Quote:
Best video card for ~$200: Two-Way Tie:
GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6850 1GB
GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6850 1GB
OR
MSI GTX 460
MSI GeForce GTX 460 1GB
Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850 1GB
V.S.
MSI Geforce GTX 460 1GB
After recommending only the Radeon HD 6850 last month, I’m changing my mind this month and I’m now recommending either cards.
Why?
First of all, the Radeon HD 6850 became more expensive ($200 vs $180), due to limited availability and great demand for it, making the 6850 less attractive.
Second of all, many overclocked GTX 460 1GB, which outperforms the stock Radeon HD 6850, started to appear on the market at a lower price than before, making the option of going with an overclocked Geforce GTX 460 1GB more attractive.
However, overclocked versions of the Radeon HD 6850 started appearing, closing the performance gap with the also overclocked GTX 460 1GB.
In the end, both cards offer excellent performance and with price variations, you can pick whichever is the least expensive when you’re on the market to buy a ~$200 card and be very happy with your purchase.
Regarding the cards that I recommend:
The two specific cards that I recommended (Gigabyte Radeon 6850, MSI GTX 460 1GB) offer the best bang for the buck for their respective series in my opinion, by offering the most performance and best cooling at a good price.
The GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6850 1GB is a factory overclocked Radeon HD 6850, with frequencies of 820MHz (Std. 775MHz) and 1050MHz (Std. 1000MHz), for the Core and Memory respectively.
Its dual-fan cooler ensures that the card remains cool, without being noisy either and gives you some thermal headroom if you decide to overclock the card even more.
The MSI GeForce GTX 460 1GB is a factory overclocked Geforce GTX 460 1GB, with frequencies of 780MHz (Std. 675MHz), 1560MHz (Std. 1350MHz) and 3600MHz (Std. 3600MHz) for the Core, Shader and Memory respectively.
Just like the Gigabyte 6850 above, this card features a dual-fan cooler ensures that the card remains cool, without being noisy either and gives you some thermal headroom if you decide to overclock the card even more.
Another great alternative
As you may or may not know, when new series of video cards are launched, the previous series gets heavily discounted, in order to liquidate the remaining stocks. This is often a great opportunity to grab a powerful previous-gen card at an outstanding price.
The XFX Radeon HD 5850 1GB is an excellent example, since you can now buy it for $220, or $170 after a $50(!) Mail-In Rebate.
Performance wise, the stock 5850 is undeniably faster than the stock 6850. With the Radeon 6850 and Geforce GTX 460 1GB overclocked, all three cards are about on par, but you can also overclock the Radeon 5850 and get even more performance out of it.
Power consumption wise, the Radeon 6850 is the lowest at load, followed by the Radeon 5850 (+~20W) and then the GTX 460 1GB (+~30W).
If you don’t mind the mail-in rebate, the XFX Radeon HD 5850 1GB is the card to get in my opinion. Even if you mind the rebate, it remains a great alternative at $220.
Any of those three cards will run the majority of games maxed out at 1920 x 1080, with less or more AA/AF, depending on the game.
