Video cards are one of the most important pieces of hardware in any gaming rig. You can't trust your high end beast with just any GPU. You need something that you know, without a shadow of doubt, will rip through any game you throw at it. The 5XXX series ATI cards are the current favorite contenders of this challenge. However, there are quite a few of them, and choosing which card is right for you might not be so easy.

The 5XXX series ATI cards have been out for a while now and as a result prices have started to drop. However, the cards will still cost a pretty penny. A user looking for a DX 11 capable card might not want to spend $300 for a 5850. Then again they might want something a bit more powerful then a 5770.

What is one to do in this predicament? Luckily ATI has been on a GPU releasing spree, and for this reason there is a 5XXX series card for just about every price range. For those of you looking for a card in between an HD 5770 and an HD 5850 you're in luck. ATI recently released the HD 5830 which, you guessed it, falls right in between the HD 5770 and HD 5850.

The price of the HD 5830 falls roughly in between these two cards as well. It's about $100 more then the HD 5770, and about $50 less then the HD 5850. Believe it or not a great deal of users fall in this price range. $300 on one piece of hardware seems like quite a lot, whereas $250 seems a bit more reasonable. This logic works in the opposite direction as well. $150 on a GPU might make it seem like you could get something better for just a bit more money, and as it turns out, you can!

Today I'll be taking a look at PowerColor's Version of the HD 5830 PCS+, the PowerColor PCS+ HD 5830. Some of you may be wondering what exactly the PCS+ in the card's name stands for. It stands for Professional Cooling System, so we should be able to expect a very sexy cooling solution on this card. If not that, it should at least provide us with some outstanding performance. So without further adieu let's take a look at this beast!