The battle for supremacy in the graphics card arena is as fierce as ever these days, and both companies (nVIDIA and ATI - yes, we'll continue to call it that) are keen to point out their advantages and try to grab as much market share as possible. nVIDIA has stolen the thunder recently with the introduction of the all-powerful 8800 line of cards, but it's the midrange market segment where the battle is usually won or lost for the two companies. The reason is quite simple: although the super high-end cards earn bragging rights, it's the £100 cards and lower that are the best sellers, and in this category both companies want to be able to claim victory. When was the last time a friend approached you because you know more about computers, and asked: "Hey, I would like to buy a new graphics card to play all the latest games with great speeds, and I am prepared to pay good money; up to £100!" I bet that has happened more than once!

ATI has recently announced a new entry for this price range, the X1650 XT, which comes to replace the X1600 XT as the company's leading card on that market segment. The card is based on the new RV560 core, which is built on a 80nm architecture and features the third iteration of ATI's Crossfire, imaginatively called "Native Crossfire". This simply means that gone are the days of external dongles; like the new X1950 Pro, the X1650 XT uses two internal Crossfire connectors (similar to the SLI ones you all know) which makes things tidier and addresses one of the oldest complaints people had about Crossfire since it was first introduced.