Most of the time videocard hardware surpasses the requirements of games, but now the pendulum is beginning to swing in the other direction. Games like Supreme Commander and Rainbow 6: Las Vegas can and will tank your system if it's not up to snuff. Perhaps the good news is the latest technology can be had for a more reasonable price.

nVidia's GeForce 8800GTS 320MB videocards are no doubt one of the most attractive models right now. It's been a while since the nVidia put out a solution that offered top of the line performance at a reasonable price!

MSI has put together good alternative to vanilla Geforce 8800GTS models. Its NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC comes pre-overclocked for an extra level of performance and retails for $366 CDN ($316USD, £161 GBP) so it's sure to garner a lot of attention.

MSI take the stock NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC videocard and pump up the core clock speed to 575 MHz, the memory to 1700 MHz memory. With specs like that it is one of the fastest GeForce 8800GTS 320MB videocards out of the box. MSI only include one game this time around, but it's a good one; THQ's Company of Heroes.

This is one of the better titles of 2006 and according to most reviews one of the best RTS's ever.

On the whole, the MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC was very a quick videocard in most of the benchmarks we tosses its way. Generally speaking, it was second only to the high end GeForce 8800GTX.

In some cases the GeForce 7950GX2 was faster, but on average the NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC came out in second place. MSI's attempt at the Geforce 8800GTS was also a pretty good overclocker, in PCSTATS' test it hit a maximum core speed of 662 MHz and the memory went all the way to 2020 MHz!

With an after market cooling solution it may be possible to go even further....

If that new game you've just purchased is choking on your computer, it's probably time to upgrade the videocard.

GeForce 8800GTS 320MB based videocards are a great option, and while you're shopping take a good long look at the MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC. It has everything the doctor ordered, and more.

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