Reviewed on January 16, 2009Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295 is the single fastest 3D card on the market, and for a relatively aggressive price. Added bonuses like power efficiency and PhysX support sweeten the deal, but even without those extra benefits, we'd still recommend this card for its processing power and comparative value.TAGS:power consumption, Nvidia GeForce, NVidia, Radeon, graphics chip, ATI Technologies, manufacturing, card, DirectX, gamer, PC
Reviewed on November 4, 2009AVADirect's tries to distill as much gaming power as possible into its Nano Cube, but the extra small case requires too many sacrifices next to even standard small form factor PCs. Gaming purists with a need for an extra tiny PC might appreciate the Nanon Cube, but even they should be wary of everything you need to give up for this tiny desktop.TAGS:Nvidia GeForce, Intel Core 2 Duo, networking, motherboard, games, hard drive, NVidia, video card, Intel, PC
Reviewed on February 6, 2009Even if it's a relative power hog, the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 brings so much speed and utility to the table it's hard for us to recommend another midrange 3D card. Only the particularly power conscious or those who play games with known multichip scaling issues should look elsewhere.TAGS:DirectX, Radeon, Nvidia GeForce, NVidia, card, PC
Reviewed on August 4, 2009Asus crafted the Essentio CG5290-BP007 to serve as a no-frills gaming desktop for just more than $1,000. And while the boutique PC vendors have a bit more polish for not too much more money, Asus can at least claim that this PC is one of the fastest on the retail shelves. You might have a hard time arguing the necessity of such a fast gaming box for back-to-school, but we can at least recommend this system as a speedy bargain.TAGS:back-to-school, ASUS, customer service, 64-bit, retailer, games, Nvidia GeForce, NVidia, video card, PC
Reviewed on October 20, 2009Nvidia's Ion graphics chip gives the Asus Eee Top ET2002 better-than-average video performance for a Nettop, but that does little to spare this system from its weak overall performance and the variety of competitive, more well-rounded alternatives for low-cost video and gaming. Nettops might be competitive someday, but for now this category as a whole is a disappointment.TAGS:ASUS, graphics chip, Xbox 360, Gateway Inc., NVidia, Microsoft Xbox, keyboard, entertainment, LCD, games, Nvidia GeForce, mouse, video, PC
Reviewed on November 21, 2007Despite the usual caveats of an ever-fluctuating 3D market, for the moment, at least, ATI's new Radeon HD 3850 graphics card delivers the best bang-for-the buck in PC graphics hardware. Until now we haven't had an acceptable sub-$200 option for PC gaming this year. Thanks to AMD, now we do.TAGS:Radeon, DirectX, ATI Technologies, card, Nvidia GeForce, NVidia, motherboard, games, video card, PC
Reviewed on April 8, 2008Nvidia's new GeForce 9800 GTX chip is fast enough, but if your PC is SLI-capable you can spend just a little more and get a significantly better high-resolution gaming experience. Consider your options carefully before upgrading to this card.TAGS:Nvidia GeForce, NVidia, Call of Duty, PC
Reviewed on October 19, 2006If you're looking for a gaming card to run Vista and play most games, ATI's Radeon X1950 Pro will get you there, but not perfectly, and its real-world pricing is higher than we'd like. We're more interested to see ATI's next-gen cards use the newly refined CrossFire dual-card technology, debuted here, but that will have to wait.TAGS:Radeon, ATI Technologies, card, power supply, Nvidia GeForce, ATI Radeon, NVidia, pricing, PC, games
Reviewed on June 5, 2006Nvidia's GeForce 7950 GX2 should have been an Editors' Choice contender. It brings two graphics processors to a single slot, costs half as much as similarly fast setups, and lays the groundwork for do-it-yourself Quad SLI. But the gap between this chip generation and the next is too close, so we recommend you pass on the 7950 GX2.TAGS:DirectX, Nvidia GeForce, NVidia, 3D, power supply, generation, card, ATI Technologies, Microsoft Windows Vista, GPU, gamer, Microsoft Corp., games, PC
Reviewed on January 30, 2009EVGA's GeForce GTX 9800+ Superclocked edition has basically the same price-performance benefit as its Radeon HD 4850-based graphics card competition. With identical bang-for-the-buck, you'll like this card if you demand power efficiency, but you should turn to ATI's card if your PC has limited upgrade room.TAGS:Far Cry 2, Crysis, Radeon, DirectX, Nvidia GeForce, NVidia, card, resolution, games, PC
Reviewed on June 11, 2009We cringe at the idea of recommending such a slow PC when you can get significantly better performance for just a few more dollars. That said, it's hard to argue with the eMachines EL1300G-01w's low price, clean good looks, and relatively complete budget feature set. As long as you have no ambitions for this PC performing anything resembling serious work, it will make a fine second or third home system.TAGS:eMachines Inc., HP Pavilion SlimLine, Apple Intel Mac Mini, Dell Inspiron, AMD Athlon, 32-bit, Dell, AMD, Nvidia GeForce, NVidia, HP, Apple Macintosh, PC