PCI-EXPRESS INTERFACE

Best PCI-E Card For Under £50 (inc VAT):

GeForce 7300 GT GDDR3

Codename: G73 Process: 90nm Pixel Shaders: 8 Vertex Shaders: 4 Texture Units: 8 ROPs: 8 Memory Bus: 128-bit Core Speed MHz: 400 Memory Speed MHz: 400 (800 effective) DirectX / Shader Model DX 9.0c / SM 3.0

With the price of the 8600 at £65, the 7600 GS is too expensive to be recommended anymore. Instead, the 7300 GT is a low-price alternative for those who want to do as much gaming as they can for as little money as possible. Priced as low as £35, the 7300 GT is a good fit for the job and almost as fast as the 7600 GS.

Best PCI-E Card For £65 (inc VAT):

Radeon HD 2600 XT

Codename: RV630 Process: 65nm Universal Shaders: 128 Texture Units: 8 ROPs: 4 Memory Bus: 128-bit Core Speed MHz: 800 Memory Speed MHz: 700 (1400 effective) DirectX / Shader Model DX 10 / SM 4.0

The performance of the 2600 XT is very close to that of the GeForce 8600 GT, but the 2600 XT has a performance edge when antialiassing is disabled. Although the GeForce seems to have the edge when antialiassing is turned on, it’s not much of a real-world advantage since neither card can effectively use 4x AA beyond 1024x768. We therefore advocate the 2600 XT as the best buy in this price segment.