Today we are putting down our Radeon HD 3870 X2 and GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics cards, taking a deep breath and looking at something far less glamorous. This product is not only much less attractive, it is also significantly cheaper, but is it still worthy of being used as a gaming solution? Well read on to find out...
Right now really is a great time to pick up an affordable graphics card, with products such as the GeForce 9600 GT costing as little as $150 US. Given that it is possible to play the latest and greatest games using respectable quality settings with a 9600 GT, this price is amazing. That said, the amazingly affordable 9600 GT has been made possible by the Radeon HD 3870, which is currently priced at just $170 and offers a similar level of performance.
These sub-$200 solutions are exceptional value, but there are still many gamers out there that simply cannot afford to spend this much on a graphics cards. The GeForce 9600 GT for example is considered to be a mid to low-end product and we base this statement more on its pricing rather than performance. So what are the low-end alternatives? Currently the 9600 GT is the cheapest GeForce 9 series product available, leaving the previous generation GeForce 8400 GS ($35 US), 8500 GT ($80), 8600 GT ($80), and 8600 GTS ($110 US) cards to contend in the low-end segment.
In the past we have reviewed and kept our eye on low-end graphics cards, and we have noticed that AMD/ATI typically does a better job in this market segment. That said, over the past few years the company has struggled to deliver in both the low and high-end segment. However the Radeon HD 3000 series has helped AMD/ATI to get the ball rolling again and therefore we thought it was time to check out some of their less desirable offerings.
Previous generation low-end Radeon graphics cards, such as the X300 and X1300, have really impressed us, offering a reasonable level of performance for next to nothing. Today we have decided to see if the new Radeon HD 3650, which is already selling for well under $100 US, is worth considering. There is actually an even cheaper Radeon HD 3000 series graphics card called the 3450, but this really is not a product that any gamer should consider, priced at $35 US. The Gigabyte Radeon HD 3850 is priced at just $75 US, making it half as expensive as the GeForce 9600 GT, but is it half as slow?
