ATI's mainstream and entry-level 55nm chips were quite a compromise. ATI wanted to get DirectX 10.1 support, including Shader model 4.1 and DisplayPort support for its 55nm shrink.

It managed to make a much more power efficient and cooler versions of the previous 65nm-based RV630 and RV615 chips, but it didn't have much space to put more transistors in or to increase the performance.

These 55nm chips at ridiculously low prices really put a lot of pressure on Nvidia, forcing the company to rename its Geforce 8 chips to Geforce 9, but it failed to take the performance crown from Nvidia.

The Radeon 7x0 series will actually get more performance to mainstream and entry-level offerings from ATI, but this comes later this year. For the time being the Radeon 3650 sells for as little as €50, while the ultra cheap Radeon 3450 sells for €30. The funny thing is that both will let you play some games at a bargain price.

The Radeon 7x0 parts are likely to branded as the Radeon 740 and 710 and will be much faster than what we're used to in the entry level market.