Mainstream

Graphics cards on NVIDIA GeForce 6600, ATI RADEON X600 XT, and NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5750 GPUs all belong to the category of inexpensive mass solutions for the PCI Express platform.

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There’re no doubts as to the leader here. With its eight pixel pipelines and three vertex processors the NVIDIA GeForce 6600 is faster than the ATI RADEON X600 XT almost everywhere.

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The latter can sometimes score even in modes with full-screen anti-aliasing, but the GeForce 6600 still looks a better buy since its price starts at about $115, while a RADEON X600 XT will cost you $140 or more.

The GeForce PCX 5750 isn’t a good purchase anymore, as it’s too slow in modern games, while its price is about $110-130.

Budget-Mainstream

Regrettably we have only one card of that class in our labs, the ATI RADEON X300 SE model. This is a slow solution even in comparison with the GeForce PCX 5750, but it cost a modest $65-80.

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This card may suit those people who need a cheap, compact and quiet device, the speed in modern games being unimportant. The alternatives to the X300 SE are NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TC (we’ll publish a review on this card soon) and the obsolete GeForce PCX 5300 priced about $75.

P. S.: So you have just read through our review comparing twenty-seven graphics cards (counting the two SLI configurations in), and the amount of information is really overwhelming to allow for any generalizations. Yet one thing remains certain ?if you’re thinking about buying a new PC or upgrading the graphics subsystem of your current one, take note of what games you’re going to play on the resulting computer. And then we will try to use as many games in our reviews as possible to give you a comprehensive picture of performance of particular graphics cards in popular gaming application. We hope this article will help you make a wise choice so that the money invested in the new graphics hardware brought you a thorough satisfaction in your favorite games!