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ATI Radeon HD 3450  (Source: MadBoxPC)

ATI Radeon HD 3470  (Source: MadBoxPC)

ATI Radeon HD 3650  (Source: MadBoxPC)
Images of upcoming low priced ATI video cards leaked

Currently there is a significant performance gap between AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards in virtually all price ranges. AMD still has many loyal followers even if it doesn’t offer the best performance available.

According to MadBoxPC, AMD has a trio of graphics cards slated for launch in January. These cards are the Radeon 3450 HD using the RV620 core with a 55nm fabrication process. The core clock will be 525MHz, the memory clock is 800MHz, and the card will use 256MB of DDR2 RAM. Outputs on the 3450 include VGA and DisplayPort and the card is PCI Express 2.0 compliant. The price is expected to be only $50 USD.

The next card is the Radeon 3470 HD, which also uses the RV620 core and is built using a 55nm process. The core clock is around 600MHz with a memory clock of 1000MHz. The cards memory will include 256MB to 512MB of GDDR3. Outputs include TV-Out, VGA, and DVI-I. The card is PCI Express 2.0 compliant as well. The price for the card is expected to be $60 USD.

The final card is the Radeon 3650 HD built on the RV635 core. Two versions of this card are going to be available. The XT version will have a core clock of 800MHz and a memory clock of 1000MHz. The Pro version will have a 600 MHz core speed and the same memory clock. Both versions will have 256MB to 512MB of GDDR3 with a 128-bit memory interface. This card is expected to retail for around $100 USD.

DailyTech first reported on the RV620 and RV635 graphics cores earlier this month.

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Wow
By FITCamaro on 12/21/2007 2:14:37 PM , Rating: 3
Depending on its performance, the 3650XT could be the ultimate mid-range card. At that price its cheaper than even many 2600 cards and 8500GT cards. Definitely cheaper than the 8600GT.




RE: Wow
By ChronoReverse on 12/21/2007 2:22:40 PM , Rating: 5
Pricing-wise isn't it quite a bit below mid-ranged?

The 3850 is squarely a mid-ranged card though (and quite good)


RE: Wow
By TMV192 on 12/21/2007 2:27:13 PM , Rating: 2
well nothing is written in stone but the way I've see it there's 4 categories; entry-level, mainstream, performance, and high-end. It's hard though to put the price limits on them because of cards like the HD 3850 being both fast and affordable, so where performance was like $220 when the X1950Pro launched, it's now $170 with the HD 3850.


RE: Wow
By ChronoReverse on 12/21/2007 2:54:51 PM , Rating: 3
Before the x1950Pro there was the 7600GT which was the definition of mid-range. I'd say the 3650 has taken up that mantle completely.


RE: Wow
By GhandiInstinct on 12/21/2007 3:39:13 PM , Rating: 2
So can I replace my 1950Pro for a 3650 or 3850? It's VGA.


RE: Wow
By ChronoReverse on 12/21/2007 4:59:01 PM , Rating: 2
Do you mean AGP? These cards are PCI-E.


RE: Wow
By StevoLincolnite on 12/22/2007 3:43:01 AM , Rating: 2
If you wish to go Direct X 10 and keep you're AGP there is always the 2600 series...
Personally I just upgraded the old box from a Radeon 9550, to a Radeon x850xt for next to nothing which, going by benchmarks out performs the 2600 series, And now I'm playing Crysis at medium quality settings.


RE: Wow
By Griswold on 12/22/2007 3:57:33 AM , Rating: 3
I would stay away from any of these HD series cards with AGP. I've read AMD treats AGP support in their latest drivers like a red haired stepchild. Its time to shell out some bucks for a new mobo with PCIe.


RE: Wow
By murphyslabrat on 12/22/2007 12:51:57 PM , Rating: 2
Furthermore, with how AGP cards get priced, a new DDR1 mobo with PCI-e would cost only a little bit more...unless you have an ultra-grade mobo, in which case you probably can afford a brand new system.


RE: Wow
By StevoLincolnite on 12/23/2007 4:38:12 AM , Rating: 2
"It would cost a little bit more"
That money saved by not buying the mobo could be used by adding more memory, or a better heatsink/fan for over clocking.


RE: Wow
By Ryanman on 12/22/2007 5:44:03 PM , Rating: 1
Lol the 9550 was an awesome card in meh humble opinion. I upped from taht on a HP, to a brand new system with a x1900xt thrown in for a mere 2300 dollars. The difference was amazing. To be honest man, I would not have spent more than 20 bucks on an x800, not because it's a terrible card but because compatibility wise it's going to eb struggling.


RE: Wow
By StevoLincolnite on 12/23/2007 4:41:34 AM , Rating: 2
I spent 120 bucks on it, But thats AU not US currency things "Seem" more expensive here.

And compatability? It can run every game out at the moment.
Including the SM3 only Bioshock. (Look for ShaderShock to get it to run).


RE: Wow
By Martimus on 12/22/2007 2:28:49 PM , Rating: 2
They ship with an adapter to convert the DVI to VGA. I have been using it since I bought the X800XL, and now my HD 3850. Both came with a pair of DVI to VGA adapters.


RE: Wow
By coldpower27 on 12/21/2007 5:08:10 PM , Rating: 2
X1950 Pro is probably defined as performance, as it was 3/4 core wise of the high end core of the time.

It was like this:

entry Radeon X12-X16 Series
mid range Radeon X1650 XT
performance Radeon X1950 Pro
Enthusiast Radeon X1950 XT or higher

but it is sometimes hard as there is sometimes blurinng between the lines.

Like the X1950 XT 256 would be transitionary card between the performance to enthusiast, just like the 7950 GT.

entry 7300 Series
mid range 7600 Series
performance 7900 GS
Enthusiast 7950 GT or higher.


RE: Wow
By Vanilla Thunder on 12/21/2007 5:14:25 PM , Rating: 2
I paid $99.00 for my OC'd 7900GS. I would consider it more than midrange card. Maybe not as much anymore, but it still gets the job done pretty well for a card that cost me under a hundo.

Vanilla


RE: Wow
By imperator3733 on 12/22/2007 6:53:11 PM , Rating: 2
I put the price limits as <$100 for budget/entry-level, $100-200 for mainstream, $200-$350 for performance, and >$350 for enthusiast/high-end. I categorize products based on the price of a product, not the performance. These recent launches are mostly in the performance range, even though they have enthusiast/high-end level performance.


RE: Wow
By Samus on 12/27/2007 12:11:26 AM , Rating: 2
right, i always see it as:

low end = <$100
mid range = $101-$200
high end = $201-$300

Basically I could never justify spending more than $300 on a videocard, mostly because it would be more than double the price of the next most expensive component in my entire computer ;)


High-end
By dagamer34 on 12/21/2007 9:29:10 PM , Rating: 2
When is AMD going to compete in the high-end market again? =/




RE: High-end
By darkpaw on 12/21/2007 11:52:44 PM , Rating: 3
I'm not an AMD fan, so I'm not defending them, but there really are very few people that care about the super high end video card market.

The number of people that buy $300+ video cards is very very tiny over all. Personally, I'm very glad that Nvidia and AMD both have once again become competitive in the $200-300 range, which is the high end for the vast majority of gamers/enthusiasts.

It would be nice for the few people that do buy high end cards if AMD was competitive in that market, but it might just not be financially worthwhile for them at this time (especially if competing would mean a complete revamp earlier then necessary).


RE: High-end
By StevoLincolnite on 12/22/2007 3:54:12 AM , Rating: 4
I would like Mid/High-end AGP cards available, the 2600 series is really the fastest Direct X 10 cad available in AGP, otherwise for the best performance you have the next option which is the x1950/x1900 series.
I have a motherboard which has AGP, And an Athlon 64 X2 5800+
Where is my 8800 in AGP?
I would rather not have to Upgrade the board just to get PCI-E, and well all know that the PCI-E vs AGP is not all that great, the only advantage is that in benchmarks PCI-E is slightly faster and you can run it in SLI.

Even then, AGP 16x was available in Some of the Geforce 6 on-board solutions.


RE: High-end