A comprehensive round up of the full Nvidia range, with pricing and benchmarks.

I’ll be starting off at the bottom of the pile and working my way up to the elite, top of the range, 'burning a hole in your pocket', cards. To show the comparison between the cards in each section, I’ll show the 3D Mark 06 scores (1024x768, 32bit, No AA, Tri-linear filtering). I’ll also be dropping in helpful pointers along the way, making sure if you do get a card in a certain budget you know what’s the best available.

So, let’s crack on people!

The Budget end. £30 - £60 or US$30 - $70

The budget end used to be made up of the 6200 series of cards and the newer 7300 graphics cards, but there’s soon to be a new addition to the budget end: the 7100 graphics card. This card is slower than the 7300, and is in essence a rebadged 6200 – which isn’t a good thing. The 6200 is really rubbish. The 7300 is the one to go for in the budget end, and the ideal 7300 would have 256mb DDRII memory and SLI support, for a little bit of future proofing.

*WARNING: Don’t buy any 7300 for more than £/$70, any more and you can double your performance for just a tenner more, by going for the next card up.



The 7300 is perfect if you want to jump into games once in a while. However, if you play games at even a half-decent resolution, and you want to turn up the settings, then you’re better off moving up the ladder to the next step.

Budget End 3D Mark 06 scores:
Nvidia 6200 scores 22 points – truly pathetic!
Nvidia 7300GS scores 379 points – clear winner.