Mainstream

Among the less powerful mainstream cards we have tested ATI RADEON 9800 PRO and NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900/5900 XT.

Click to enlarge

Here, it is easy to make a judgment: the ATI RADEON 9800 PRO wins an overwhelming majority of tests. The GeForce FX 5900/5900 XT, like the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra, are representatives of the GeForce FX architecture which cannot work fast with pixel shaders and has problems with texture filtering and anti-aliasing.

Click to enlarge

Those who are ready to part with a sum of $175-210 can take a RADEON 9800 PRO which is sufficient even for modern games. A card on the GeForce FX 5900 or 5900 XT GPU would cost you the same money, but they are only good rivals to the RADEON 9600 XT.

Budget-Mainstream

We regard cards priced up to $150 as belonging to this class. These are ATI RADEON 9500/9600 PRO/XT and NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra.

Click to enlarge

Such graphics cards cost the same money today, about $150. The RADEON 9500 PRO and 9600 XT are, however, speedier overall, being effective with pixel shaders and having a more perfect architecture.