 |
Sharky Extreme : Sharky Guides |
|
 |
 - Most Active Threads - Technical Support - CPUs & Overclocking  RSS feed Sitemap |
 |
Sharky Guides |
December 2005 Video Card Price GuideBy SharkyExtreme.com Staff December 16, 2005Welcome 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 or PriceGrabber, but instead looks to present a monthly 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. The ATI market starts with the Radeon 9X00-based video cards, ranging from the entry-level Radeon 9200 to the mainstream Radeon X700 Pro/X1600 Pro, and extending all the way to the top-of-the-line Radeon X850 XT and X1800 XL/XT cards. 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 X1800-based cards featured in the list are the models that are readily available online, and we continue to drop last-generation cards that are extremely difficult to find. Overall, it's been another very good month for ATI buyers, both in terms of new cards finding their way onto the market, and with corresponding price cuts (almost -$500 total) to some last-generation (and current) video cards. There were a few very significant price drops this month, with the ATI Radeon X800 XT, X850 Pro and X850 XT providing the vast majority of the eleven double-digit cuts on the AMD chart, including a few above the $100 level. The ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB also showed a nice $70 price cut, and the only ATI card to show any real price increase was the AGP version of the Radeon X850 XT Platinum 256MB, which is getting becoming difficult to locate.
|
Comment and Contribute
