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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
I review the evidence for disc and discless accretion in the asynchronous magnetic CVs, the intermediate polars (IPs). The presence and relative amplitudes of the spin and synodic (beat) X-ray periods, and related orbital sidebands, are very model dependent, and support disc accretion dominating in all the well-studied IPs. A component of non-disc accretion is sometimes observed, a result of stream overflow penetrating to the magnetosphere, and is responsible for the synodic period. The recently discovered polarized IP, RX J1712.6–2414, is a prime candidate (the first) for purely discless, stream-fed accretion in such a system. While the polarisation varies at the spin period, the X-ray variations occur at the synodic period, a result of the modulation in the mass transfer rate for a discless accretor.