Comparing pricing on AMD graphics cards to 2026 prices is a fascinating look back to the time just as AMD was entering the graphics card market. At the time, ATI was producing the Radeon brand, which had effectively become Nvidia's only real competitor on the market. Older brands and GPUs like 3dfx had fallen by the wayside, as the pace picked up with the HD era on the horizon. Since being purchased, the ATI brand has been phased out, but AMD has kept the Radeon branding around.

In 2006, ATI had the X1000 series, including the cards launched post-AMD acquisition such as the X1300 XT and X1650 Pro, priced at $89 and $99 MSRP respectively, on the budget end. Expanding to the higher-end hardware, Radeon X1950 XTX and the X1950XTX CrossFire Edition came in at $449, while a 256MB version of the ATI Radeon X1900 XT cost $279.…