Introduction

DirectX11 was in full swing in 2010 and we saw the release of multiple, much awaited graphic cards. AMD ended 2009 strong, dominating the market with their HD5000 series GPUs, while NVIDIA’s Fermi was delayed until the early part of 2010. When released, the GTX 400s were powerful beasts that vastly outperformed AMD’s single GPU DirectX 11 offerings, but consumers thought that the Fermi cards were too hot, too power-hungry and too late. The introduction of the GTX 460 in July 2010 changed the mid-range gaming landscape entirely. Finally, AMD’s HD 5770, which dominated the mid-range cards since 2009, has been dethroned and the bar for mid-range gaming has been set higher.

AMD was not resting on their laurels, however, as they have been hard at work on their 6800 and 6900 series.  These cards are not only designed to be much more efficient and powerful than the 5000 series cards, but also priced to compete upon release.  Needless to say, the last quarter of 2010 proved to be really interesting, in terms of the graphics card market, with the introduction of not only the 6800 series, but also the 6900 series, as well as NVIDIA’s 580 and 570 GPUs, just in time for the holiday season.

There were plenty of great video card options released this year, in varying price segments, but there are a few which stand out from the rest and have had a greater impact in reshaping the current PC gaming landscape.  There are various factors to consider in selecting which card should earn the “Video Card of the Year” title, including price, performance, availability, power consumption, reliability, thermal efficiency, value and features. In other words, a card that lives up to most expectations and a purchase that leaves no doubt in the mind of buyers that they have made the right decision.