The Best Gaming Graphics cards for Your Money: March 2008

Detailed graphics card specifications and reviews are great—that is, if you have the time to do all the research. But at the end of the day, what a gamer needs is a guide to the best graphics cards within their budget.

So if you don’t have the time to research the benchmarks, or if you don’t feel confident enough that you’ll make the right decision, Fear not! We at Tom’s Hardware Guide have come to your aid with a simple list of the best gaming cards offered for your money this month.

February Review and March Updates:

February has been a great month for Graphics card buyers; prices have been dropping hard across the board. A possible reason for this was the release of Nvidia’s new 9600 GT.

The new Geforce 9600 GT 512MB offers performance just below the 8800 GT – that are on par with the Radeon 3870 – for the exceptionally low price of £115. ATI have responded to this threat by lowering Radeon 3870 prices, but the 9600 GT 512 MB remains a good 15 pounds cheaper. The end result can only be good news for consumers, as it is now possible to buy a graphics card capable of real-world 1920x1200 gaming for less than £130!

This price shift makes it difficult to recommend the £250 dual-GPU Radeon 3870 X2 anymore, as two fully-fledged Geforce 9600 GT 512MB cards can be bought for an SLI configuration for £20 less!

Other than price changes, a big change has been in the availability of the AGP Radeon 3850 card in the £135 range. Tom’s Hardware will be reviewing cards for one last AGP hurrah in the near future to see if this card can deliver the performance we expect it to on the AGP bus.