N writes, "I've been reading a lot online about graphics cards, and I've been pricing a few for my new gaming computer, but which video card is the best on the market today? The nVidia line seems to cost more, but the AMD line seems to have better performance. Help!"

As of right now the single best video card on the market is the AMD Radeon HD 5870. With an 850MHz core clock, 1600 stream processors, 1200MHz memory clock, and 1GB of VRAM, this card is the king of the performance world right now ... and at almost $400, it better be!

Of course, it's not the only card on the market, and it comes in at almost $500 cheaper than nVidia's top of the line offerings, why is that?

Well, nvidia's top of the line isn't exactly one video card - it's actually two cards sandwiched together in SLI mode and sold as one card. Essentially, you're paying for two cards. So, naturally, it's going to be one hell of a performer. AMD's offering, on the other hand, is one card - not two - that performs at or above the level of nVidia's offering, and that's saying a lot.

Of course, this opinion might change in a few months when nVidia finally releases their next generation graphics cards to market - they've been known for easily usurping the performance crown in the past. Time will only tell, of course, but for October 2009, the king of video cards is AMD.

if you have a question send it to me: lordkat@gmail.com

Be safe,
Jason