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Introduction

Detailed graphics card specifications and reviews are great - that is, if you have the time to do the research. But at the end of the day, what a gamer needs is the best graphics card within a certain budget.

If you don't have the time to research the benchmarks, or if you don't feel confident enough in your ability to make the right decision, fear not. We at Tom's Hardware Guide have come to your aid, with a simple list of the best gaming cards offered for the money.

October Review And November Updates:

October saw the 2900 PRO come in numbers and get sold out almost as quickly. It's certainly a lot harder to find the card now, and it's become apparent that the 2900 PRO was possibly a model created only to get rid of the remaining 2900 XT GPUs before the next generation midrange arrives: the Geforce 8800 GT and the Radeon 3800 series.

The veil has been lifted off the 8800 GT specifications and performance, and WOW, does this card perform. This new midrange champion - supposedly for the $200 to $250 price point - has shown itself to be markedly faster than the GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB, and on the heels of the former 8800 GTX champ. This card probably should have been called the 8900 GT, because it messes with the standard GeForce GS-GT-GTS-GTX hierarchy / naming scheme by jumping ahead of the GTS. But it does the job, so who cares what it's called? The only questions now are when will we see the 8800 GT on the streets, and how much will the street price be?

The upcoming Radeon 3800 series has a lot to live up to, now that we've seen the 8800 GT performance numbers. It's been announced that the new Radeons will fully support DirectX 10.1, but this is almost a non-issue since there are precious few games that support the current DirectX 10 standard. The upcoming Radeon has to be able to compete against the 8800 GT on the frames-per-second front, or it's in trouble. Hopefully ATI will release the card in the next few weeks, and it will give the 8800 GT a run for its money.

Other than that, we've seen some prices drop across the board. The 8600 GT GDDR3 and 7900 GS have been reintroduced to the list due to price cuts. On the AGP side of things, the 2600 XT is an affordable and worthwhile choice, as is the X1950 GT.

The Best Gaming Graphics Cards For The Money

A few simple guidelines to keep in mind when reading this list include:

• This list is for gamers who want to get the most for their money. If you don't play games, the cards in this list are more expensive than you need.
• Prices and availability changes on a daily basis. We can't offer up-to-the-minute accurate pricing info, but we can list some good cards that you probably won't regret buying at the price ranges we suggest.
• The list is based on some of the best U.S. prices from online retailers. In other countries or retail, your mileage will most certainly vary.
• These are new card prices. No used or open box cards are in the list; they might be a good deal, but it's outside the scope of what we're trying to do.

PCI Express Interface

Best PCIe Card For Under $100

Found as low as $75 online, the X1650 GT is a low-cost gaming darling, with 24 pixel shaders and fast-for-the-price GDDR3 memory. At stock speeds it should be a little faster than the 7800 GS and X1650 PRO, and overclocked it should be on par with the 7600 GT and X1650 XT. This overclockable card is a great base for a budget gaming machine.

The worst thing about this card is that it's priced close to competitors. The 7600 GT can be had for as low as $90 now. Then again, if you're going to spend the extra $15 for a 7600 GT, you should consider spending a further $10 for the 2600 XT. We have to make a recommendation, so the X1650 GT gets the props for its low price and gaming potential.

Best PCIe Card For ~$100: Tie

The performance of the 2600 XT is very close to that of the GeForce 8600 GT, but the 2600 XT has a performance edge when antialiasing is disabled. Although the GeForce seems to have the edge when antialiasing is turned on, it's not much of a real-world advantage, since neither card can effectively use 4x AA beyond 1024x768.

The 8600 GT was a terrible buy at $150, but now, as it approaches the $100 price point, it's much more attractive. The 8600 GT will slightly beat the old 7600 GT and X1650 XT in raw performance in the $100 price category. In addition to speed, the 8600 GT has the added bonus of being DirectX 10 compatible, as well as being a good overclocker.

NOTE: Beware of slower DDR2 versions of the 8600 GT! The GDDR3 versions are the recommended cards - DDR2 equipped 8600 GTs will be notably slower. The cheapest GDDR3 versions of the card we could find started at $105 online.

Best AGP Card For ~$115

The 2600 XT is relatively new to the AGP scene, but almost as cheap as its PCIe cousin. This is the fastest DirectX 10 card available for AGP at this time, and surprisingly offers a great deal of performance at the $110 price point. In addition, this card has the power to accelerate the entire HD video pipeline - we haven't tested it, but in theory, this card should enable demanding HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disks to be played on older CPUs.

Best AGP Card For ~$130

The X1950 GT is a slightly underclocked X1950 PRO, but for noticeably less cash. You won't find a better deal for upgrading your AGP rig, and let's face it: you probably don't want to invest all that much money into an older standard that you can't migrate to your next PC.

Best AGP Card For ~$235

The X1950 XT - manufactured exclusively by Gecube - is simply the most powerful card ever to grace the AGP bus. This card's closest competition is the XFX 7950 GT, which costs slightly more but is a lot less powerful.

At $235, it is a bit of a tough pill to swallow for a dying interface. I would only recommend the X1950 XT AGP to someone with a very fast AGP system who already has a power supply with enough juice to handle the X1950 XT.

It must be noted that if you have $235 to spend on an AGP card - and possibly an extra $100 for a power supply that can handle it - you may be much better off purchasing a PCI Express motherboard, CPU and PCIe graphics card.

PCIe graphics cards are cheaper than their AGP cousins. If you upgrade your system to PCIe and sell your old components, you may actually spend a similar amount of money compared to buying an expensive AGP card alone.

thats nice

thanks for such detialed informtion

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