The packaging is lovely. It seems fair to start there, as XFX - née Pine - has clearly worked hard to make sure you feel like you're getting your money's worth here. From the slightly squashed 'X' shaped box (which will no doubt just about keep Microsoft's lawyers away), to the little touches within it - a free gamepad with this particular product - we were pleased that it felt like we'd bought an expensive graphics card. Even if we hadn't.

The card at the heart of it is an Nvidia GeForce FX5200, and one that features connectors for a TV aerial and DVI output around the back. There's no standard D-Sub VGA output option here, and thus an adapter is included in the box if that's what you're after. Among the card's tricks are the opportunity to watch a bit of telly, digital video recording functionality and multi-display options. These are all good.

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However, that lovely packaging we just mentioned gives you the impression that this is a gamer's card (and that free gamepad adds to that impression), yet as the varying benchmarks conclude, that's precisely the area where the card struggles, relatively speaking.

Its 3DMark 03 performance lagged a long way behind an ATI Radeon 9600 board that costs just £30 more, with the intensive tests generating a frame rate of just one a second. The Aquamark 03 test concurred, and when we loaded up a game of UEFA Euro 2004, that added its name to the list as well.

But let's get some context. For just under £60 you are getting a strong all-round package, and one that will suit all but the serious gamer. The software CD includes a driver, game and application demos and an overclocking utility. The box includes installation instructions, and XFX has bothered to include an easy-to-follow installation guide. And that bundled gamepad is really quite good.

Ultimately, the GeForce FX5200 is Nvidia very much at the budget end of the market, and both in performance and price terms this XFX board reflects that. By shopping around, you can pick up a 5200 board bereft of the TV facilities for some £15-20 less, but you'd still be hard pushed to argue that XFX is short-changing you. The real problem here is that for around another £30 you can get a graphics card that beats this hands-down for performance, and that really would be money better spent. That said, you can't fault XFX here, and we'd happily investigate some of the more powerful boards in the range.