There are a myriad of different graphics cards available on the market, some of which are aimed directly toward specific markets such as gamers. If you do not have a lot of money to spend, then consider affordable graphics cards that do not sacrifice quality or capability. These are four good values in their respective classes. Here are the top 5 affordable graphics cards:
1:ATI Radeon HD 6870 – This card launched in October of 2010 and has improvements in power consumption as well as smaller chips, which means they are cheaper in production and cheaper on the shelf. The HD 6870 falls a little bit behind the HD 5870, but it is $100 cheaper at $130 and therefore is a smart buy if you are looking for a fast graphics card for gaming purposes.
2:ATI Radeon HD 6850 – The price with this card stands out even more than its performance, but it is definitely not a slouch if you are trying to run games. The framerate for this card is comparable to more expensive cards, but this one is much more affordable despite being evenly matched in many ways.
3: NVidia GeForce GTX 460 – This card precedes the GTX 465, benefiting from a re-designed chip with less complexity and less power-hunger despite comparable performance rates. This card is available both in a 768 MB and 1 GB version depending on what memory bus you need. Spend the extra money on the 1 GB model for a 256-bit memory bus.
4:NVidia GeForce GTX 470 – The first DirextX 11 cards from NVidia were released during 2010, and this managed to bring the GeForce cards back into competition with other brands. This card is a step down from the GTX 480 which is very fast but very expensive. This card benchmarks close to more expensive cards with comparable capabilities and is a cheap buy for high end gaming despite the more palatable price.