The Best Gaming Graphics Cards for the Money

Detailed graphics card specifications and reviews are great - that is, if you have the time to do the research. But at the end of the day, what a gamer needs is the best graphics card within a certain budget.

If you don't have the time to research the benchmarks, or don't feel confident enough in your ability to make the right decision, fear not. Tom's Hardware Guide have come to your aid with a simple list of the best gaming graphics cards offered for the money.

[Bleyd]

I'm currently in the market for PC parts and I know pretty much everything else I want because that's easy to choose. I was being lazy, though, about picking a good budget video card. Now that I have this reference I can make a better choice.

Thanks!

[Phaqutomb]

i just bought the GeForce 8600 gt from bestbuy about a week ago and i'm happy with my purchase. i think i payed under $100 for it.

[Lucreto]

The spec goes over my head completely. I plan to get a new computer a dell perhaps and try to get a it to run bioshock and others

[Charmers]

Lucreto I would highly advise against Dell, you pay an awful lot for their name and I have seen them do horrendous cost cutting measures (like using a 300watt PSU in a high end machine). My advice to you and everyone considering a PC is look into building your own. It really is not that difficult. There is a ton of information on the net, instruction videos the works. All you need is a screw driver, some commonsense and a bit of patience and you could save yourself a bundle.

As for graphics cards, the best budget model at the moment is the 9600gt. I wouldn't go for anything less than that these days. If you have a bit more cash then you could do worse than pick up an 8800gt. I can't really comment on ATI cards because I don't use them.

[gEnKiE]

Building your own is def the way to go. Especially if your into gaming, plus building a pc is a ton a fun, IMO.

[xsteinbachx]

you're wasting your time with a dell. go on computer websites if you're from Canada message me, and send you some great websites. just wait for the deals.

[hades07]

If you, or anyone, wants to build your own computer, but dont want to do it actually yourself try out this site, http://www.lucomputers.com/... Its a Canadian company that gives you a ton of options in choosing your components, and from comparisons ive done its fairly cheap.

A friend recently purchased a Quad Core 2 duo 6600, 4gigs of ram, and Ati 3870 for $1000, which can run any game right now smooth as butter on high settings, even good for crysis.

[gEnKiE]

I still got my 2 year old 7600gt and been thinking about a new card....actually a whole new setup but I've kind of been part of the whole pc gaming is dying group. Not intentional, just I don't have the kind of money to support both platforms. I really do need a new setup though....