Graphic card prices range from 25 to 920 Euros.  This difference in price is as significant as the number of models offered by numerous manufacturers.  The purpose of this article is to help you make your way through the jungle-like world of names and numbers in order that you can find the best model for your needs.

The beginning of the year was not exempt from innovation as both ATI and NVIDIA renewed their lines by introducing their respective Radeon HD 3000 and GeForce 9000s.  However, this wasn’t a revolution in terms of 3D performances as much as it was in prices.  And we might as well add that it has been rather beneficial to consumers as they can now play in good conditions without spending a fortune.

On the other hand, the second half of the year has been more interesting.  It was NVIDIA that was the first to attack by launching the GeForce GTX 200.  Indeed, these cards have represented a leap ahead in performances and this manufacturer also took the first step in terms of a general public GPGPU.  Moreover, under this somewhat crude name there is an interesting idea: use the graphic chip to relieve the central processor in certain calculations.  The first practical application is in video encoding and the results are there: encoding a video in MP4 took 1.6x less time when using the GeForce GTX 280 compared to our high end quad core processor.

However, NVIDIA was not the only one to renew its line.  ATI also added the Radeon HD 4000 and revived its cards performances even if it didn’t arrive at NVIDIA’s high end levels.  And once again, they have rained on Nividia’s parade by offering very low priced models.  It’s been enough to make their two card graphic solutions (CrossFire) look attractive although it means higher power consumption and noise levels.

Recap of performances and the Product Face-offs

We’ve tallied up the various results obtained in tests in order to show you a performance recap.  This will give you an overall idea of each graphic card depending on the screen size.  In addition, do not forget to take a look at the Product Face-offs which enable you to directly compare the test results of any two models.  You can find the above under “useful links” at the end of this article.