gts 450 while requiring more power. Still a good card though and the only GTX requiring only 1 pcie power connector. Runs at about 116 watts of power.

Best deal found: ($130AR) PNY GTX 550TI OverClocked version WITH 3 games(mafia 2,dungeon siege3,just cause2) (LIFETIME WARRANTY) @ tigerdirect (reason I was considering this is because selling all three games would probably put my final price at around $100AR instead of $130, best bang 4 buck?)


ATI/AMD Camp:



- ATI 5670 1GB DDR5: Seems to be the top of best value/price in many articles. Was considering this one, but it does run about 10-15% slower than the 9800GT. However, it also does not require a pcie power connector and only uses 61watts of power vs 108watts of previous 9800GT.

Best deal found: ($68AR) XFX ATI 5670 1GB DDR5 (LIFETIME WARRANTY) @ tigerdirect


- ATI 5770/6770 1GB DDR5: Highly recommended for best bang 4 buck in reviews and articles. This card is faster than the 9800GT and GTS 450 and probably about on par with the GTX 550TI, requires about the same power as the 9800GT and runs cooler id assume. This card runs in 1 single slot too. It costs about $100AR which is pretty much the same as a GTS 450 and about $30ish more than the 5670 and $30 cheaper than the GTX 550TI.

Best deal found: ($100AR) XFX ATI 6770 (HD-677X-ZNLC) (single slot version) 1GB DDR5 WITH DIRT3 game (LIFETIME WARRANTY) @ tigerdirect (I would probably sell dirt3 which might help take another $10 off the price making it probably a no-brainer over most of the competition.)

 

[RussianSensation]

Budget Graphics Card Comparison

 

[Fallengod]

Nice comparison, I somehow never found that url. However, I was actually asking what people on this board would pick, not a comparison of performance. I know how they perform.

 

[AnandThenMan]

6770 is hard to beat for the money IMO.

 

[Spikesoldier]

yeah i would go with the 5770 or 6770, whichever you can find cheaper.

if you keep your eyes peeled maybe you can get a gtx 460 for that price after rebate.

 

[toyota]

yeah i would go with the 5770 or 6770, whichever you can find cheaper.

if you keep your eyes peeled maybe you can get a gtx 460 for that price after rebate.

if there is no gtx460 deal right now then no real point in waiting around for one in his situation though. he typically plays at 1024x768 and has a modest dual core cpu so even the 5770/6770 would be held back in many games.

 

[rockyjohn]

You have not provided enough information for an informed recommendation.

Toyota stated you typically play at 1024x768. I did not see this in your posts. Is this true? Is this the target resolution to use in planning the upgrade or do you want to consider a later improvement?

What CPU do you have?
What is your budget?
Do you have any power constraints other than limiting it to one power connector?
What games do you play?
Any other applications that might use the video card - such as video editing or Photoshop?

For a good review of analyzing system constraints and defining personal preferences when you uprade a video card I recommend looking at:

http://www.upgradevideocards.com/criteria.html

 

[Fallengod]

Right. Thats a decent site for budget type stuff. I am just considering many things. I do want tv-out, that is a must, and ability to play blu-rays perhaps(I think all cards have HDMI these days for tvout anyways though right). I do only play at 1024x768 but I do want the ability to play at lowest native widescreen resolutions as well.(What is that? 1280x800 or 1440x900 I guess). I really dont game much anymore which is one of the issues. However, that doesnt mean a new game wouldnt spark my interest and need to be played either, in which case, id want a video card that can manage that even if I had to lower details and resolution(which I do anyways). I only play league of legends at the moment at 1024x768. This is part of the reason I am weighing my power consumption needs.

I am on a temporary ati 4670 right now and even on this slow card I get about 80-150FPS in league of legends @ 1024x768 and around 100-130 in TF2 and L4D2 at the same res, and about 150-200fps at 800x600, which is plenty of speed for me. This is all on a lowly 4670 so..... I am using this gauge to figure out how many steps up I really need to go to get the speed I want.

Part of the issue is, I am trying to figure out if I really want catalyst drivers or nvidia drivers. I cant freaking decide. I have some fairly big issues going ATI lately that were not there with my 9800GT.

 

[-Slacker-]

If you're really gaming at 1024x768, then a hd 5670 would be ideal. Otherwise go with the 5770.

 

[Fallengod]

Ya I know, my conflict is because I love the low power consumption of the 5670/6670/6770(the first two dont even require a 6-pin power cable), etc, the issue I am having to get past is if I can deal with the lame issues ATI drivers have over nvidia. I definitely want to go nvidia, but the best bang 4 buck I can find is really the GTS 450 and that is $35 over the cost of the 5670 and about the same as a 6770 which is about on par with the gtx 550 ti, which is definitely faster than the gts 450.

Also, stupid nvidia cards seem to have mini-hdmi ports, where as ATI cards have normal sized hdmi ports. Does anyone know why this is? Nvidia doesnt include an adapter cable either so that is something I am weighing as well since id have to purchase that. I definitely want the ability to use TVout. Id still have to buy a longer HDMI cable though, I dont think my stupid spare 6' cables will reach.

 

[BTA]

If you are set on Nvidia (don't blame you), and if you are looking at 1024x768 (or even 1280x1024 later) I'd just buy a used 250GTS off here or ebay for under $50. Practically the same as a GTS450 anyway.

Otherwise wait for a gtx460 deal to come by again.

 

[AtenRa]

Why do you play at that low resolutions ?? what is the native resolution of your monitor ?

Most cards have DVI to HDMI adapters.

 

[Arkadrel]

I think the 6770 for 89$ is the best value buy of the bunch.

PowerColor AX6770 1GBD5-H Radeon HD 6770 1GB ~89$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131434

 

[BTA]

Also, stupid nvidia cards seem to have mini-hdmi ports, where as ATI cards have normal sized hdmi ports. Does anyone know why this is? Nvidia doesnt include an adapter cable either so that is something I am weighing as well since id have to purchase that. I definitely want the ability to use TVout. Id still have to buy a longer HDMI cable though, I dont think my stupid spare 6' cables will reach.

My Galaxy gtx460 came with a mini-hdmi to standard hdmi cable, although it is quite short (5ft maybe). But you can get longer cables or an adapter from www.monoprice.com for very minimal $$, $2.00 to $5.00 depending what you want.

 

[happy medium]

I'd go with a factory overclocked EVGA gtx550ti 1gb B-stock for 99$

http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?switch=20

 

[tweakboy]

Geforce 460 768MB ,,, 100 to 120 dollars. Try amazon.com

 

[Concillian]

If you pay for your own power bill, 5770 / 6770 or 5670 if you can live with less performance

If not 550ti.

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

can you crossfire a 6770 and a 5770?
I already have a 5770 so that might be a good option for me.

 

[Arkadrel]

can you crossfire a 6770 and a 5770?
I already have a 5770 so that might be a good option for me.

Im pretty sure you can

also 2 of them together should give you performance in the 5870 to 480 range of performance.

So you ll get a huge return, on that small investment.

 

[Jhatfie]

I think I mentioned this in another thread, but if you are willing to deal with a rebate and selling some free games, you can essentially get a HD 6850 for around $100 or less. It is vastly superior to the 5770/6770.

Example: I bought a XFX 6850 at Newegg for $149 - $30 rebate = $119. But the card came with Shogun 2 and Dirt 3 Steam codes. I sold my copies for $20 and $15. It also had a unexpected copy of STALKER, which should get a few more $$. So with some admitted hassle, costs is trimmed down to $84 at least for a great card.

**Have not checked if the above deal is still going on**

 

[StrangerGuy]

Thankfully I got my GTX 460 1GB for $100 and a 5850 for $150. My local GPU market now is rubbish in comparison (6870/GTX560 = $260)

You US guys must have got even better deals for GTX460/5850 when they were still up. I can almost swear that GTX 560 was released simply to kill off the cheap GTX 460s.

 

[Fallengod]

I think I mentioned this in another thread, but if you are willing to deal with a rebate and selling some free games, you can essentially get a HD 6850 for around $100 or less. It is vastly superior to the 5770/6770.

Example: I bought a XFX 6850 at Newegg for $149 - $30 rebate = $119. But the card came with Shogun 2 and Dirt 3 Steam codes. I sold my copies for $20 and $15. It also had a unexpected copy of STALKER, which should get a few more $$. So with some admitted hassle, costs is trimmed down to $84 at least for a great card.

**Have not checked if the above deal is still going on**

Id probably agree with you. Those AR and after selling game deals are probably the best out there. 6850 for about $80AR and after selling off games is a pretty damn good deal. The GTX 550ti also was about that price after selling off 3 games it came with.

My issue is, I really dont game much anymore but I do want something to get at least somewhat decent FPS in possible newer games if I got around to one. I was trying to get the best possible card in the $100 category that uses the least amount of power consumption. (We are having some high electric bills lately and in addition I just bought a kill-a-watt meter to try and narrow the issues down)

Anyways, because it has fairly low power consumption and I kinda wanted to go with nvidia, I purchased GTS 450 superclocked which will be here tomorrow. The card was a pretty good deal after a software bundle it comes with from evga.

I am still keeping my options open though and may sell this after the AMD 7 series comes out.

 

[nyker96]

$100 is a terrible bracket, I'd just get a $130-135AR HD6850 or a GTX 460 1GB. Those will serve you well.

 

[blastingcap]

GTX 465.



Just kidding. Wait for a sale on something like a GTX 460.

 

[Fallengod]

As I already stated, I went with the evga gts 450 which will end up being in the $30-$40ish range when all is said and done. Also, remember, I was only looking for video cards with a max of (1) required pcie connector.

Im just gonna use this till the 7 series come out in AMD and maybe ill sell this and go with one of these depending on how they perform.

I dont really game much anymore and the only game I do play is 1024x768.