Sub $100 Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 3600 and 3400 Series

Since the release of the 3800 series last year, we've been waiting for AMD to introduce both the lower and upper end of their product line. The Radeon HD 3870 and HD 3850 are good values, and today we see the low end of the market get a much needed update. We still have to wait a short while to talk about new high end hardware, but hopefully AMD will be able to pull out something that puts them back in competition there.

While the lack of attention to the high end from AMD might not impact most graphics hardware buyers directly, the high end market does represent high margins and the battle between NVIDIA and AMD for leadership can be quite entertaining to watch at times. On top of that, high end hardware enables engine developers to test techniques and ideas on what will inevitably be future low end hardware. We really hope AMD gets back in the game soon for the sake of advancing the industry.

For now, we don't have low end hardware so we can't do any performance comparisons right now. AMD has promised a very hard launch, so the delay between now and when we will see a performance review should be relatively short. In the meantime we'll take a look at the hardware specs and new technologies that are part of the 3600 and 3400 series parts.