Best PCIe Card For ~$125: Tie

With no high-performance DirectX 10 cards under $200 to compete against it, the relatively powerful X1950 PRO is having a field day. Yes, the 8600 GTS is a DirectX 10 card, but it's more expensive than the X1950 PRO, and isn't in the same performance league when higher resolutions are used.

The card's other competition is the 7900 GS. The X1950 PRO will usually beat the 7900 GS in most benchmarks at stock speeds, but the 7900 GS has a reputation for overclocking. The only other competition is its X1950 GT brother, which has an identical GPU, but slightly lower clockspeeds. It's difficult to recommend the GT, when it's only about $10 cheaper.

This card is essentially an overclocked 7800 GT, sporting a 256-bit memory bus and decent clock speeds; it's a very good performer and a solid card for the money.

While the X1950 PRO is a slightly stronger performer at stock speeds, the 7900 GS has a good overclocking reputation, while the X1950 PRO does not.

BEST PCIe CARD FOR ~$200-$300

This card isn't yet available at the time of writing this article, but it's coming soon, and if you have the $250 to spend on a video card, wait for it. Seriously.

The 8800 GT performs within a stone's throw of the 8800 GTX in the benchmarks we've seen, which is pretty incredible for a card in this price range.

There are only two reasons not to buy an 8800 GT: either you can't find one for sale, or you want to wait and see what the upcoming Radeon 3800 series can do before dropping your cash on a card.