Introduction

Welcome to the Sharky Extreme Video Card Price Guide, which follows our current CPU and Memory guides by presenting a snap-shot of the overall market. This follows the same basic pattern as our CPU price guide, starting off with individual lists for both NVIDIA and ATI, then separating them into the various entry-level, mainstream and high-end market segments, and finishing up with a sorted price list combining all the cards.

The video card price lists are not meant to duplicate the vendor selection of an online price engine like PriceWatch, but instead looks to present a view of the overall video card marketplace. The video cards and manufacturers in the price lists are selected due to video chip and brand popularity, market visibility, and overall positioning. In some cases, we only show the OEM price for less popular models, while including multiple retail cards at the hotter ends of the market.

* Please note that unless otherwise stated (using an OEM designation) the listed video cards are full retail boxed editions, and unless expressly stated either way, are assumed to be AGP models.

ATI-Based Video Cards

The ATI market starts with the Radeon 9X00-based video cards, ranging from the entry-level Radeon 9000 to the powerful Radeon 9800XT, and extending all the way to the top-of-the-line Radeon x850 XT Platinum. The following list is sorted by product line to give a full view of the various ATI-based options, and exactly which models include special All-in-Wonder editions and larger memory capacities. The Radeon 9X00 and X300 to X800-based cards featured in the list are the ones that are readily available online, and we continue to drop last-generation cards that are extremely difficult to find.

2005 didn't exactly enter with a bang where ATI video card prices are concerned, and other than some isolated cuts, February really doesn't change that trend. Of course, there are a few more significant price drops to report, and there were even a few in the entry-level and mainstream sectors. The ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 128MB and ATI Radeon 9500 128MB each dropped by $10, while the ATI X300 256MB OEM (PCIe) fell by a healthy $14. When me move a bit higher on the chart, we find the ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB with a $36 cut, and the Gigabyte Radeon X800 XT 256MB and Sapphire Radeon X800 XT Platinum 256MB falling by $26 and $17 respectively.