All Graphics Cards

The Bottom Line: The 3D graphics card market changes too rapidly for us to get bullish about a card with premature driver software. The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 shows promise, even outscoring Nvidia on many PC games, but we would still wait until AMD works out the kinks before handing over your $450.

Specs: ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2, 2560 x 1600, 2 GB, PC

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: Despite the usual caveats of an ever-fluctuating 3D market, for the moment, at least, ATI's new Radeon HD 3850 graphics card delivers the best bang-for-the buck in PC graphics hardware. Until now we haven't had an acceptable sub-$200 option for PC gaming this year. Thanks to AMD, now we do.

Specs: ATI Radeon HD 3850, 2560 x 1600, 256 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 care more about HD movie watching than gaming and you need a new video card for the task today, we recommend a 3D card like this EVGA with Nvidia's newest mainstream graphics chip. Gamers can get more performance value from Nvidia's higher-end 8800 cards, but for anyone, it would be a good idea to wait to see what's new from ATI in just a few short weeks.

Specs: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS, 2560 x 1600 / 60 Hz, 256 MB, PC

The Bottom Line: No other 3D graphics card comes close to this bang for the buck, making the 320MB XFX GeForce 8800 GTS mostly an easy decision if you need a midrange upgrade. Nvidia still has to polish off its Vista software, and the sooner-or-later arrival of competing cards muddies the waters a bit, but if you need a midprice graphics card today, this should be your pick.

Specs: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS, 2560 x 1600, 320 MB, PC, 2

The Bottom Line: If you're looking for a dual analog TV tuner and have an open x1 PCI Express slot, the Vista View Saber 2020 offers the best image quality we've seen.

Specs: 32 MB, PC

The Bottom Line: The step-down GeForce 8800 GTS is no slouch compared to Nvidia's flagship GTX card. Like its powerful big brother, the slightly more affordable GTS supplies top-notch performance and sweeping architectural changes that provide a solid foundation today for the OSs and games of tomorrow.

The Bottom Line: This one is easy. Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GTX not only beats ATI to market with its next-gen 3D graphics hardware, it also eliminates ATI's image-quality advantage in current-generation titles. Throw in its sheer horsepower, and Nvidia gives the high-end enthusiast every reason to make this purchase.

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