Sapphire with its Radeon HD 3850 GPU, shows above-average performance even at stock speeds, thanks to the 256-bit bandwidth. Although a little sluggish in Call of Juarez, higher resolutions in Crysis and FEAR were pretty much playable.

Another plus point of this card is that it occupies only a single PCle slot in contrast to the 'Best Performance' award winner in this category-the overclocked GeCube Radeon HD 3850. However, the former is a better deal if you're an ATI fan considering the fps scores at a slightly higher price. If you have no budget constraints and you want a better performer rather than your favorite brand, you can go for the 'Best Value' award winner-the XFX 8800 GT Aplha Dog Edition.

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It's worth mentioning that games at resolutions as high as 1280x1 024 (balanced settings) and 1680x1050 (low settings) 4x AA turned on, are playable with ease. If you're a compulsive gamer, don't choose this card-some games are not playable at higher resolutions.

FOR: Single slot design, good performance considering the price.
AGAINST: Heats up quite a bit.