Price Guide, December 2005: Video Cards
by Haider Farhan on December 9, 2005 7:11 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Mid-Range Graphics
Moving on to the mid-range cards, the Sapphire Radeon X800GTO2 256MB [RTPE: 100130] is going for about $220. That's about a $30 decrease since our last video card price guide. Currently, it has become quite difficult to be able to find a Connect3D X800GTO that will unlock to an X850. You would be taking a big chance going with that card, if you had in mind that you would be able to unlock it like before. Meanwhile, for $170 shipped, the PowerColor Radeon X800GTO 256MB with VIVO [RTPE: X800GTO256MBDDR3] is a difficult deal to pass up.
As the GeForce 6800 GS cards have become more popular, the prices have also shot up. At the moment, the eVGA GeForce 6800GS 256MB [RTPE: 256-P2-N386] is the best deal, going for $207.00 shipped. Other's having shot up considerably higher, all the way up to $300! The 6800 GS is definitely one of the cards to consider this holiday season, but only if the price is right: $300 puts it in the same league as the 7800 GT.
Looking at the 6600 GT front, we have the XFX GeForce 6600GT (AGP) 128MB [RTPE: PV-T43A-ND] leading the pack, going for an even $130 after a $20 MIR. This is about as much as we would recommend spending on AGP card, given that few if any motherboards will support it in the future.
For you PCI-E users, the Gigabyte GeForce 6600GT 128MB [RTPE: GV-NX66T128D] is on sale for $122 shipped. There are a few others which are coming in close behind, like the Chaintech [RTPE: SE6600G-128] at $128, the XFX [RTPE: PV-T43G-ND] for $117 after MIR and the eVGA [RTPE: 128-P2-N368] for $110 after MIR. All of which are well under $130, so for the less demanding gamers these are great buys.
The X700 and X700 Pro are decent mid-range cards, although the 6600 and 6600 GT are generally considered better. For about $100, the Sapphire Radeon X700 128MB [RTPE: 100121SR] is an okay buy. The same goes for the Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro 128MB [RTPE: 100595], which is currently selling for $122.
The X1600XT has just recently hit the market and is currently being listed at only one vendor. From PowerColor, the Radeon X1600XT 256MB [RTPE: R53C-TVD3] is going for about $180. We're likely to see more of these cards to reach other retailers later this week. Given the performance preview, they're really not looking too interesting, but at least they're retailing below MSRP. As long as you can get a 6800 GS for around $200 - or the X800 GTO for $180 - X1600 is in something of a difficult spot.
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Tanclearas - Friday, December 9, 2005 - link
I figured there might be some sort of comment in this article about the availability issues with the GTX 512MB. I'm sure Anandtech has many more reliable sources of information than the rest of us. It would be nice to hear more than just rumours from sites like INQ about what is really going on.Shortass - Friday, December 9, 2005 - link
Wow, NVidia has really dominated the market on all levels. I'm trying hard to stay an ATI fanboy, but it's just really not that feasable at this point. Maybe by the summer...lexmark - Friday, December 9, 2005 - link
bah, any chance of crossfire cards before X-mas? ;/Visual - Friday, December 9, 2005 - link
yeah, the x1300 :pthey dont need master cards... or am i confusing them with the x1600s?