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.

For the vast majority of gamers this card is going to be ideal. Those looking for a super powerful graphics card may have to wait or buy one of the high-end options from the previous series, but the MSI GeForce 9600GT is an excellent choice for decent mid-range gaming.

The Inno3D I-9600GT (H5GTCD) is a top notch graphics card when judged on its own merits, delivering plenty of processing power at a price anybody can afford. However, when compared against similarly priced equivalent cards from other vendors, its performance is left slightly wanting.

All up, we think this card is great value for money considering the performance it provides. It runs quietly and comes with the cables you need to use all its video ports. It's a good choice if you're after a new-generation card for a mainstream gaming machine.

The Sapphire TOXIC HD 4850 (512MB GDDR3 PCI-E) is an excellent factory-overclocked graphics card that will offer mainstream gamers plenty of bang for their buck. Cool, fast and energy-efficient: what's not to love?

Despite its slow showing in the Lost Planet DirectX 10 demonstration, it's still unclear how well this card will be able to handle DirectX 10-based games. But, for current DirectX 9-based games, this card will perform well and its price, along with its game bundle, make it an attractive mid-range option for any Vista-based PC.

A well-built card with some scope for overclocking that is suitable for gaming at a resolution of 1280 x 1024. It will provide its smoothest results at this resolution, but it may struggle at higher settings.

An excellent choice for casual gamers who care more about noise than getting the best performance out of the latest games.

This card costs a little more than cards that are based on the standard version of the Radeon X1950 Pro GPU, but it also offers a little more performance than those cards and it also has a video-in port.