Ever since Nvidia launched its GeForce 9600 GT, I’ve been pondering a number of things - the biggest one being ‘why now?’. There are many cards in the performance mainstream market, and I think the problem boiled down to the fact that Nvidia was caught off guard by the Radeon HD 3850.

The result was a slew of cards from the green team that didn’t really compete with ATI’s excellent mid-range offering and just served to confuse the market. So what we’ve ended up with is The Sea of Grey, as I’ve coined it.

The problem is that because there are so many good-to-great products, the consumer doesn’t know where to start. Is the 9600 GT better value than the 8800 GT? What about the 8800 GS? And where do ATI’s cards fit into the picture?

Well, I hope that this article goes some way to answering the questions - I’d stick to the GeForce 8800 GT and Radeon HD 3850 512MB cards… and if you need something that’s in between the two (in terms of price), look at the GeForce 9600 GT.