CP Technology, better known as Power Color, disclosed plans to produce a more affordable version of its RADEON 9800 XT 256MB graphics card. The new product, which specs are to be announced during the quarter, will feature the R360 graphics processor, but will provide 128MB of memory in contrast to 256MB of the original RADEON 9800 XT product. Since very few applications truly require a very large 256MB frame-buffer, the 128MB RADEON 9800 XT from PowerColor may become an interesting option for a lot of end-users.

The original RADEON 9800 XT graphics card is clocked at 412MHz for R360 core and also features 256MB of DDR SDRAM memory clocked at 730MHz. Currently there are practically no games to gain additional performance because of 256MB onboard memory; the speed in majority of today’s games more depend on RAM bandwidth as well as processing power, but not from additional 128MB of memory.

Pricing of ATI RADEON 9800 XT graphics card is too high even for hardcore gamers - $499 per unit. In case PowerColor’s RADEON 9800 XT 128MB will cost $399, it will be a better buy for end-users, who do not want to afford a $499 graphics card.

PS. Probably something wrong is happening in the market these days, if I call a $399 toy "affordable"?