We'll have to wait until next year for the really juicy developments in graphics card technology. But for now, the Radeon X1950 XTX's improved memory bandwidth is enough to secure it a comfortable victory over the GForce 7900 GTX.

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.

The Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro is a fast, efficient card, and a worthy adversary to heavily overclocked products such as the Gainward 7900 GS Golden Sample. There are better alternatives, but this is a decent offering.

This is a high-end card with a competitive price tag. It will let you play the latest games in all their glory at high resolutions.

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.

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.

This graphics card offers good performance, but it's just too big and not well built.

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

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.

The XFX PV-T80F-SHF9 is a great performer in current DirectX 9-based games and should go just as well when DirectX 10-based games are released. A high price and a poor bundle are the only downsides.

The MSI NX8600GT is a decent and affordable mid-range graphics card that's suitable for playing today's games, but it might struggle to run DirectX 10-based games when they're released.

Our gaming tests didn't return very promising results, but we expect this silent, budget card will appeal to anyone building a media centre, or a smaller form factor PC, that can still run Windows Vista comfortably.