We designate the entry-level market as video cards that have a street price of under $100. These cards are targeted at value-system buyers, and we usually don't find the high-performance hardware at this price range. Of course, that doesn't mean that gaming performance or features have to suffer, and only having a C-Note in your pocket is no reason to start looking in the bargain bins.
Each month we usually welcome a new entrant or two into the entry-level video card list, and after a long string of mainstream cards falling below the $100 mark over the past few months, we fail to welcome a new member to club for October. Given the stability in the entry-level and mainstream video card markets, this is hardly surprising, but it does make for an uneventful update. The Radeon X550 cards make a nice PCI Express value option, while the ATI X600 Pro 128MB and GeForce 6600 128MB as the top PCI Express performance options, while the Radeon 9600XT 128MB retains the top AGP spot on both counts.