Best Video / Graphics Card For The Money (April 2013, $100-$200)
Here is list of best mid-range gaming graphics cards for the money, from 100 to 200 dollars. The more expensive models are powerful enough for running newer games (with some exceptions) with almost maximum settings at not very high resolutions. Of course you need a decent processor that will not bottleneck the video card. Before buying one of these graphics cards make sure that you have a good PSU (pre-built brand computers usually don't) and case that is big enough for longer video cards like AMD Radeon HD 6870. Also, you need a motherboard with a free PCI-E x16 slot.
Under $100 (AMD Radeon HD 7750)
AMD Radeon HD 6770 was the best gaming graphics card in this price range for a long time, but now is the super power efficient AMD Radeon HD 7750 available. It is equal or slightly slower than HD 6770 and it consumes 2x less power at full load, so it doesn't require a PCI-E power connector. NVIDIA GTX 650 with similar performance costs over $100.
Under $120 (AMD Radeon HD 7770)
If your budget is $120, then you should get AMD Radeon HD 7770, because its competitor NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 SE isn't available anymore. They should have nearly identical performance, but Radeon HD 7770 has much lower power consumption. However the GeForce GTX 560 SE has CUDA, PhysX, NVIDIA 3D Vision - things that AMD graphics cards don't have. The AMD Radeon HD 7770 has dropped to $115 from very overpriced 160 dollars.
Under $150 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti is slightly slower than NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 and AMD Radeon HD 6870, but it's cheap enough to be a decent choice between cheaper AMD Radeon HD 7770 and more expensive 1GB HD 7850. Both NVIDIA GTX 560 and AMD HD 6870 currently cost more than 1GB HD 7850, which makes them a bad investment.
Under $200 (AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB)
2GB version of AMD Radeon HD 7850 can now be found for under $190, thanks to the AMD price cuts few months ago. HD 7850 with 1GB VRAM are even cheaper, these are suitable for people with low resolution monitors. Slightly faster GeForce GTX 480 used to cost the same price, but the card is way too power hungry and it is now discontinued anyway.
