Best Graphics Cards For The Money: February 2014

Although it defies any semblance of logic, the prices of mid- to high-end Radeon cards continue to increase. Worse, the plague is spreading to the mid-range R9 270 family, which was unaffected up until recently. Here's the sad state of AMD's portfolio at the time of writing compared to last month: the Radeon R9 270 is up $30 to $210; the Radeon R7 270X is up $20 to $230; the Radeon R9 280X is up $20 to $440; the Radeon R9 290 is up $50 to $580; and the Radeon R9 290X is up $60 to $680. 

Plain and simple, those prices are destroying any semblance of value the mid-range to high-end Radeon brand had. A few months ago, AMD was dominating the recommendations $300 and up. But now, the most expensive card we can get behind is the $140 Radeon R7 260X. Above that, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 660 claims the recommendation right under $200, displacing the Radeon R9 270.

As if we didn't have enough to complain about, the promising Radeon R7 260, which AMD paper-launched in December with a $110 price tag, didn't materialize in January, as we were told it would. As of right now, Newegg finally has two Radeon R7 260s in stock: a 1 GB model from Asus that's selling for $140 (or about the same price you'd pay for a superior Radeon R7 260X with 2 GB), and MSI's R7 260 1GD5 OC for $125, which is better, but still overpriced relative to the Radeon R7 260X. We're told the board partners are to blame; they didn't see the need to replace AMD's venerable Radeon HD 7770. How disappointing.

The news isn't all doom and gloom for AMD, though. The company finally rolled out its Catalyst 14.1 beta driver with support for Mantle and more comprehensive frame pacing, including Eyefinity configurations. Mantle is getting most of the attention, both for its performance increases and some reported issues with image quality. But frame pacing is probably more important in the near term, particularly for owners of GCN-based cards in CrossFire who've been waiting to see AMD extend this feature to multiple monitors.

In addition, we're pleased to see Radeon R7 250 GDDR5 prices drop. It's fairly easy to find this card around $80, taking the Radeon R7 240 DDR3 cards out of consideration at $70. We'd want them under $60.

Now let's talk about Nvidia, a company that didn't introduce any new products or make any significant price changes over the past month, but still managed to surface as a topic of discussion regarding its next-gen architecture. We're not in a position to discuss specifics, but we can point out that the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost is no longer available, leaving a void in Nvidia's line-up that it probably wants to fill.

Some Notes About Our Recommendations

A few simple guidelines to keep in mind when reading this list:

• This list is for gamers who want to get the most for their money. If you don’t play games, the cards on this list are more expensive than what you really need. We've added a reference page at the end of the column covering integrated graphics processors, which is likely more apropos for home, office, and basic multimedia usage models.
• Be sure to check out our new performance per dollar comparison page, where you can overlay the benchmark data we’ve generated with pricing, giving you a better idea where your ideal choice falls on the value curve. The criteria to get on this list are strictly price/performance.
• Recommendations for multiple video cards, such as two Radeon cards in CrossFire mode or two GeForce cards in SLI, typically require a motherboard that supports CrossFire/SLI and possibly a chassis with plenty of space to install multiple graphics cards. These setups also usually call for a beefier power supply than what a single card needs, and will almost certainly produce more heat than a single card. Keep these factors in mind when making your purchasing decision. In most cases, if we have recommended a multiple-card solution, we try to recommend a single-card honorable mention at a comparable price point for those who find multi-card setups undesirable.
• Prices and availability change on a daily basis. We can’t base our decisions on always-changing pricing information, but we can list some good cards that you probably won’t regret buying at the price ranges we suggest, along with real-time prices from our PriceGrabber engine, for your reference.
• The list is based on some of the best U.S. prices from online retailers. In other countries or at retail stores, your mileage will almost certainly vary.
• These are new card prices. No used or open-box cards are in the list. While these offers might represent a good deal, it’s simply outside the scope of what we’re trying to do.