Earlier on this month we mopped up a bunch of really, really fast video cards off of the lab floor and put together a shoot-out extravaganza for Your Eyes Only (that was a naff attempt at a crap Bond movie reference). So on an All Time High (that's Octopussy), there have since been a few developments as well as some obvious omissions from the last shoot-out. Namely a new breed of speed demon has begun to see the light of day and we've collected quite an ensemble since then… Now we hate to admit it but once again, banned substances have been used, we're talking cans and cans and yet more cans of Red Bull, and plenty of crusty Pizza.

Since we're all boys with toys here, excluding Joan, Moira and Vangie (oh and hi Mum), if we had to go about being poncey and using metaphors, think of this next 3D video card shootout as an ultimate-super-over-the-top dream sports car shootout.

You know the sort we're talking about right? I mean cars that only come in cherry read, British racing green and/or German racing silver. OK sometimes they come in that really yucky yellow color but that's beside the point. These cars are “Dream Cars” and these video cards are “Dream 3D Cards”. Such cards are frightfully expensive and add a fraction of extra performance over the already expensive and Carl Lewis-like 32MB counter parts.

As for the cars, the same can be said, they're not the best bang for your buck, hardly anyone can afford ‘em except for Saudi Sheiks, the mafia, folks in Hollywood and/or Silicon Valley dot comers but by golly they sure are flash. That's the difference between M5s, E55s (being the super-charged 32MB 3D cards), Ferraris and Aston Martins (taking on the role of highly overclocked and more meaty 64MB 3D cards).

I can't really think of any other way of comparing a bunch of heavily overpriced video cards that just like those flashy cars shave fractions of a second in the 0-60 time for mega big bucks. These cards offer a few extra fps over their 32MB and lower-clocked counterparts. That and bragging rights…