Buyer’s guide for December 2011. Updated with newest AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce cards.
Which is the best graphics cards for money this month?

Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR3, Radeon HD 6770 1GB GDDR5, Radeon HD 6790 1GB GDDR5, Radeon HD 6850 1GB GDDR5, GeForce GTX 560 Ti (384) 1GB GDDR5, GeForce GTX 560 Ti (448) 1GB GDDR5, GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5, GeForce GTX 580 1536MB, ASUS MARS II 3GB (GTX580)

$70	79€	Radeon HD 5670 1028MB GDDR3
		Raster Units	Fragment Pipelines	Texture Units	Default Core Clock	Default Memory Clock	Power Draw / Required PSW	3Dmark Vantage P Score	3Dmark 2011 Score
		8	400	20	790	1000	61/300	6367	1460
Radeon HD 5670 is not a gaming graphics card. Although, it will handle old gaming titles, it is addressed for multimedia processing purposes. Radeon 5670 is energy saving card and has some overclocking potential.

$110	86€	Radeon HD 6770 1GB GDDR5
		Raster Units	Fragment Pipelines	Texture Units	Default Core Clock	Default Memory Clock	Power Draw / Required PSW	3Dmark Vantage P Score	3Dmark 2011 Score
		16	800	40	850	2400	108/400	12119	2625
Radeon HD 6770 is actually the same graphics card as Radeon HD 5770, which is slighly slower than Radeon HD 5850. It has decreased memory bus bandwidth and lower number of Fragment Pipelines.

$110	116€	Radeon HD 6790 1GB GDDR5
		Raster Units	Fragment Pipelines	Texture Units	Default Core Clock	Default Memory Clock	Power Draw / Required PSW	3Dmark Vantage P Score	3Dmark 2011 Score
		16	800	40	840	2100	150/400	13717	3245
Radeon HD 6790 is refreshed and improved version of Radeon HD 5770. It has wider memory bus width (256bit) which will easily handle high resolution monitors.

$145	124€	Radeon HD 6850 1GB GDDR5
		Raster Units	Fragment Pipelines	Texture Units	Default Core Clock	Default Memory Clock	Power Draw / Required PSW	3Dmark Vantage P Score	3Dmark 2011 Score
		32	900	48	775	2000	127/400	15708	3539
Middle-end graphics cards starts here. Radeon HD 6850 is quite similar to GTX 460, but its cheaper and performance is comparable.

$235	180€	GeForce GTX 560 Ti (384) 1GB GDDR5
		Raster Units	Fragment Pipelines	Texture Units	Default Core Clock	Default Memory Clock	Power Draw / Required PSW	3Dmark Vantage P Score	3Dmark 2011 Score
		32	384	64	880	1375	170/500	19013	4607
In this price tag you should definately get one of GeForce GTX 560 Ti models. This graphics cards is better solution than Radeon HD 6870.

$290	215€	GeForce GTX 560 Ti (448) 1.2GB GDDR5
		Raster Units	Fragment Pipelines	Texture Units	Default Core Clock	Default Memory Clock	Power Draw / Required PSW	3Dmark Vantage P Score	3Dmark 2011 Score
		40(48)	448	60(64)	732	1900	210/500	20825	5693
The newest graphics card from NVIDIA. Refreshed PCB with new GeForce GTX 560 Ti gpu, with additional pipelines (384 -> 448). It is the best solution it this price tag. In syntethic benchmarks GTX 560Ti(448) is even faster than GTX 570.

$479	400€	GeForce GTX 580 1536MB
		Raster Units	Fragment Pipelines	Texture Units	Default Core Clock	Default Memory Clock	Power Draw / Required PSW	3Dmark Vantage P Score	3Dmark 2011 Score
		48	512	128	772	2004	244/600	24426	6670
GeForce GTX 580 represents the newest Fermi graphics family from NVIDIA. Significantly improved provides substantial performance boost.

$1580	1174€	ASUS Mars II (Dual GTX580) 3GB GDDR5
		Raster Units	Fragment Pipelines	Texture Units	Default Core Clock	Default Memory Clock	Power Draw / Required PSW	3Dmark Vantage P Score	3Dmark 2011 Score
		96	1024	256	1544	2004	350/700	36825	10410
If your budget is unlimited you should probably choose ASUS MARS II. This card has no opponent in this price. ASUS MARS II is a solution for enthusiasts or collectors, as its superhard to find nowadays.