Sometimes Weekly Price Guides: Motherboards and Video Cards

The ATI Radeon 9800’s have hit the distribution and retail channels, but still at the $383 mark. The 256MB variants actually retail over $500 right now, and that is a ridiculous amount to pay for a video card. What does seem incredibly surprising is the price of Sapphire 9700 Pro AIW cards.

Product	Vendor	Price	Shipping	Total
Video ATI
ATI Radeon 9000 64MB	AllStarShop	56.00	0.00	56.00	Check Prices
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 128MB	GameVE	71.00	6.75	77.75	Check Prices
ATI Radeon 9500 64MB	NewEgg	131.00	0.00	131.00	Check Prices
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB	CompuBuzz	178.00	0.00	178.00	Check Prices
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB	NewEgg	178.00	0.00	178.00	Check Prices
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro	AllStarShop	308.00	0.00	308.00	Check Prices
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro A-I-W	NewEgg	292.00	0.00	255.00	Check Prices
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB	ENPC	385.00	0.00	385.00	Check Prices
Crucial Radeon 9700 Pro	Crucial	319.99	0.00	319.99	Check Prices
Gigabyte Maya 9000 Pro 128MB	GameVE	89.00	0.00	89.00	Check Prices
Gigabyte Maya II 9200 VIVO 128MB	NewEgg	95.00	4.00	99.00	Check Prices
Gigabyte Maya II 9700 Pro	PCProgress	339.00	0.00	339.00	Check Prices
PowerColor Radeon 9700	GameVE	201.00	6.75	207.75	Check Prices
PowerColor Radeon 9700 Pro	Googlegear	301.50	0.00	301.50	Check Prices
Sapphire Atlantis 9000 64MB	NewEgg	58.00	0.00	58.00	Check Prices
Sapphire Atlantis 9000 Pro 128MB	NuTrend	86.00	0.00	86.00	Check Prices
Sapphire Atlantis 9500 64MB	AllStarShop	127.00	0.00	127.00	Check Prices
Sapphire Atlantis 9500 Pro 128MB	PCProgress	189.00	0.00	189.00	Check Prices
Sapphire Atlantis 9700	GameVE	229.00	6.75	235.75	Check Prices
Sapphire Atlantis 9700 Pro	Z-Buy	274.00	0.00	274.00	Check Prices
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB	NewEgg	383.00	0.00	383.00	Check Prices
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB	Googlegear	496.99	0.00	496.99	Check Prices

If you haven’t checked out our review from a few months ago, the Radeon 9700 AIW line really performed to its full potential. We are in a slightly intermittent period where ATI is phasing out its 9700 line in favor of the 9800 line, but also preserving the 9700 AIW line in preparation for the 9800 AIW release. As a result, prices on Sapphire and ATI 9700 AIW cards have plummeted. You will still pay as much as $290 for this card, but considering the Sapphire 9700 Pro (non-AIW) retails for $265, the extra $25 is money well spent.

Other interesting developments include the painfully slow release of the 9600 Pro line. The 9500 Pro line is also in that replacement period where 9500 Radeons will start to cost more than 9600’s. The 8 rendering pipelines (as compared to 4 on the 9600 Pro) give Radeon 9500 a slight edge at a slower clock speed of 275MHz. Basically, our advice is to jump all over the 9500 Pro while it’s still available, because the (lower performance) 9600 Pro will fill its shoes quickly when supply runs out.