There are many different graphics cards on the market today and for that reason it can be difficult to find the right graphics card for gaming without spending too much. For this reason I have come up with my list of some of the best graphics cards for gaming on the market today, all costing you less than two hundred dollars.
What are the best graphics cards?
PNY Geforce GTX 560: This is by far one of the best cards on the market today for less than two hundred dollars. If you’re looking for a quick and inexpensive upgrade or are looking to build a gaming computer for the first time, I highly recommend this card. This card not only performed well on highest settings in games like Starcraft II and Battlefield 3, but it also performed well when rendering video. While playing Battlefield on max setting I would achieve anywhere between fifty to eighty frames a second depending on where on the map I was located. While I don’t normally have a use for SLI compatibility, you will be happy to know that this card is SLI compatible. The only real downside to this card is its size, but with as much power as it has it would be difficult to make it similar to the size of Nvidia’s low profile card series. I would have liked for more on board memory with this card, but overall it performed better than expected and allowed me to get high frames with smooth gameplay on all the latest games.
Memory: 1GB GDDR5
Interface: PCI-Express 16
SLI ready: Yes
Core clock: 810 MHz
Memory clock: 4004 MHz
Shader clock: 1620 MHz
Stream processors: 336
Power recommended: 450 watts
Price: $149.96
XFX Radeon HD 7770: I have never been a real big fan of Radeon cards ever since my first card malfunctioned out of the box, but I had heard a lot of good things about this card so I decided to give it a try. When testing this card I would have to say that it is one of the best Radeon cards I have seen in a long time. While it doesn’t reach the same frame rates as the GTX 560 on max settings in Battlefield 3 or Starcraft II it does come close and for the price I would highly recommend it. The best part about this version of the card is that it has a dual fan assembly, which makes in run quieter then the GTX 560 and also allows for greater overclock ability if that’s what you’re looking for in your next card. The video rendering is very smooth in all games and it runs cool through hours of operation.
Memory: 1GB GDDR5
Interface: PCI-Express 16
Crossfire ready: Yes
Core clock: 1000 MHz
Memory clock: 1300 MHz
Shader clock: 1620 MHz
Stream processors: 640
Power recommended: 450 watts
Price: $149.99
EVGA Geforce GTX 550: This card is perhaps the best card for this low of a price and it reminds me of the old 9800GT I used to own. While I still use my older GTS 450, this card was supposed to be the upgradable comparison to my card so I decided it would be a good idea to try it out. I have to say that from the moment I began playing with this card I noticed an improvement in overall gameplay. My frames in Battlefield 3 as well as Starcraft increased about ten to fifteen depending on where I was and what kind of event was going on at the time. I was very pleased with this card and was amazed at how well it handled the explosions in Battlefield 3. While its memory clock is much slower than the before mentioned GTX 560, it performed comparably in many situations and for the reduction in price I couldn’t ask for a better card. If you want a cheap card that allows you to run the latest games on the highest settings I would highly recommend this card.
Memory: 1GB GDDR5
Interface: PCI-Express 16
SLI ready: Yes
Core clock: 900 MHz
Memory clock: 1025 MHz
Shader clock: 1800 MHz
Stream processors: 192
Power recommended: 400 watts
Price: $114.99
