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Let's take a look at our participants in this roundup.

All of these cards have been released in the last four months, except for the BFG 8800 GTS OC 320MB. A revision of the 8800 GTS came out last month, and is one of the quickest cards currently available on the market -- but our BFG 8800 GTS here has been included because it is the older style GTS, with 320MB of memory, which currently retails around $200, making it a mid-range possibility. All of these cards have also been the feature of full reviews on Neoseeker (with the exception of the Asus 8800 GT T.O.P), so click on their name if you'd like to read more about that particular card. To save the time of reading a bunch of full reviews, we have highlighted the notable features of each card in the following alphabetically arranged list.

A note on price: as you know, retail pricing changes almost daily. Keep this in mind when you check out the prices below, taken from popular e-retailers. By the time you read this, these prices might have fluctuated, so the prices below can only be considered as guidelines.

Asus 8800 GT T.O.P 512MB

Price: $299 at ZipZoomFly

This factory overclocked Asus 8800 GT T.O.P is by far the most expensive card in this roundup, retailing for $299 at ZipZoomFly. Additionally, the video card is out of stock at a number of North American retailers, leading to the impression that this particular card might not be around much longer on the market. (A non-overclocked, updated Asus model of 8800 GT retails currently for $229 on Newegg.) Those matters aside, this may prove to be the quickest card in this roundup, with a core clock of 700 MHz and a memory clock of 1000 MHz. This 8800 GT stays close to the reference board design, and comes with Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts.

Pro's: A fast 8800GT.

Con's: Costly. Even more expensive than some 8800 GTS 512MB cards.

Asus HD 3870 T.O.P

Price: $252 at NCIX

Like the Asus 8800 GT T.O.P, the Asus HD 3870 stays close to the reference board design, and comes out of the box with a healthy overclock. Also just like the Asus 8800 GT, this HD 3870 comes with Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts.

Pro's: Previous benchmarking revealed this HD 3870 to be a performer.

Con's: On the expensive side.

BFG 8800 GT OC 512MB

Price: $209 at NewEgg

The folks at BFG put out their overclocked BFG 8800 GT OC right at the late October launch of the 8800 GT. Besides the higher clocks, there is not that much that distinguishes this 8800 GT from the reference design. However BFG does over if ten year limited warranty on all of their cards, if registered online within 30 days of purchase. 

Pro's: Warranty. Inexpensive OC'd 8800 GT.

Con's: Overclock could be higher.

BFG 8800 GTS OC 320MB

Price: No longer available.

About this time last year,  the 8800 GTS (320MB) was the card  to get if you were looking for good higher-end performance, for the least amount of money.  Both the 8600 GT/GTS and HD 2600 XT / Pro mid-range cards didn't really compete in DX10 performance against this sweet-spot card of last year. But as you know, things change a great deal in a year! Currently, while this particular card is no longer available, at many retailers you can purchase a similar, overclocked 8800 GTS 320MB for under $200 (such as this EVGA 8800 GTS 320MB for $160), and as the benchmarks will probably show, while they aren't the fastest card on the block anymore, they can still hold their own.

Pro's: If you can find a remainder stock 8800 GTS 320MB for a steal, it could turn out to be a good deal.

Con's: Even with that 320-bit memory interface, high-resolution gaming is still inferior to a 8800GT.

Gigabyte HD 3870

Price: $179 at NewEgg.

Probably the most notable feature of the Gigabyte HD 3870 is its Zalman cooler. Although the memory on this video card did not have any sort of cooling (no heat sink even) and was GDDR3 (versus most HD 3870's GDDR4), the Zalman fan kept the GPU quiet and cool in our overclocking adventures. Furthermore, the Gigabyte HD 3870 featured a lower price than many HD 3870's, and came with Neverwinter Nights 2, making this HD 3870 an attractive solution.

Pro's: Nice cooler. Great price.

Con's: Slower GDDR3 memory.

We aren't done yet -- more cards await you on the next page.