It’s been a while since we visited the GPU segment, and as expected changes have rendered the industry unrecognizable. Not only has the GPU industry been growing at an astonishing rate, the number of technical changes has only accelerated, bringing flagship-level technology to entry-level markets. Let's check out the various graphic cards currently ruling the roost.

But that's easier said than done. Nvidia’s never-ending cycle of product launches every few months has led to a massive chaotic market that has competing products within just a few hundred rupees, which differ in performance by greater degrees. Throw in the recent return of ATI and it quickly lapses into a free-for-all.

Keeping these factors in mind, we've divided this feature into three price segments of Rs 10,000, Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000. Now the question may well arise: where does VFM come in, especially on a product costing Rs 30,000? Our answer is that we have tried to keep a wide variety of  consumers in mind. There are gamers who have no qualms about dropping Rs 30,000 on a graphic card, while most of us are happy enough with our Rs 4,000 8600 GTs.

Before we move on to our selections, we would like to point out that there is an unfortunate reality Indian hardware enthusiasts have to live with when it comes to to pricing. On most GPUs we end up paying up to 30 percent more as taxes. These can often cause products that were aimed at a certain segment be pushed into a higher price bracket and hence reducing its effectiveness. We have kept this in mind and tried to pick brands that are available off the shelf in India and currently offer very good VFM.  Wherever there is a very close option we have listed that product too.

Palit Radeon 4850

Image Courtesy: Tweaktown

The Radeon 4850 was ATI’s return to form. This beautifully designed chip is built on the RV770 core packing 956 million transistors and is produced on a 55 nm process. Furthermore, the core supports GDDR5, which allows for massive memory bandwidth, though the 4850x-based cards have been given only DDR3 support. Nevertheless, this has not stopped ATI from being able to finally throw down the gauntlet to its erstwhile competitor and bring incredible performance to this very price-sensitive segment.

The card we have chosen comes from Palit. Palit may not be a name known to a lot of people but it's been around in India for a while. Not only is it easily available over the counter, it offers some great products at prices which are often up to 25-30 percent lower than the competition. The Palit Radeon 4850 is based on the R770 core, comes with PCIe 2.0 support, 512 MB GDDR3 support, a core clock of 625 MHz, and memory clock of 993x2 MHz (1986 MHz). It features the expected dual DVI-D links that have become common today, and is DX 10.1 ready. Click here to check out its specifications.

The card is available in Mumbai markets for Rs 9,800. If you're in Mumbai, click here to check where you can get the card.