ASUS Radeon 9600 XT

Graphics cards are a bit like rabbits in that they keep multiplying. At £165, the ASUS Radeon 9600 XT isn't cheap, but it's a far cry from the £400 price tag its big brother, the 9800 XT, carries.

It's performance doesn't suffer, though. The 9600 XT, based on an ATI graphics chip, gained a fantastic score in our graphics card tests. It also achieved 82 frames per second (fps) at a resolution of 1024 x 768. When you consider that a smooth, jitter-free frame rate is between 30 and 40fps, it's obvious that this is a fast card.

The card itself is neat, compact and has a single fan for cooling, so it's quiet too. Connection to a PC can be made through either VGA or DVI ports, and there's also S-Video if you want to connect to a TV.

There's a good bundle of software including Ulead Photo Express, CyberLink Mediashow and a voucher for Half-Life 2, should it ever be released. However, you'll have to pay the postage and shipping costs yourself.

There's no doubt this is a fast card that can cope with all 3D games. However, our tests showed that it's a touch slower than its nVidia competition (see the Leadtek A360 TDH Ultra review) and a little more expensive.

Contact: Asus 0870 120 8340
http://uk.asus.com