CustomPCMAX – Graphic Cards – Best Deals of January

Graphic Cards – Best Deals of January

The computer graphic card market is always a hard one to follow. Each month (sometimes even weekly) each manufacturer brings out new revisions and/or completely new chipsets. And unless you have the money (and time) to test them all out, you never really know which card is the right one for your budget. Tom’s Hardware has put together a list, by price range, of the best “bang for your buck” video cards for January.

Some of the notable mentions are:

Under $100	Under $200	Under $300	Under $400	$500 and up

Radeon HD 5670	Radeon HD 6850	Radeon HD 6950	Radeon HD 6970	GeForce GTX 580

Excerpt from article:

Happy new year! Two thousand ten was a big year for powerful graphics cards, and 2011 will be no different. Having just been introduced to the Radeon HD 6900-series and GeForce GTX 570, we’re on the cusp of a dual-GPU Radeon 6990, code-named Antilles. Our hope, of course, will be that Nvidia counters with its own GF110-based board to make the ultra-high-end a lot more interesting early on.

What about the market as it stands today, though? Cards are disappearing off of store shelves and prices are shifting. The Radeon HD 5800-series is already becoming scarce, but blowout pricing makes these cards a potentially great deal (with some Radeon HD 5850s and 5870s as low as $170 and $270, respectively). We can’t give them a solid recommendation because availability is limited, but at these prices you should certainly consider a discounted Radeon HD 5800 card if you can find it.

The new Radeon HD 6800s recently dropped a few dollars, too, with the 6850 and 6870 found as low as $180 and $230. The GeForce GTX 460 is priced close to the 6850, but the GeForce GTX 470 typically costs $30 more than the 6870, at the time of writing. This spread is a little higher than it should be from a price/performance valuation, so we’re taking the recommendation away from the GeForce GTX 470 until the cost falls a little more in line.

The flagships from both camps are increasingly becoming hard to find, especially the Radeon HD 5970. This makes sense, since it will soon be replaced, but the GeForce GTX 580 is also looking limited, especially on Newegg and Zipzoomfly (TigerDirect and Mwave both have a handful of brands in stock). Perhaps the shortage is due to the inevitable demand of the holidays, but we’ll keep an eye on retail stock nevertheless.

Aside from this, the world waits to see what Sandy Bridge and Fusion will soon do for integrated graphics, and we wait with bated breath for the new dual GPU-equipped high end to arrive.

Read the full article at: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card

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