The Bottom Line: AMD's new ATI Radeon HD 4850 is a solid midrange 3D card that will run pretty much anything, and it boasts some forward-looking features to boot. It might be worth waiting for the price to drop just a bit, at which point this card will become much more attractive.

Specs: ATI Radeon HD 4850, 2560 x 1600, 512 MB, PCI Express 2.0 x16, PC, GDDR3 SDRAM 256-bit, 2

The Bottom Line: If you're looking to build a home theater PC, we recommend ATI's Radeon HD 2600 XT as the midrange card to use, thanks to its nearly perfect HD video image and its no-fuss installation. But for 3D gaming, you'd be much better off looking for a good deal on a faster, older graphics card.

Specs: ATI Radeon HD 2600XT, 2560 x 1600, 512 MB, PCI Express x16, PC, GDDR3 SDRAM, 2

The Bottom Line: If you're looking for a gaming card to run Vista and play most games, ATI's Radeon X1950 Pro will get you there, but not perfectly, and its real-world pricing is higher than we'd like. We're more interested to see ATI's next-gen cards use the newly refined CrossFire dual-card technology, debuted here, but that will have to wait.

Specs: 1 GPUs, ATI Radeon X1950 Pro, 2560 x 1600, 256 MB, PCI Express x16, PC, GDDR3 SDRAM 256-bit, 2

The Bottom Line: It's not suited to 3D gaming, but for an upgrade to your video-oriented PC, ATI's new Radeon X1300 Pro introduces some useful features.

Specs: ATI Radeon X1300 Pro, 2560 x 1600, 256 MB (max), 256 MB, PCI Express x16, PC, DDR2 SDRAM 128-bit, 2

The Bottom Line: ATI's second-best 3D card brings all of the requisite features to the 3D gaming table, but its specialized performance makes it less compelling.

Specs: ATI Radeon X1800 XL, 2560 x 1600 / 60 Hz, 256 MB, PCI Express x16, PC, GDDR3 SDRAM 256-bit, 2

The Bottom Line: The ATI Radeon X800 XL is unmatched when it comes to providing top-notch 3D speed at a low price. It's our current favorite standalone card.

Specs: ATI Radeon X800 XL, 2048 x 1536 / 85 Hz, 256 MB, PCI Express x16, PC, GDDR3 SDRAM 256-bit, 2

The Bottom Line: The ATI Radeon 9200 redefines the level of 3D performance for budget graphics cards, but it still trails the competition.

Specs: ATI Radeon 9200, 2048 x 1536 / 85 Hz, 128 MB / 128 MB (max), AGP 8x, PC, DDR SDRAM, 2

Specs: ATI Radeon 9800 PRO, 2048 x 1536 / 85 Hz, 256 MB, AGP 8x, PC, DDR SDRAM, 2

The Bottom Line: Dedicated 3D gamers need not bother, but home or business users will appreciate the solid 2D performance and a new approach to face-to-face communication over the Internet.

Specs: Matrox MGA G550, 2048 x 1536, 32 MB / 32 MB (max), AGP 4x, PC, DDR SDRAM, 2

Specs: ATI Radeon 9800 PRO, 2048 x 1536 / 85 Hz, 128 MB, AGP 8x, PC, DDR SDRAM, 2