If you have a graphics enthusiast’s heart, but lack the wallet size to match, then ATI's Radeon HD 4850 is the kind of bargain you’ve been waiting for. It offers a solid performance in all but the most power-hungry applications, at a price that even a pauper could afford.

Great value for money.

Although this card won't suit heavy gamers, it will suit casual gamers and is fine for running Windows Vista and watching movies with, plus the price is right.

This card will handle any DirectX 9-based game on the market, but it's still not as fast as cards based on NVIDIA's high-end 8800 GPU in DirectX 10-based games. However, DX 10-based games are still playable with this card at resolutions lower than 1920x1200 and is a good value card.

For mid-range gaming, the P860 is a fast choice. It won't produce super-smooth frame rates in the latest games, but it will produce playable frame rates in most games, and those frame rates will still be better than what most competing 8600 GT-based cards can achieve.

Although this card is not bad in its own right, it lacks the punch-per-dollar provided by ATI cards in the same price-bracket. But if you're unwilling to leave the NVIDIA camp and are looking for a moderately well-performing budget option, the EVGA GeForce 9800 GT (512MB DDR3 PCI-E) is worth a look.

The Galaxy 9600GT Overclocked is an excellent mid-range graphics card that easily stacks up against anything else on the market. With the inclusion of Xtreme Tuner overclocking software, it's value remains unmatched.

The ATI Radeon X1650XT GPU in this HIS card is on steroids and will provide good performance for most current games. It's a good stop-gap solution if you need a new mid-range graphics card, but don't have the patience to wait until DirectX 10-capable ones are released.

Overall, the EN8600GT, with the OC Gear module, offers a convenient way to overclock and monitor your card's performance, but it costs $50 more than ASUS' regular EN8600GT graphics card. The extra cost, and only very slight performance advantages when overclocking, mean it's worth sticking to the regular EN8600GT instead

It's a little cheaper than comparable cards, but its performance is not quite up to scratch.

The Asus EAX1650XT is a good budget option for a Vista upgrade or simply to give new life to a gaming machine while cards supporting DirectX 10 trickle into the market.