Diablo 3 Video Card Recommendation List – The Best Value for Your Budget

Diablo 3 Video Card Buying Guide

 

The video cards suggested here are all listed as officially supported by Blizzard, and the specs will all be aimed to maximize performance with this game specifically. This may mean slightly different choices than you would want for an FPS or other type of game.

You’ll be able to benefit from my research — just pick your price range and find the card that was determined to be the best value for that range. To research this article I took on the not-so-hard task of playing the D3 beta and retail game from release date on to test the strain on systems, and while doing so I experimented with and tweaked all of the in game graphics settings to determine what their real-world effects on performance and quality were. I’ve also scoured benchmarks and video card reviews from many sources, and taken into account many opinions from various forum discussions and reviews among other knowledgeable users. Rest assured, the results you’ll find here are the same you’d come up with after hours of research on your own.

 

Low Budget Video Card Choices

These cards will be the best value for playing this game specifically. One great advantage the game is designed to work well on older and less powerful systems. In fact, as far as new triple-A PC games go, Diablo III will likely be one of the most forgiving on your computer hardware for a long time. The detail level and lighting effects can scale down gracefully if needed, there is limited view distance, and although a lot of enemies and effects may be active on screen at once, this is still less taxing than most other modern games.

If your budget is tight, and you only plan to play this and possibly older games, choose one of these options and you wont be disappointed. Even these low budget cards easily exceed the minimum required specifications.

Graphics settings recommended for low budget:

  • Resolutions: 1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024,  1440 x 900, or 1680 x 1050
  • Graphics Quality: Medium, High

Best Choice in the $50-75 Range:

Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 Video Card

Model # 100326DDR3L
Reason:
Sapphire is a trusted brand that has been around for a very long time. They offer some higher end cards, but are best known for their great budget options. I’ve personally owned two Sapphire cards that have run perfectly for many years, and this specific card consistently gets the highest reviews at this price range. Medium or high graphics settings will run just fine at mid-range resolutions listed above with this card.

Best Choice: $100 or Less

HIS Radeon HD 6750 1GB 128 bit GDDR5 Video Card

Model # H675F1GD
Reasoning: One step above the Sapphire card listed above, you’ll be able to handle high graphics settings as long as you’re using a medium or low resolution listed above. Or, if you happen to be using a larger monitor and want to run at 1920 x 1200 or 1920 x 1080 resolutions, this card will be able to handle it at medium graphics settings. Choose this card if you want to play with maximum / high graphics settings, are on a budget, and have a medium sized monitor (such as a 20, 21, or 22″ monitor). This is the highest rated card at this price range.

 

Mid-Range Video Card Choices

Mid-range video cards are your ideal choice if you want to max out all the graphics quality settings with maximum screen resolutions on a medium to large monitor. You wont have to worry about any low framerates or skipping because cards in this pricerange will have plenty of horsepower for this latest game from Blizzard. These choices will also allow you to play a wider range of other modern games at preferable settings. As covered above, for this game in particular, you will not need a super high end video card to max out the graphics performance. That makes this price range ideal for your best value.

Graphics settings recommended for mid-range:

  • Resolutions: 1920 x 1080, 1920 x 1200
  • Graphics Quality: High, Ultra (Maximum)

Best Choice: $125 – $150 Price Range

EVGA Geforce GTX 550 Ti – *Editors Choice!

EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti FPB 1024 MB GDDR5

Model # 01G-P3-1556-KR
Reasoning: This was an extremely easy choice. The EVGA GTX 550 Ti is by far the most popular card and best value card in a wide price range. There are also often rebates on Amazon which drop the price on this card ridiculously low, so check the above link for information on that. Ask anywhere and the near unanimous opinion will be to go with this card unless you’re looking to spend an extra $50 or more. EVGA cards have great warranties and I’ve personally used one on my main gaming system with great results. This card has near perfect reviews and is the top seller in its category/price range all over the internet. There really is no better choice in this price range, making this a real no-brainer.

 

High End Cards

To be perfectly honest, there is little point of spending this much if you only plan to play D3. Only go with these high end choices if money is no object, if you want to future proof your system for other modern games, or you plan to play at uncommonly high resolutions or with multiple monitors such as in an Eyefinity (Radeon cards) or 3d Vision Surround (NVIDIA cards) setup. However for multi-monitor setups, be aware that fog of war will still apply, so even though the extra monitors will show parts of the map that would otherwise be off screen, you wont see any monsters there and there will often be just pure darkness.

Best Choice: $200 – $250 Price Range

MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB Twin Frozr II OC

Model # N560GTX-Ti
Reasoning: Although you don’t need a card this powerful for this game, this is one of the best options at its price range. Like the other cards suggested it gets great reviews and is one of the most popular cards on the market. With this card you won’t have any need to upgrade for a few years, and you’ll be able to play any new game with ease. One of the key features of this card is advanced cooling – two large fans and an improved heatsink mean it runs cool, is quiet, and can be overclocked further.

 

Conclusion

$50-75 – Low Budget / Value:  Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 1GB
$100 or less – Low Budget / Value: HIS Radeon HD 6750 1GB
*$125-150 – Medium Budget: EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti
$200-250 – High End Card: MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB Twin Frozr II OC

*Editors Choice: EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti ($125 – $150 mid-range budget). For only a few dollars more than the low budget options, you can easily max out all of Diablo 3’s graphics settings at any resolution, and you’ll have plenty of power to run other modern games with high settings as well. This is easily the best value card in the current generation.

Check the links for each card above for active rebates at Amazon, which can commonly knock an extra $10-$25 off the price!

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3 Responses

  1. meh says:

    lol “High End” GTX560? Thats just entry level from a gamer’s pov.

  2. Albright says:

    Keep in mind the subject of the article. For this specific game’s requirements, it really is very high end as far as what is needed for maxed out settings and smooth gameplay.

  3. Dave says:

    At 1920×1200, the HD 6750 edges the more expensive GTX 550 Ti:

    550 Ti does not max out at all resolutions. You need at least a GTX 460 to max out at 1920×1200 (60+ frames per second…benchmark for most gamers).

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