Which Graphics card To Buy From AMD 5670, 6670, 7750, Nvidia 650 Ti

The Game Room
1

Knowledgeable gamers on the Dope. I’m in India and looking for graphics cards. Based on preliminary research at Tom’s hardware’s “best value for the money” articles, I’ve narrowed down the search to four options that I can purchase -

  1. HIS IceQ H567Q1GD Radeon HD 5670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 at roughly 80 USD

  2. Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6670 1GB DDR3 Graphic Card at roughly 80 USD

  3. Asus ATI Radeon HD7750 1GB DDR5 HD7750-1GD5-V2 Graphics Card at roughly 130 USD

  4. EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1024MB GDDR5 128bit, at roughly 150 USD

My questions - First, how much extra performance do I get going with either option 3 or 4? Will the performance boost be worth the extra 50 or 70 dollars spent?

If I decide to buy the cheaper cards, which of 1) and 2) is advisable?

If I decide to buy the more expensive card, which option of 3) and 4) is better?
Price does matter for me, but value for money matters most.

Other information, opinions are welcome.

Further information - The computer I want to install the card on is fairly new, with a Sandy bridge i5 processor, 8 GB ram, and a 23 inch monitor(1920*1080).

2

Only the 650ti even has a hope of playing most games at 1920x1080 (and even that at reduced settings - low or medium detail, no AA, for almost all games). You have the cards ordered by weakest to strongest already - but they all are considered “entry level” cards. A 7850/“650 ti BOOST” is about the minimum card for 1080p gaming without dropping the settings too much. Note that “650 Ti Boost” despite the name, is essentially a different card than the 650 ti.

3

I’ll second the 650 Ti. Just bought one for my wife’s computer so we could play Borderlands 2. For that, it does the job just fine, though it’s not quite as demanding as other games. If you wait and check for sales, you can probably find a 650 Ti for cheaper. About a month ago I bought one for $125, with an additional $25 rebate. The same advice holds for most graphics cards in that price range really. For instance, I’ve seen the 7850s for sale at $150, often including a really good bundle of recent games (Tombraider, Bioshock Infinite, and Far Cry 3 IIRC). If you’re willing to pay $150 and wait for sales, the 7850 is probably the best deal.

4

Can you stretch to a Geforce 660 or 660 ti / Radeon 78x0? If not, are you going to be able to afford a second card towards the end of the year? Can your PC take a second graphics card? If so, you should consider the 650 Ti and put in a second when funds permit.

5

I’ve just upgraded a 2-year old 5670 (roughly equivalent to your option 1 I think) to the Asus 7750 you list as option 3. The fan had died on the old card (because my daughter whacked the computer while I was playing World of Tanks).

The performance of the new card is far better. Running the same games on the same settings in the same machine the 7750 never goes above 40-45 degrees C whereas the old card used to be running at around 75-80 degrees even before the fan went on it. I’d say framerates are probably consistently 10-20 fps better as well (although I never really checked them much). Oh and the 7750 is single slot as well if space is an issue in your machine.

Go for option 3 or 4, I think the extra cash is certainly worth it.

6

Thanks for the input all. Probably will go for one of the more expensive cards then, it’s suddenly ended up that I have to wait a month before I buy, so am hoping something nice will happen to prices :slight_smile: