I built a decent computer a few years back and it is in need of an upgrade. I was looking into getting a new video card and there seems to be a huge range of prices. I hear things like "900's" this and "800's" that and I have no clue what they mean. I see some 880 cards (I think that's the number) and they are more expensive than a 970. Why? What the hell am I looking for exactly? I'm wanting a good card in the 200-300 dollar range.

It's all confusing. I don't get it. Please help.

Please.

the 800's and 900's are ranges, and the 80 and 90 parts are the actual card value in that range. So a 880 costs more than 970 because even though the 970 is newer (because of the 900 part), the 880 is a more powerful card int the range (because of the 80 part vs the 70 part on the 970). Each series has its high, medium and low end cards.

As for a new card, the 960 is pretty good for the money, runs Witcher 3 well, with 8gb ram and i5 cpu. Its here from Newegg.

EDIT: also, not a bad place to read

A good place to start. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

It goes by your budget.

Not sure wtf people are talking about 800's like they are a thing considering that Nvidia skipped that number after 700 series. The current gen are the 900 series. Right now the 970 is the best bang for your buck card that will last a while. I would go with that

@thegamergeek: The 970 is an amazing card for the price and all you need until you start going over 1080p.

The 880 is a laptop gpu. I'm not even sure if you can buy it on its own.

The 780 is more expensive but isn't as good as a 970. The 970 was a lot cheaper new than the previous generations high-end cards and Nvidia stopped making the 700 series right away. They're still more expensive because retailers bought them at a higher price point and aren't willing to take the loss on them yet. I can't think of any reason why you'd want a 780 over a 970. You might be able to get slightly better performance on games that are a few years old but the 980 draws a lot more power.

@ The 700 series barely even registered, minor upgrades from the 600 series that seemed to exist for the sake of existing, the 900 series is what you need to look at.

As rule of thumb GTX series:

GTX x60 the entry level GTX and will play most games well with decent settings
x70 Pretty much the flagship card only with a lower clock speed
x80 the flagship card and will offer the best performance... though the jump isn't so great that you need to upgrade from the GTX x70 at least without looking at other components, only consider if you have the cash and whiling to dump money on the premium.

Right now the 970 is the perfect card for most gamers who want the high end graphics. The price: performance ratio is far greater than the other cards in the range,

Yeah I'm not quite sure what you're talking about either, there is no 800 series cards.... Those are laptop only GPUs... so unless you're comparing laptops with an 880m and an 970m then I really don't know what you're talking about... 970 is about the best way to go, its architecture alone would be better anyway.

970 but wait until ati releases the fiji cards for a price drop