Top 5 graphics cards under Rs.15,000

Still holding its own against the competition

We’ve gone with PowerColor’s version of the card, since it’s the cheapest in the market and has the same specifications as the slightly more expensive offerings from Sapphire and HIS. The HD 6850 will also run comfortable on a good 450W PSU (like Corsair VX450), but we recommend you get a good 500W PSU at least for some good buffer. This is very capable card and Full HD gaming should be breeze with it.

ZOTAC GTX 560 - Rs.11,000
Coming to the 10K - 15K price bracket, the competition just gets fiercer. We once again have two picks here and the first one is the Nvidia GTX 560. It was either this or the AMD HD 6870, which is also a very good performer but between the two, we picked the Nvidia card for its slight edge in performance. We’ve gone with ZOTAC’s offering here, since it’s one of the cheapest in the market and plus, you get 5 years extended warranty.

Good value

MSI N560GTX-Ti M2D1GD5/OC or Sapphire HD 6950 1GB - Rs.14,000
For our final card, we leave the choice up to you. For a little under 15K, we have two very capable cards - the Nvidia GTX 560 Ti and AMD’s HD 6950 1GB. Both are almost identical in performance, with the AMD card being slightly faster in some games. However, the GTX 560 Ti is a very good overclocker, so it easily pushes past the HD 6950 1GB with a little tweaking. It will also run a bit cooler than AMD’s offering.

Take your pick

Both these cards will easily let you play the current games at high settings, but just make sure you also have a speedy CPU to complement the graphics card, else you’ll be bottlenecking the card. Nvidia cards usually play well with Intel CPUs while AMD cards work well with their own CPUs (obviously), so choose accordingly. Also, make sure you have a good 550W PSU and above to comfortably run these cards.

We hope this has been helpful to you in making your buying decision. Remember that these are Mumbai prices, so it will vary based on where you're located. If you find or know of some good summer deals or any cards or have any other suggestions, feel free to share them in the comments section below. Over and out.