Holiday 2006 Shopping Guide: GPUs

Final Recommendations

We've mentioned a lot of GPUs worth considering on the previous pages, but some people just want a quick answer. If we had to pick one or two options for each price bracket as the overall "best", we would recommend the following. For the most part, similar cards from different manufacturers are going to offer the same level of performance. Pay attention to GPU and memory clock speeds if you are comparing two cards from different manufacturers, however, particularly in the less expensive markets where there's a lot of flexibility given to the card manufacturers.

GPU Recommendation Summary
Class	GPU	Price
Integrated 775	ECS P4M800Pro-M V2 + E6300 Bundle CPU = $160 value	$160
Integrated 775	ASUS P5L-MX 945G	$83
Integrated AM2	Abit NF-M2 nForce 6150	$96
Cheapest	Sapphire 100190L Radeon X550 HyperMemory	$47
Budget	EVGA 256-P2-N443-LX GeForce 7300GT	$75
Lower-Midrange	EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT $20 MIR	$135 - $20
Midrange Overclocking	EVGA 256-P2-N624-AR GeForce 7900GS $20 MIR	$185 - $20
Upper-Midrange	Sapphire 100176L Radeon X1950 Pro	$206
Lower High-End	Foxconn FV-N79GM3D2-HP GeForce 7950GT 512MB $35 MIR - Includes free gamepad	$270 - $35
Lower High-End	Sapphire 100186L Radeon X1950XT 256MB	$255
High-End	Sapphire 100177L Radeon X1950 XTX	$386
Extreme Overclocking	EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800 GTS $20 MIR	$455 - $20
Extreme	EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX	$603
Ultra Extreme	2 X EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX (SLI)	$1206

If you're looking for a new graphics card for yourself or someone else, hopefully we have been able to shed some light on the situation. Once again from all of us at AnandTech, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays (and whatever other appropriate greetings you might want)!