Labs

The best graphics card designs often get even better with age. Sounds daft? We're not suggesting the same card actually goes faster when it's been sitting around a few months, but what does happen is that its price gets lower, making it a more attractive buy. The 8800GTS was the pick of the bunch over the past year, so according to our theory it should be great now. Well, it seems the 8800GTS is the exception that proves the rule. The latest cards have instantly made it redundant.

The GTS was slower in all of our benchmarks than the newer GT. It did manage more than respectable scores across them all, but so did the HD3850, and it's £77 cheaper. The 8800GTS also uses an older video processing design which means isn't as proficient as either the HD3850 or the 8800GT when it comes to playing movies.

With only 320MB of RAM, compared to the 8800GT's 512MB, it's not going to deal with more detailed DirectX 10 games as competently. And it uses a bulky dual slot design, which means it's harder to fit into your PC. At this price, the 8800GTS is a dinosaur. Choose between the HD3850 and the 8800GT instead.