Here is an ongoing collection of highly rated and best value video cards and reviews, last update May 2011
Video card performance is not critical for office-based software or web browsing, the built in graphics in any machine made in the last 5 years or so will be adequate. For playing 3D games however, the performance of the video card can make or break the game play. The higher the resolution of the game, and the higher the Anti Aliasing (AA) and Ansiotropic Filtering (AF) is set, the more powerful a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) that is required.
High End Dual-GPU
Radeon HD6990 Dual GPU 830MHz 4GB-DDR5 256 Bit, 1 x DVI, 4 x Mini DisplayPort Gigabyte GV-R699D5-4GD-B
$749 at CanadaRAM
MaximumPC article
PCWorld Review 4.5/5
Crossfire Dual Radeon HD6950 cards 810MHz 2GB-DDR5 256 Bit, 2 x DVI, 4 x DisplayPort, HDMI (with adapter)
$339 each at CanadaRAM x 2 = $678
(the motherboard has to support 2 full size PCI-e x16 cards in Crossfire mode)
Tom’s Hardware article
PCWorld Review 4/5
High end Single GPU
NVidia GTX580 782 MHz 1.5GB GDDR5 384-bit PCIE 2.0 16x, 2 x DVI-I, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort
$539 at CanadaRAM
Maximum PC 9/10 KickAss Award,
PCWorld Review 4/5
Tom’s Hardware article
Upper Midrange (under $ 300)
NVidia GTX 560 TI 950MHZ 1Gb DDR5 RAM, 256BIT, 2 x DVI, 1 x MINI HDMI, VGA (with adapter)
$299 at CanadaRAM
PCWorld Review 4/5 “A Strong Contender For The Midrange Crown”
Radeon HD6870 DirectCU Radeon 915 MHz 1GB GDDR5 256 bit, PCI-e 2.0 16x, 1 x DVI-I, HDMI (with adapter), VGA (with Adapter), 2 x DisplayPort
$239 at CanadaRAM
PCWorld Review 4.5/5 “AMD takes midrange crown”
MaximumPC 9/10 KickAss award (article)
Low Midrange (under $200)
Radeon HD6850 Overclock 820MHz 1GB-DDR5 256 Bit, 2X DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
$199 at CanadaRAM
PCWorld Review 4.5/5 “Great performance at a stellar price”
Budget (under $150)
NVidia GTS450 DirectCU 1GB GDDR5 PCIE 2.0 16x, DVI-I, HDMI and VGA ports
ENGTS450 $149 at CanadaRAM
MaximumPC Review
Things to think about before buying a new video card https://computer-answers.ca/2011/computer-questions/windows-questions/q-will-this-new-video-card-work-in-my-machine/
Video card benchmarks for specific games: http://www.guru3d.com/article/vga-charts-spring-2011/