Best Gaming Graphic Card Upgrades for your Desktop Computer: April 2011 Update
Here are the Best PC Gaming Graphics/Video Cards for 2011 at various price points. I picked the best ones at different price points so you can choose the best graphics card for YOUR money and YOUR budget. Due to the feedback of members on this site that are serious gamers I am only including graphics cards that have “1 GB” of RAM on my list. Also due to feedback I am including an ATI and an nVidia card at most price points since some of us favor one company over the other. All of the graphics cards I list will fit into a PCI-Express x16 slot.
There are a ton of graphic cards with different names and model numbers that nVidia and ATI make. Some people might be confused as to what to buy for their own gaming needs as I am at times. To clear up
the confusion a bit I created three different categories of popular PC games I named “tiers”. I created the PC gaming tiers using the PC game manufacturer’s Minimum Recommended Graphics Card AND Processor Requirements. So the higher the Graphics card and CPU minimum requirements a game needs the higher on the tier I placed the games (lowest Tier is “3” and highest is “1”).
PLEASE NOTE: The higher priced graphics cards will insure that you do not need to purchase a faster graphics card when the next version of the game comes out. An example is Left 4 Dead 2. If you buy the lowest priced/level graphics card on my list it will make the game fly. But whenever Left 4 Dead 3 comes out that graphics card might barely run it or not run it at all. So it is always a good idea to not buy the lowest priced/level graphics card so you will not have to buy another one the next year.
The following is an explanation of the different levels of PC game tiers.
Tier 3 games will run smoothly at medium to the highest graphics/visual settings with only the lowest level/price graphics cards.
Tier 2 games will run smoothly at the highest (or near the highest) graphics/visual settings with the graphics cards priced around $100. These games will also run smoothly at the lowest to medium graphics/visual settings with the lowest priced graphics cards.
Tier 1 games will run smoothly at the highest graphics/visual settings with the top 2 graphics cards on my list (GTX 470 and HD 6870). Most Tier 3 games will run smoothly at the highest graphics/visual settings with the graphics cards on my list priced around $180. Most Tier 3 games will run smoothly at medium to semi-high graphics/visual settings with the graphics cards priced around $100. Most Tier 3 games will run smoothly at the lowest to semi-medium graphics/visual settings with the lowest level/priced graphics settings on my list.
3rd Tier Games
Total War: Shogun 2
Portal 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Starcraft 2
The Sims Medieval
The Sims 3
Napoleon: Total War
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
2nd Tier Games
Medal of Honor
Grand Theft Auto IV
Civilization V
Rift
Bioshock 2
Mass Effect 2
Assassin’s Creed 2
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Fallout: New Vegas
Dragon Age II
Bulletstorm
1st Tier Games
Crysis 2
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
Dead Space 2
Dead Rising 2
Mafia II
Best Graphics Cards around $60
ATI Radeon HD 4650 1 GB
nVidia GeForce GT 430 1 GB
Best Graphics Cards under $100
I could not find a comparable 1 GB nVidia graphics card at this price range. That is why I only listed an ATI Radeon card. I bought this card for my nephew's slow PC. It runs Call of Duty: Black Ops so smoothly on it!
ATI Radeon 5670 1GB
Best Graphics Cards Under $190
ATI Radeon HD 6850 1 GB
I upgraded my PC to a GTX 460 1 GB and it rocks. Now I can max out all the games I play :-)
nVidia GeForce GTX 460 1 GB
Best Graphics Cards Under $260
ATI Radeon HD 6870 1 GB
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re: keyboard question [keyboard question]
The wear and tear on a laptop keyboard will definitely be harsher if you just use it for gaming. I am not sure about you but when playing games I am smacking my keyboard buttons really fast so I can shoot my weapon or unleash my ability before the other player.
Here is what I use on my personal gaming PC. This save wear and tear on my keyboard but most importantly it is better than just using a regular keyboard. http://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboards/keyboard/devices/5123
keyboard question
I am sorry i am posting something irrelevant to this blog but i couldnt find a blog for Hardwares in this site...I apologise for that
My question is....
I am using my laptop for one purpose ie Games!!
I obviously bought a USB mouse but is it safe to use my laptop keyboard ???
Will the durability decrease by a great amount??
Thank you and sorry again for the irrelevant post
re: driver download [kakashi]
nVidia and ATI/AMD are constantly improving the performance of their graphics cards that are already out. They do this by testing out new games then tweaking the driver to work better. Sometimes new games run horrible with the current drivers. So the 2 companies fix the issue with new drivers.
If your games are running good then there is no need to upgrade. Just once every few months checkout the AMD/ATI website for the newest drivers for your specific graphics card. Just read the Release Notes. See if within the notes it mentions any improvements on any of the games you are playing. If they never mention your games and they are playing well on your computer then there is no need to upgrade.
driver download
Hey,
I have one major question...what is the need to download new drivers if my old one is well and good!!???
PS:Thank you for having this wonderful blog and replying for all the n00by questions i ask!!??
re: driver downloads [kakashi]
Download the 92.3 MB file. Here is the proper link for your laptop: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.as...
driver downloads
hey joey i am back :):)
i jus checked the amd website for driver downloads,,,i am getting a weird result ...a catalyst suite(11.12) whose size is 1.2 mb...and i install it to get an error saying my video card is not compatible with the driver......i even tried using amddriverdownloader software.......
>notebook graphics
>radeon hd series
>mobility radeon hd 5xxx series
>win 7 64 bit
this is what i typed in the details for driver download
ps. i tried giving someother model instead of 5xxx series and i am redirected to a different website with proper download
can u help ??
THANKS
re: dual gpu vs multi gpu [SLI and CrossFire]
First you buy and install 2 graphics cards of the same type.
Then using an internal cable you connect them.
When running a game with 2 or more graphics cards inside of your computer working via SLI or CrossFire they share the work. When you see the game on your screen and are using 2 cards via SLU half of the graphics processing is sent to 1 card and the other half is send to the 2nd card. So you end up getting faster frame rates in games with the 2 cards doing the job of 1.
When you buy a graphics card with a dual GPU setup you get one huge graphics card with 2 graphics processors on it. Two processors to run you game.
I prefer the dual GPU on 1 graphics card setup. The reason why is that with SLI or CrossFire you sometimes get a little flickering when playing games or sometimes the graphics will seem fuzzy (they call this “artifacting”).
dual gpu vs multi gpu
I was reading about nVidia's Scalable Linked Interface(SLI) and ATI's crossfire...I read that they use two video cards output and combine them..but i dont seem to understand them properly...??can u explain what they are???
And is it better than dual GPU's???
Thankx
re: GTX 590
Yes, the fastest nVidia card right now is the GTX 590. On the other side the fastest ATI/AMD card right now is the Radeon HD 6990.
GTX 590
The best graphics card now is GTX 590 right??
It has a dual GPU and should obviously max out all the best games
But the cost..o_O
760$ or 40,000 INR