Top Gaming Video Card 2012

Nvidia GeForce GTX 580:

EVGA GeForce GTX 580 1536 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 2DVI/Mini-HDMI SLI Ready Limited Lifetime Warranty Graphics Card, 015-P3-1580-AR
Amazon Price: $389.99
List Price: $504.99

Nvidia introduced the GeForce 500 series of graphics card in the year 2010. They started off by introducing the GTX 580 and the GTX 570 series. The GTX 580 boasts an 18% average improvement over the previous generation model the GTX 480. It features 1,536 MB 384-bit 0.4ns GDDR5 memory, a 4,008 MHz memory clock, and a 772 MHz core clock. It also supports Nvidia 2, 3, or 4-way SLI compatibility. This is truly a powerhouse of a video card and there are only a few cards out there that are more powerful.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 570:

EVGA GeForce GTX 570 Superclocked 1280 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 2DVI/Mini-HDMI SLI Ready Limited Lifetime Warranty Graphics Card, 012-P3-1572-AR
Amazon Price: $385.00
List Price: $364.99

The GTX 570 is a slower version of the 580, but outperforms the previous generation, even the GTX 480. The GTX 570 comes with a 1.25 GB of GDDR5 memory and two 6-pin power connectors. This card is suitable for high-end gaming and will have no problems handling all games out there at high settings.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti:

EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti Superclocked 1024 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 2DVI/Mini-HDMI SLI Ready Limited Warranty Graphics Card, 01G-P3-1563-AR
Amazon Price: $304.00
List Price: $254.99

This video card was launched as a competition for the Radeon HD 6950. The performance of the 560 Ti has shown a great leap of over 35 percent as compared to the previous generation GeForce GTX 460. It is slightly more power consuming and carries the same price that the 460 originally did. It is a mid-range card having only 1 GB memory providing the user an exceptional value for money.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 480:

EVGA GeForce GTX480 1536MB GDDR5 Dual DVI, HDMI, SLI Graphics Cards 015-P3-1480-KR
Amazon Price: $493.27
List Price: $299.99

The GTX 480 is an incredibly powerful card. Its overclocking capabilities are outstanding and its performance is nothing but stable. The only problems with this card is that the GPU can run very hot at times and the fan can be pretty loud running at full speed. If you look into extra cooling units for it, however then this card is nearly perfect for high-end gaming.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 470:

EVGA nVidia GeForce GTX 470 1280 MB DDR5 2DVI/HDMI PCI-Express Video Card
Amazon Price: $0.00

The GTX 470 is a bit slow in performance as compared to the very fast and pricey GeForce GTX 480. It still holds its own with 1.2 GB DDR5 Memory, 3.348 GHz Memory Clock, and 320-bit 133.9Gb/s Memory Bandwidth. It is a great card for high-end gaming but consumes more power if left idle.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 460:

EVGA GeForce GTX 650 1024MB GDDR5 DVI mHDMI Graphics Card 01G-P4-2650-KR
Amazon Price: $99.99
List Price: $126.25

This card is the predecessor to the GTX 465. It has a redesigned chip, which consumes less power, less complex and good performance. The GTX 460 comes in the 1 GB and 768 MB versions. The 768 MB has 192-bit memory while the 1GB has 256-bit.

AMD Radeon HD 6970:

Radeon XFX HD 6970 2 GB Graphics Card
Amazon Price: $479.99
List Price: $376.99

The Radeon HD 6970 was been introduced with the very successful 6800 series cards. Though the HD 6970 is mostly on the same level with the GTX570 in most areas, its 2 GB memory gives it an edge with resolutions like 2560×1600. The HD6970 is 11 inches long and requires both 8-pin and 6-pin auxiliary powers. Performance wise it gives the nearly the same results as the GTX 570 and has almost the same price.

AMD Radeon HD 6950:

Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2 GB DDR5 DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 100312-3L
Amazon Price: $421.56
List Price: $299.99

The 6950 has fewer stream processors and texture units as compared to its expensive 6970. Like the 6970, however also has 2 GB memory and still delivers impressive performance. Basically it is a cheaper, slightly less powerful version of the 6970 but it is still an amazing video card and definitely one of the best choices out there for gamers.

AMD Radeon HD 6870:

Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2 GB DDR5 DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 100312-3L
Amazon Price: $421.56
List Price: $299.99

This card was launched in the year 2010 and is the first card in the series 6000 from Radeon. They consume less power from the previous 5000-generation cards and the chips are smaller in size thus making them cheap to manufacture. The HD 6870 falls slightly short in gaming performance compared with the previous the HD 5870, but it is cheaper than the 1 GB HD 5870. The HD 6870 offers future value if you are moving to DirectX 11. At a price tag of under $200, it is hard to find a better price to performance value.

AMD Radeon HD 5970:

Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 ATI Video Card – 2GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual DVI, Mini Display Port
Amazon Price: $789.99
List Price: $599.99

The AMD Radeon HD 5970 was the fastest card when launched in the year 2009. It is equivalent to running two HD 5870’s in crossfire. The powerful consumption on this card is very high so it is recommended to have at least a 600-700W power supply or higher if you choose to use it. It has both the 6-pin and 8-pin auxiliary connector.

Top Gaming Video Card offers helpful reviews and recommendations of the best video cards for gaming. They also provide lists of other recommended PC components, a comparison of AMD and Nvidia, and the system requirements of all the latest and most popular PC games. Please visit their site for all the information you will need about building a great gaming PC.

AMD Vs. Nvidia

Which do you prefer for gaming?

AMD
Nvidia
See results without voting