Graphics Best GFX card for about £100

Hi all

It's been a while since I was last here, but I'm building a computer for a friend and they plan to do a bit of gaming. Since it's been a few years since I last looked at graphics cards (back when 9600 was good, 9800 was great - that's all you needed to know), I am totally flummoxed by the current range of graphics cards. There seems to be no logic at all to any numbering scheme.

The spec I was asked for came from an HP Pavilion he was looking at and that came with a GT 545 with 3GB of RAM. I've googled a bit and see that this is really just a GT 440, and that 3GB cards aren't available anywhere I've looked.

So my question is - what card should I use today - Feb 2012? I know this is going to stir up some debate but I'm totally lost. I've found an Asus GeForce GTX 550Ti 1024MB for £90, which did get good reviews last year, but is it the best buy?

The rest of the system is a Core i7 2600 with 8GB of DDR3.

Any help would be appreciated. I've budgeted about £100ish for graphics.

Thanks

Colin C

 

I asked the same thing a while back, here's the thread

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=225408

 

Assuming the PSU is a decent model and 450w+ (for efficiency) the best choices would be:

AMD HD6850 1GB - available for around £100

Nvidia GTX 460 1GB - available for around £100-120 depending on model.

AMD HD6870 1GB - available from around £120

All three perform excellently even at 1080p in the latest games (just not max settings). All are better than the GTX550Ti.

The HD6850 is probably the pick of the bunch. It peforms basically the same as the GTX460 but consumes less power an should run cooler.

 

I'd agree that the 6850 seems to be the pick of the bunch. However, watch out for any deals on the 5850, although a while back I've seen those go for £100. I own the 5850 and it's pretty good (Y), I've played Skyrim and BF3 maxed out.

 

What's this pc being used for? Unless it's something serious the i7 is a waste of money as the gpu will jd it back in games

 

The GT 545 is an OEM only card, that's why you haven't been able to find it.

 

tis a shame - you missed the HD 6850 on ocuk for £89 2 days ago

 

This also make sad that I missed it. Would have brought 2

 

Thanks for the responses guys. I went for the 6850 - got it for just over £100.

The reason for a Core i7 is to keep the computer more future-proof. It's an upgrade from an A64 4200+ with on-board graphics. I figure that a graphics card upgrade in the future is easy, but a CPU upgrade will normally require a new motherboard and RAM. The i7 should last a good few years at least.

Colin C