It's obvious from the previous pages, which of the tested cards are Heavy 3D environment capable cards and which of them are Chillin' 3D environment cards. We can separate the list into three basic categories. The first is Chillin' 3D, for office use as many label graphics cards that are meant for simple operating system use (much like the onboard graphics cards). The second category would be the average performance graphics cards, or the cheaper versions of the Heavy 3D, which are meant for gaming at an affordable price. The last category and the best is Heavy Duty. These are the expensive cards, which are meant strictly for gaming purposes and are purchased primarily by hardcore gamers.

...some of the latest graph cards manufacturers.

Price is a major factor and will affect the buyers choice. Often, the buyer will compare the performance of a specific card that suits his needs against its price and bundled software (a compilation of software, utilities and most usually full pressed games that come with the retail box) to arrive at a suitable trade-off.

Manufacturers, in an effort to make their products more appealing, also offer a wide range of features with their cards such as integrated TV tuners and such. This is another issue that the potential buyer will contemplate before buying any specific game card. Which one offers the most features.

Overclocking is a different issue altogether, which we will not discuss here, as we have concentrated on the shipped versions of the graphics cards and not their overclocked versions, even though sometimes, a lower performance overclocked version will outperform the high end cards.

Summarising, we have: performance, features, bundle (retail box) and of course most importantly, price. Below we have posted a table with some of the graphics cards used in this comparison along with their respective price range. The wide variance in price per card is due to the fact that each card is available in editions, ranging from basic models up to extreme. For example, in the case of the 6800, we have the GT and Ultra editions, with prices of US$500 and US$700 respectively. The same applies to ATI chipset based cards.

Throughout these pages, we have attempted to provide a comprehensive coverage of the capabilities of some of the latest PCI-E interface graphics cards. Another major factor is the the overall PC system which can make a marked difference, so users should take this into account (CPU, system clock frequency, memory type and size, etc).

We hope this comparison has helped you choose from the wide variety of the graphics cards available on the market.