Best Graphics card for $250-$300??

[MythicalMino]

Want to buy a new card, for gaming. What is the best one to get between the 250 - 300 dollar range? Which one would you all reccommend?

Chris

[Armando Penblade]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ew,3107-4.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ew,3107-5.html

[Misguided]

My son's computer went up in smoke (literally). I'm building a new one and picked up an HIS IceQ 7870. newegg has them on sale at the moment for 290. I put an iceq 6970 in the machine I built back in March and have been very happy with it.

Edit: I should mention these cards take up a bit more than 2 slots, so might not be best for all situations.

[Starlight]

Yea, I'm very happy with my 7850 IceQ. It's quiet and effective.

(In fact, I've had a string of IceQ cards and not been unhappy with any of them)

UK pricing meant the 7870 was considerably more expensive or I'd have got one of those.

[Otagan]

I swapped up to a 7850 recently and have been very satisfied with it. I got the Sapphire model with the factory overclock (this one).

[Skorin]

I upgraded to a 7850 (and ivy bridge processor) two days ago, and it kicked the crap out of Guild Wars 2 World vs World (80+ people in a small area) at completely maxed settings. No frame drops at all. Was really amazing after the 460 GTX couldn't handle shit.

So yeah, one more vote for the 7850!

[stusser]

The GTX660 is coming out in the next week or two, and will be priced in that range. I'd wait to see what the reviews say if I were you.

[rei]

have there been any advances in all the die shrinks benefiting cards shorter than 9.5" in pcb length?

[red guy]

The GTX660 is coming out in the next week or two, and will be priced in that range. I'd wait to see what the reviews say if I were you.

I read somewhere that that card (660 Ti) might be priced above $300 ($330 was the given quote), which makes sense given that it's based on the same chip as the 670 and 680, but with a reduced memory interface. Also, it's rumored to have performance between the 7950 and 7970. Still, it's something worth waiting for.

A cheaper, interesting card may follow in September: either called 650 Ti or 660, it's based on a smaller chip (GK106), should be in the same performance class as the 7850 and 7870, and be priced in the $250 range, maybe lower.

[Equisilus]

The GTX660 is coming out in the next week or two, and will be priced in that range. I'd wait to see what the reviews say if I were you.

Oh, excellent. I was watching the 670 for an upgrade from my 460 but maybe I'll keep it in line and go to the 660. That'll be a big enough performance jump, I think, to be noticeable.