Whether you're a gamer building a new system from scratch or you're just an enthusiast looking for an upgrade, you'll have to consider which video card to purchase for your PC. The most commonly updated components for gamers are arguably the CPU and video card, as they offer the best 'bang-for-the-buck' when you use frame rates and visual quality as a basis for justifying an upgrade.

When I heard of Sapphire's new 9800 Pro Atlantis Ultimate Edition, I immediately recalled my first memories of upgrading video cards. I remembered spending somewhere around $200 for a Viper v330 (Riva 128 based card) to settle my 2D and 3D needs. I recalled later spending something like $400 on a pair of Voodoo2 cards to run in SLI mode. Long gone are the days of standalone 3D video accelerators, but the basic question still remains: how much power do I need?