ATI Technologies Inc. Graphics Cards

The Bottom Line: Despite 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.

Specs: ATI Radeon HD 3850, 2560 x 1600, 256 MB, PC, 2

The Bottom Line: If you're looking to build a home theater PC, we recommend ATI's Radeon HD 2600 XT as the midrange card to use, thanks to its nearly perfect HD video image and its no-fuss installation. But for 3D gaming, you'd be much better off looking for a good deal on a faster, older graphics card.

Specs: ATI Radeon HD 2600XT, 2560 x 1600, 512 MB, PC, 2

The Bottom Line: If 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.

Specs: 1 GPUs - ATI Radeon X1950 Pro, 2560 x 1600, 256 MB, PC, 2

The Bottom Line: We don't recommend paying even $125 for this new budget 3D card from ATI, but assuming you can find it for $100 or less, the Radeon X1650 Pro will meet your Windows Vista and basic gaming needs without overheating your PC or your wallet.

Specs: ATI Radeon X1650 Pro, 512 MB, PC, 2

The Bottom Line: ATI's Radeon lineup features a confusing array of cards. The budget Radeon X1300 XT is a good card for the money, but we recommend the faster Radeon X1650 Pro because it costs only $10 more.

Specs: PC

The Bottom Line: ATI's Radeon X1950 XTX is the fastest single-chip 3D card that you can buy. Unfortunately, with Windows Vista and its accompanying gaming technology, it's going to become obsolete in just five months. ATI adjusted the price of the Radeon X1950 XTX accordingly, but at $450, it's still not an insignificant purchase. We recommend it only if money is no object.

Specs: ATI Radeon X1950 CrossFire, 2560 x 1600, 512 MB, PC, 2

The Bottom Line: Though it improves upon the category leader, with CableCard's technology for PCs on the horizon, ATI's latest TV tuner chip, the Theater 650 Pro, is only a stopgap solution for those looking to add TV to their PC.

Specs: PC

The Bottom Line: Its sub-$300 price makes the Radeon X1800 GTO tempting, but its performance isn't compelling enough, and upgrading to two cards is expensive and inefficient, thanks to ATI's clunky CrossFire technology.

The Bottom Line: If you're looking for a single high-end 3D card, the Radeon X1900 XTX shows a lot of promise. If you have dreams of upgrading to a dual-card configuration, stay far, far away.

Specs: ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, 512 MB / 512 MB (max), PC, 2

Editors' Take: If you're looking for 3D graphics and a TV tuner in a single card, ATI's new All-In-Wonder X1900 looks like the new leader of the pack.

Specs: ATI Radeon X1900, 2560 x 1600 / 60 Hz, 256 MB, PC, 2