If you're a firm believer in the 'behemoth GPU', Sapphire's Radeon HD 4850 x2 will do little to sway your opinion. While it performed solidly enough in our benchmarks, it failed to match NVIDIA's single-GPU GTX 280 offering. Nevertheless, it remains a good option for any self-respecting Radeon fan with a penchant for monitors.

The Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 TOXIC is a cooler and slightly more powerful alternative to the standard HD 4870 board. It will mainly suit DIY overclockers who want to get the most out of their system without turning their PC into a furnace.

Put simply, if you need a graphics card that’s able to play most recent 3-D intensive games at reasonable performance levels, EVGA’s latest 8800GT variant is a good choice at a reasonable price.

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.

EVGA's e-GeForce 9600 GSO is a tasty little offering with one of the best cost-to-performance ratios we've seen. Hardcore gamers may want to cough up for something a little more gutsy, but for the asking price you can’t go wrong.

If you’re a stickler for innovation, ATI’s ‘double-or-nothing’ approach is unlikely to tickle your fancy, but it remains a powerful performer. On the other hand, its benchmark results were not as impressive as we would have liked from a top-end graphics card.

Despite some mixed benchmark results, the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 x2 remains an appropriately high-end offering that will satisfy most enthusiasts. However, after the stellar performance of recent ATI cards we can't help but feel a little disappointed.

The Gigabyte GTX260 (GV-N26-896H-B) is an impressive high-end graphics card that packs quite a wallop. However, it's also a little overpriced and failed to impress in our DX9 benchmarks.

When judged on its own merits, the Gigabyte GeForce 9800 GTX (GV-NX98X512H-B) is a hard card to fault. However, the emergence of similarly priced dual-GPU cards has taken some of the shine off its performance.

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.

Two GPUs on one card sounds promising in theory, but this card didn't shine in all our tests. It does have four DVI ports though, so if you've always wanted to run four monitors off one PC, then this is the card for you.

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.