The Which Graphics Card for £X? Thread

Updated 01/07/2009
New Cards and Major Price Updates

So, we get a lot of threads in this section of the forum asking which is the best card I can buy for £X while we are always happy to answer peoples questions some of us thought perhaps a list of current cards with there relative performance and currently available costs could be a useful resource, focusing on gaming.

So between myself and Pob255 we came up with the following list of cards (subsequently edited) and have placed them in performance order (this is for stock clocked cards not pre-overclocked) providing price brackets so you can easily find the cards in your budget and current average pricing along with any outstanding prices we have found. Pricing has been taken as the lowest price a card is available with a selection to choice from, so if 2 versions of card X are available for £110 and 1 for £100 then the £110 will be the quoted price the £100 will be provided in () to show they are available cheaper but with limited choice and a link will be provided.

This list is really meant as a starting point, please still start a thread to ask about particular cards or what people think is the best for your situation but hopefully this will give you an idea of what is available and the performance ranks, if nothing else it will let you know what is available.

Single Card Solutions ATI and nVidia


GTX295 - £350
HD4870X2 - £240
HD4850X2 2GB - £185
GTX285 - £220
HD4850X2 1GB - £150
GTX275 - £170
HD4890 - £140
GTX260 - £115
HD4870 1GB - £115
HD4870 512MB - £100
GTS250 1GB - £95 and HD4850 1GB - £85
GTS250 512MB - £80 and 9800GTX+ 512MB - £75 and HD4850 512MB - £75 and HD4770 - £80
9800GT - £75 and HD4830 - £65
9600GT - £60 and HD4730 - £??
HD4670 - £55
HD4650 (DDR3) - £42

<£40
Cards available for less than £40 should in my opinion not really be considered if gaming is a major concern. If media playback is the requirement then any card you like that can offload video decoding from the processor is really all you need. or consider integrated graphics the 780G, 790GX, 8200 chipsets for AMD and G45 for Intel.

Multiple cards - ATI Crossfire

2x 4890 - £280 best ATI dual GPU setup available
2x 4870 1Gb - £230 - 4870X2 is a reasonable alternative as 1 less slot is required
2x 4870 512MB - £200 - HD4870X2 requires one less slot
2x 4850 1GB - £170 - 4850X2 2GB reasonable alternative as 1 less slot required
2x 4850 512MB - £150 - 4850X2 1GB same price and 1 less slot
2x 4770 512MB - £160 - HD4850X2 1GB is a viable alternative
2x 4830 - £130 - Performance on average greater than GTX260 and 4870 1GB (closer to GTX280).

Where more than one card is of approximately equal performance they are included on the same line in no particular order.

Recommendations, basically the cheapest in any performance bracket unless you don't want ATi or nVidia due to a technical reason or brand loyalty. I will leave it at that unless people want me to make more explicit suggestions.

This list will obviously need to change with the times, and if people have any comments or bargain prices then post them up, provide links to bargain prices I don't want people just saying you can get X card for Y.

I imagine this list will be updated regularly how often will depend on my available time and how often people think it needs doing once a month, fortnight or weekly? Prices change to fast for it to ever be completely accurate of course.

Might be better to use a ladder (where a step up on the ladder is a step up in price) instead of showing prices?

Also check your PSU is up to it. I've been stung by an upgrade that drew too much juice from my PSU and caused all sorts of odd behaviour. I nearly returned the card thinking it was faulty!

Shaithis how do you have comparative performance and price on a single list you have to pick one or the other.

They are currently listed in performance order which I feel has more use, the question to be asked is are you interested in which card can I buy for my budget or which card performs the best for my budget? I know I prefer the best performance in my budget option.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Webby

&#163;251+
4870X2 - &#163;350
GTX280 - &#163;310 (&#163;290)

&#163;201 - &#163;250
4870X2 - &#163;350
GTX280 - &#163;310 (&#163;290)

&#163;201 - &#163;250
GTX260 216 Core - &#163;230 (&#163;210) and HD4870 1GB - &#163;220 (&#163;195)

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lol que?

Thanks that will teach me not to proof read!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shaithis

Might be better to use a ladder (where a step up on the ladder is a step up in price) instead of showing prices?

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I think some kind "bang for buck" rating/ ladder would be good, made sticky and include links to any reviews done by Hexus. That would reduce the number of new posts about graphics cards.

If you want to get quite fancy how about a flow diagram? budget, purpose (light gaming, medium gaming, HTPC etc)... something like that? obviously simplify it or else you could end up with hundreds of possible outcomes.

Also, maybe add links to the best places to buy?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zadock

Also, maybe add links to the best places to buy?

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Scan, eBuyer, Tekheads, Specialtech?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moogle

Scan, eBuyer, Tekheads, Specialtech?

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Dont forget overclockers :mrgreen:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SiM

Dont forget overclockers :mrgreen:

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How could I forget! :heckle:

Nice list Webby ;)

I vote for sticky!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moogle

How could I forget! :heckle:

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We keep trying to forget ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pob255

We keep trying to forget ;)

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You mustn't! Otherwise you'll forget how bad it would be to shop there and fall into their trap again :surprised:

no chance of that

the thing is remembering the http://www.overclock.co.uk is not the same people (although I'm not sure what they are currently like, I know old reports of overclock were good :undecided )

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pob255

no chance of that

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Good good :thumbsup:

Haven't managed to use OC yet though, although it probably doesn't help with their names being similiar :P

Whats about crossfire and sli.

simple answer, generally never worth it, for twice the cost you can useally get a single card that performs around the same.
Buying a card to later sli/crossfire genreally hit's the same problems by the time you've saved up enough for a 2nd card the next gen are here and better.

Only really comes into at the very top, and if you can afford to buy multiple top end cards then money is not much of an issue.

4850 in crossfire is usally the king atm

Yeah 4850 crossfire (and 4830 crossfire &#163;180-200) is pretty much the best you can get if your planning on spending &#163;200-250 but with the prerequisites to make it a suitable solution (a motherboard with 2x 16x PCIe slots which actually run at 16x) it is hard to include in this sort of list as the actual cost could be 2 cards and a new motherboard at which point it is no longer a deal.

Maybe have a few links for some bargains too in the OP...

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?NOV-4850
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?NOV-4870

even with a mobo at 8x 8x its still pretty quick only a few fps lost unless your on a huge res with the eye candy turned up

Quote:

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Originally Posted by daza

even with a mobo at 8x 8x its still pretty quick only a few fps lost unless your on a huge res with the eye candy turned up

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Which surely is what you want or else why are you spending &#163;200+ on a graphics card solution?

I personally would not recommend a crossfire system to anybody who did not have a motherboard (or was intending on purchasing one in the upgrade anyway) that couldn't support duel 16x. Why take on the risks of crossfire and then not reap the maximum rewards?

And Sim, was trying to keep away from having links as they would need more regular maintanence especially if prices change or a card goes out of stock

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Webby

And Sim, was trying to keep away from having links as they would need more regular maintanence especially if prices change or a card goes out of stock

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Lazy. Its just a case of browsing bargains forum and updating!

For the sake of 3~4 fps im quite happy to buy crossfire and a mad board that overclocks to the hills.

That and the p45 sometimes beats the x48 in the 8x 8x 16x 16x war.

*Bump*

ok who do we have to bug to get this thread sticky?

Updated the first post with prices for today and added links to the cheapest bargain price card if its a lot cheaper than the general price.

If I have missed any offers let me know and I will add them in.

Oooo nice one on that Novatech ATI Radeon HD 4870, cooler "looks" very nice

Links for 9800gtx+ 512mb
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?nov-98gtxp (&#163;135)

9800gtx+ 1gb
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=901978 (&#163;139)

I am between the 9800GTX+ 512MB for £135ish and the HD4850 512MB for about £115.

I have a crossfire motherboard, but when the PCIs are used in it for crossfire, they drop from 16x to 4x.

If i crossfired two HD4850's would I see much of a beneficial increase, as the lane speeds both drop to 4x which surely isnt good?

afaik its only one of the PCIE slots that operates at 4x, the other still remains at 16x :) may be wrong, as I've said before, im not an ATI expert, but thats what I've seen from looking at reviews and the different motherboards.

Depends on which motherboard you have and it's chipset
x38 and x48 are full x16 on both
some p35 & p45 are x16 single card or x8 on both (x16 via a splitter) if you use 2
some use the old system from the 965 motherboards were the 2nd card runs off the southbridge and is limited to x4, so you get one running at x16 and the other at x4

Oh right, so its the second card that runs at 4x (i'm going to be using the Foxconn P43A), if thats so, I'm leaning more towards crossfire as a consideration.

Yep the Foxconn P43A uses the southbridge to run the 2nd card at x4
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/produc...D=en-us0000396

Quote:

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When using two PCIE x16 slots, the PCIE x16 lanes will auto arrange from x16/ x0 to x16 x4

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the big question for you will be "Do you need it?" if you're running a 22" or lower monitor then probably no.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pob255

Yep the Foxconn P43A uses the southbridge to run the 2nd card at x4
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/produc...D=en-us0000396


the big question for you will be "Do you need it?" if you're running a 22" or lower monitor then probably no.

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I run 24" at 1920 x 1200, so am assuming in the future it will be beneficial, but on its own, lets say a 4870, how well would it perform on my screen for games such as assassins creed, COD:WAW and mirrors edge.

Personally on a 16x 4x board I would not be considering crossfire the is an inherent performance hit from the reduced bandwidth couple that with the existance of games which don't play nice with multi-GPU set ups (poor scaling) and I think the is one to many down sides to make it worth while. I will say that if I had a dual 16x board I would seriously consider a crossfire setup as the smart money in the &#163;200-250 arena.

If you are thinking buy one card now get another in 6 months then its an upgrade path worthy of consideration and not discarding by buying nVidia, it would leave you open to getting a single better card (and selling the 4850) or a cheap second hand card at that time.

I dont know if anyone else has mentioned this but possibly get it moved below the 'Forum Guideline's' so then that new people can just have a browse instead of opening another thread?

just an idea. :)

But as i just read through it properly people who have questions about cards not on the list should then open a thread about it :) proberly a rubbish idea

Getting it stickied would be great as then it would be at the top for people to see when they enter the forum, but it was never meant to replace people starting threads to ask for advice in their particular situation just as a guide to current pricing and performance.

This thread needs

http://www.blueprintpodcast.com/blog...oyote-glue.jpg

Updated prices today 20/11/2008

Added in a crossfire section, the 4850X2 and a few cheaper cards the 4650 for &#163;45 is an absolute bargain and would be my recommended card for less than &#163;50 if gaming was a good possibility.

oh my, the 4850x2 prices are way above the skies. Nice compilation btw Webby!

Stuck for as long as it's kept up to date :)

Great work Webby

:embarrassed:

Thank you, will keep it updated weekly/fortnightly (as long as I have time which considering it only takes 45mins shouldn't be that hard)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148947...oduct_overview

Only £5 more than your reference 4870 and it comes pre-OC with a Zerotherm cooler, which reviews suggest is a decent improvement over the stock one.

P.S. The £195 GT260 (216) is only on pre-order, which is sorta cheating IMO. :D

But it may not have been when I last updated it ;) Will update again at some point over the next couple of days as it has been a week at least!

Most prices have gone up, as the exchange rate has fallen.

Best bang-for-buck is ATI's 4850 in most reviews. The reference design cooling is poor, so either go for an after-market cooler, or buy a card with better cooling (usually no more expensive / even cheaper than going after-market). Sapphire and Asus both do good versions, and the HiS Turbo X has both better cooling and is factory overclocked.

I want that powercolor 4870 pcs+ but the fact that there isn't any warranty info on it, even on the powercolor website, is a bit concerning....

Any reason I should be worried? Anyone had a problem with powercolor?

Powercolor being a US based company doesn't bode well for me if something goes wrong with it.

fyi, the gtx 260 on scan for &#163;195 is no longer up, it was due to be re-stocked today, but now it's been taken off the site.

great thread - been away from gfx's for a while and things have changed somewhat

time to sell on my trusty BFG 8800GTS 320mb and upgrade

Updated with current prices, If people have offers then I will update with best prices but it seemed to me that rather than one out standing low price from one place most sites had a couple of cheaper options so that is the stock price anyway.

full agreement with you here webby, "average" cheap price, super low/short term sale prices can be mentioned but not relied on as the price for a type of card.

so much for browns master plan, the 9600GT went down by about 5p then up by ten quid!

Updated again changed the layout a bit not sure on the colours let me know if some are hard to read etc.

9800GTX+ &#163;150 is a bit high price now. Many stores have been consistently priced around &#163;125-140, even play has it for &#163;140, and during specials i've seen it as low as &#163;115

I don't spend my life trawling for prices you know ;) Ebuyer and Scan both have them at &#163;150 and we don't worry about special deal prices because they come and go to fast to be relevant unless I update every couple of days (which I wont) but having checked around Novatech and Play both have them for &#163;140 so I will edit that.

Edited in a few more offer prices from Novatech as well forgot to check them that will teach me!

I think that the HD4650 entry should indicate both versions of the graphics card namely the much slower HD4650 GDDR2 which is under &#163;50 and the much faster GDDR3 version which is &#163;55 to &#163;60.

Okay will make the distinction when I next update which will be in the not to distant future, possibly even tomorrow!

First post updated again :)

Included the 4650 GDDR2 and GDDR3 models separately as requested and the GTX285. The GTX260 192 core was removed as it is now only available from limited locations and is priced much higher than the 216 core models.

Perhaps an update is needed here as the HD4870 prices have gone down a lot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Webby

Recommendations, basically the cheapest in any performance bracket so if your considering the 9800GTX+ and the HD4850 then I would recommend the HD4850 unless you don't want ATi (work under Linux or just prefer nVidia)

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hmm without starting an ATi vs Nvidia flame war please, iv'e heard from multiple different places that ATi have significantly improved their drivers in regards to unix based systems. is this not true?

I was just wondering: 260<4870<280 so why is the 260 so expensive/more expensive than the 4870 most of the time?
Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by watercooled

I was just wondering: 260<4870<280 so why is the 260 so expensive/more expensive than the 4870 most of the time?
Thanks

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Looking on Scan, theres very little to choose between them...
http://www.scan.co.uk/Index.aspx?NT=1-0-94-566-0
http://www.scan.co.uk/Index.aspx?NT=1-0-17-588-0
Your also paying a premium for being extra 1337 with the 1GB 4870 cards, where as all the GTS260 cards come with 896MB.
Lots of new releases are inbound so thats going to screw up pricing too, with some places electing to shift stock preemtivly.
And aswell as competing with each other, nVidia and ATI seem to want to fill (read "milk") every £10 price gap in the market, so prices have to stay relative to the rest of their lineup or they'll look like idiots. :rockon2:

The I believe the 9600GSO is being released (again) in the GT 1xx series, as well as a few other 9 series cards. They are OEM cards, not for individual sale but I can see them being sold on anyway. Just something to be aware of...

Edit: Here's a list I found:

G100 = 9400 GT
GT120 = 9500 GT
GT130 = 9600 GSO
GT150 = 9800 GTX+

Not sure if they are exactly the same of if there is a die shrink or something (just checked - I think there is a die shrink to 55nm).

For crying out loud nVidia, please STOP!!! :lol:

That's the third release of the 9600 gso right? 8800 then 9600 gso now the GT130.
I think the GTS 250 is also a slightly improved version of the 9800GTX+.
I think it would be good if they were released to the public. The die makes them run cooler/use less power and they should be cheaper but the naming system is confusing. I mean the 260 has had 3 releases with the same name. They should change the name for a new release but what about something like GTX 260.1 for example?

needs an update?

Seems the Radeon 4770 is the new bos at sub &#163;100 prices. Waiting for somewhere to post a review of two of these in Crossfire.

It will be somewhere in between 4830 and 4850 in crossfire. So your easiet option is the look at benchmarks of the 4850x2 and mentally reducing them slightly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Infinite

It will be somewhere in between 4830 and 4850 in crossfire. So your easiet option is the look at benchmarks of the 4850x2 and mentally reducing them slightly.

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Power consumption aswell ofc :bowdown:

Tom's hardware think that it is unbeatable in it's price range.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...fire,2288.html

Updated!

Added current cards removed some older ones and updated to current pricing, as always any comments/suggestions gratefully received.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pob255

Nice list Webby ;)

I vote for sticky!


We keep trying to forget ;)

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What's with overclockers? Is this the thing about them just lying about what they are selling??

Any chance of an update ? or should we wait for the NV offering ?

Sorry for the lack of updates other things been on my mind...

Anyway will update soon, maybe even today!

Just in case you forgot about it - ATI's new 5xxx series should go on here somewhere and a good few 4xxx cards have been discontinued.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Webby

Sorry for the lack of updates other things been on my mind...

Anyway will update soon, maybe even today!

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Thanks for the efforts Webby :bowdown:

Why is this still stickied? It's a year since the last post now and no longer being updated.

Yeah I don't think any cards on the list are even available to buy now, it might be misleading for some people if they don't check the date.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gordon861

Why is this still stickied? It's a year since the last post now and no longer being updated.

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Because no one noticed?

edit - accidently closed and not 'unstuck', fixed :Oops: