£200 Graphics Cards

[Jamielicious]

Is it just me or has there been very little for those with budgets or about or slightly under £200?

About 3 years ago the 660Ti and 7870 both offered something for the upper-mid range buyer.

Right now you've got loads of cards that perform about the same as each other costing just above £150 like the 960/380/280 and then you have at or above £250 the much faster 970/390.

Other than that brief period where some 290s were selling at £200-£210 mark there's been a huge gap in both price and performance that neither AMD nor Nvidia seem to want to fill.

So, will we ever see something worthwhile again at or just under £200 or is it case of waiting for 14nm?

 

[Jamielicious]

That's the thing, the 660 and 7870 cards are 3 years old and right now the only significant upgrades cost over £250.

Also to be honest the 660/7870 type cards are still doing alright at 1080p (my 2GB 7870 seems to love GTA5 even on V High Textures), so the main reasons to upgrade are to move up to 1440p or to get 90-144fps or for more VRAM. For all of those really a 780/290 is surely the minimum and right now neither exist for under about £220.

I can however see either Nvidia launching a 3GB 965 based on a cut-down 970 or AMD price cutting the 390.

Finally wasn't there also meant to be a better Tonga card coming (385?) that'd probably do the job.

 

[Jamielicious]

It's a pity I'm nowhere near qualifying for the MM. ** Reference to a deleted post removed **

The MM is still an option for CAT-THE-FIFTH though.

 

[Jamielicious]

This is the longest I've gone without an upgrade but I do think the 20nm issues are a part of the problem, that made AMD uncompetitive so Nvidia could sell their Maxwell cards for more and then raise the price rather than lower them (970s are still about £20 above launch prices).

2006: 1600pro (256)
2007: 8800gts (320)
2008: HD4870 (512)
2010: GTX460 (1GB)
2012: HD7870 (2GB)
2015 or 2016???