The HD 4550 is a good, affordable option for high-def movie playback and occasional gaming. However, unless you’re on a shoestring budget, we’d recommend the HD 4670 instead. It offers a vastly superior graphics performance for a slightly higher premium.

While the basic 7900 GS has some good features, it's not quite strong enough to compete with the likes of the Sapphire X1950 Pro. Having said that, the 7900 GS is quick, good value, and has plenty of overclocking potential.

A reasonable choice for those who need DVI on a non gaming machine

Overall the card was reliable and performed well. It's perfect for a silent PC and would be an ideal addition to any lounge-dwelling media centre PC that is used for gaming.

We don't like the EN8800GTS' large packaging, but it's a reliable card, with a good games bundle and a competitive asking price.

This GPU is one of the best value-for-money options currently out there, but the additional cost of buying this pre-overclocked version may not be worth the few extra frames and the additional heat.

CrossFire can definitely keep pace with NVIDIA's SLI in most games and surpasses it in others, but it is still physically clumsy compared to SLI.

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 Gigabyte card runs quietly, and has adequate power for the current crop of games. It does struggle at higher resolutions with high detail settings enabled.

The Gigabyte 8600GTS is an affordable mid-range card which will be able to display DirectX 10-based games in all their splendour when they're finally released. That being said, the fact that it's quiet and comes with a decent bundle makes it good for its price.

Overclocked GPU and memory components aren't enough to supply fast frame rates for DirectX 10-based games, but if you want a modern card for your DirectX 9-based games, and also a card that's HDCP-ready, then this HIS model is as good as any.

If you're looking for a powerful, single slot card solution, the Inno3D has the goods. While it doesn't quite perform at the same level as the new DirectX 10 cards, it is still a powerful solution for the hardcore gamer.