Web Site: http://www.ati.com
Price: $150

The 3D market is driven mainly by performance; much of the time value takes a backseat to outrageously high frame rates and innovative new features. Although nothing is quite as glamorous as gigatexel fillrates, high-speed DDR memory, and elaborate cooling, there is a distinct line between alluring and realistic.

ATI's most recent solution bridges the gap between potent performance and pleasant price. By combining their RADEON GPU with 32 MB of inexpensive SDR memory, ATI has included all of the same 2D, 3D and video features found on the more expensive 32 and 64MB DDR cards without the added cost of DDR RAM. With the help of HyperZ, the SDRAM-based RADEON should be one of the headiest budget cards available.

Interestingly enough, the SDR card will only ship in "white box" packaging, meaning it is targeted towards the system builder community. In other words, don't expect to find ATI's value card on the shelf next to a GeForce2 MX at your local CompUSA.

Clocked at 166/166MHz, the 32MB SDR card boasts the same theoretical fillrate as the DDR card, with less bandwidth of course. Sporting two pixel pipelines with three texture units per pipeline, this gives a potential 1Gtexel fillrate.