VGA Graphics Cards

The Bottom Line: We don't think most gamers shopping for a midrange 3D card are looking for power efficiency, but for those conscientious few, the EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked is the card for you. Otherwise, you can get noticeably more performance and capability from an only slightly more expensive ATI card.

Specs: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260, 2560 x 1600, 896 MB, PC

The Bottom Line: EVGA's GeForce GTX 9800+ Superclocked edition has basically the same price-performance benefit as its Radeon HD 4850-based graphics card competition. With identical bang-for-the-buck, you'll like this card if you demand power efficiency, but you should turn to ATI's card if your PC has limited upgrade room.

Specs: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+, 2560 x 1600, 512 MB, PC, 2

Specs: 2 GPUs - ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2, 2560 x 1600, 2 GB, PC

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, PC, 2

The Bottom Line: Nvidia's new GTX280 graphics chip brings fast 3D performance and exciting new possibilities for speeding up certain kinds of multimedia applications. We'd be more enthusiastic about this card if the software was available to take advantage of the new features.

Specs: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280, 2560 x 1600, 1 GB, PC

The Bottom Line: Nvidia's new GeForce 9600 GT graphics chip gives the Asus EN9600 GT some of the best bang-for-the-buck we've seen in a midrange 3D card. If your goal is reliable frame rates in the latest PC games, you should pick this card up as soon as you can.

Specs: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT, 2560 x 1600, 512 MB, PC, 2

The Bottom Line: Asus and Nvidia have teamed up for a compelling midrange 3D graphics card with this EN8800 GT. It doesn't completely dominate a less expensive card from ATI like we'd hoped, so players of certain games should stay away. But if you can find this card for a good price, we recommend it, especially if you intend to use two of them.

Specs: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, 2560 x 1600, 512 MB, PC, 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, PC, 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, PC, 2

The Bottom Line: We don't recommend paying even $125 for this new budget 3D card from ATI, but assuming you can find it for $100 or less, the Radeon X1650 Pro will meet your Windows Vista and basic gaming needs without overheating your PC or your wallet.

Specs: ATI Radeon X1650 Pro, 512 MB, PC, 2