Best Performance 3D Video Cards

Single and Multi-Core Graphics Cards for High Resolution PC Gaming

ATI has stunned the graphics world with the latest graphics processor, the Radeon HD 5890. This is the first graphics processor to fully support Direct X 11 in Windows 7 and provides some absolutely stunning performance in a package that doesn't use more power than their previous HD 4890 processor. The cards also have a unique EyeFinity feature that allows graphics and games to span multiple monitors providing a breathtaking gaming experience. Production of the new processor has been extremely limited making it very difficult to find one available. Since performance between the various brand cards is so close, I don't name a specific make and model. Expect prices of $400 and up.

If you happen to want a non-ATI card for the benefits of PhysX support or for games the excel on NVIDIA's processors, then the eVGA GeForce GTX 285 Superclocked offers a very nice alternative. While there are new 2GB versions of the cards, they don't really offer much tangible benefits for the increased cost. This 1GB card offers a base overclock over the standard GTX 285 giving it a slight edge over the base cards. This card balances price with features including a higher base clock rate and comes with eVGA's Step-Up program allowing users to upgrade their cards within 90-days of purchase. Power consumption is a bit lower than the multiple core cards and only requires two 6-pin PCI-Express power adapters. Priced around $400.

With ATI's latest graphics card release, multi-core cards are becoming somewhat less relevant because of their high cost and modest performance gains over the single core design. Still, if you don't have space for multiple graphics cards in a CrossFire of SLI, a multi-core card such as the eVGA GeForce GTX 295 CO-OP Edition will provide some very strong performance in moderns PC games. Of course, once ATI releases the X2 versions of their Radeon HD 5000 series cards, this will likely drop to second place. The card is quite large requiring double the width of a standard card and a bit larger. It also requires a fairly high powered power supply with an 8-pin and 6-pin PCI-express power connectors. Price range from around $500 up.

The ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 has been on the market for some time and still performs quite well albeit not to the same level as the new HD 5870. Some computer cases might have trouble fitting in the card, but if they can it has some amazing performance. It links together two 4870 cores into a single card that runs CrossFire to offer some outstanding performance for PC games up to the 2560x1600 resolution. The 2GB of memory is the largest on the market and functions similar to 1GB single core cards. The card requires a fair amount of power that has a 8-pin and 4-pin PCI-Express power connector. Prices are around $440. Supplies of this card are limited in anticipation of ATI's release of the X2 versions of the Radeon HD 5000 series.