Product Reviews

Any time now, we'll see a new crop of all-powerful (and ber-expensive) graphics cards based on the next generation of graphics chips from nVidia and ATI. Well-heeled gamers are, no doubt, dribbling at the prospect. But what if you don't have a money tree in your garden? You're in luck! The price of cards based on the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro chipset has fallen dramatically. This Powercolor costs just over £150 including VAT - around half the price of the Radeon 9800 Pro in our last graphics card test.

Just like XFX, Powercolor supplies an S-Video lead for hooking it up to your TV, as well as a dongle for attaching a second analogue monitor to the DVI socket. It doesn't come with a games bundle, but if you're in the market for a high-performance graphics card, the chances are you'll have a decent selection of games already. So, how does it perform against the might of the XFX?

The Powercolor stamped

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its superiority in every one of our benchmarks. It flew past our Top 50 card - and managed to beat the speedy XFX! The massive score of 16377 in 3DMark 2001's default test was impressive enough. In Unreal Tournament it clocked up an impressive 58 frames per second. But the Powercolor still had more to give.

When we cranked anti-aliasing up to 4x and anisotropic filtering to 8x, the Powercolor still managed to clock up a whopping 3DMark 2001 score of 11,657 - this is more than double the score of our Top 50 Sapphire Radeon 9800SE card. That's twice the performance, for only 50 per cent more money!

But could the Powercolor continue its winning streak when pitted against the 3DMark 03's gruelling Mother Nature benchmark? It certainly could. And as it tests a card's ability to produce the graphical effects demanded by Microsoft's new DirectX 9 standard, a good result here means that you can rely on a card having enough muscle to cope with future games. A score of 34 frames per second eclipsed even the turbo-charged power of the XFX, which lagged behind with a frame rate of 22 frames per second.

The Powercolor's combination of 3D oomph and a keen price earn it a Recommended award. Casual gamers, or anyone after a good-quality card on a budget should still point their modest wedge directly at the Top 50 Sapphire Radeon 9800 SE Atlantis, which is almost 50 pounds cheaper. If you're serious about games and have a little more to spend, the Powercolor is a fantastic choice.