The lads over at The Inq have taken it upon themselves to gather up no less than six budget oriented graphics cards for an all out battle to give you an idea of what's a good pickup this festive season.

Cards compared are the HIS IceQ 2600 XT, PowerColor 2600 XT, XFX 8600 GTS, Zotac 8600 GT, 8500 GT and 8400 GS. A new ATI Radeon HD 3850 is also thrown into the pile for comparative sakes.

The middle and low market segments of graphics are where the money is made. So, we have an army that buys graphic cards just to play movies and browse the web and sometimes finds the time to play some games. Usually these users don't strive to keep up with the latest trends, but they'll hear from someone that a stunning new Crysis or a new UT is out, and they try to check it out. Should they even try? This is a text for those who do not hear the call of geekdom.