In this group test we've mainly talked about the graphics chips that these cards use, as that is the single most important feature of a graphics card. As we've shown, a basic 128MB Leadtek GeForce 6600 costs about the same as a 256MB AOpen GeForce 6200 and outperforms it in every respect, even when the 6200 is overclocked like crazy.

The graphics card manufacturer gets to select the amount and type of memory that it uses, and then it adds a software package and sets the price, but thanks to the transparency of the Internet you'll find that prices for a particular family of graphics card will rapidly converge. Pick the right graphics chip and you're half-way home.

The other result of our testing is to show that the balance of power has swung back from ATi to Nvidia, and while those PC owners who don't want to play intensive games may be more concerned about price than they are about graphics performance, it seems likely that anyone building a PCI Express PC will be at the cutting edge of performance so you would be well advised to focus on the mid-range or high-end graphics cards and to budget at least £100 for your purchase.

Our tests showed that the GeForce 6600 is a good budget chip, but the 6600GT is a superb mid-range graphics chip and the Asus Extreme N6600GT gives you amazing performance for the price.