Price Guide, November 2005: Video Cards

With the recent release of the X1300 series, there is only one AIB manufacturer producing this card at the moment, Sapphire. The Sapphire Radeon X1300 256MB [RTPE: 100141] is on sale for about $95. As a four pixel pipeline design, the X1300 really isn't that fast. A 6600 or X700 Pro is probably going to be slightly faster in many cases, though of course the X700 lacks the "all important" SM3.0 support. (No, we're not serious - the number of games with SM3.0 is still very small, and in most cases the X700 and even 6600 lines are too slow to enable the higher quality rendering modes.)

For those not interested in high-end gaming, but need something better than onboard video graphics, these low-end cards would be right for you. There's nothing special about them and all perform roughly the same. Any choice you make here will most likely be adequate.