ATI, NVIDIA, and S3 duke it out for under $80

While ATI and NVIDIA have successfully massaged their Radeon X1000 and GeForce 7 architectures into more affordable flavors, they're not the only ones duking it out in the budget space. S3 has slowly clawed its way back into the game, and the Chrome S27 is poised to take on the GeForce 7300 GS and Radeon X1300 Pro at the low end of the market. S3 may not have a high-end line from which to borrow technology, but at least on paper, the Chrome S27 looks more potent than the budget offerings from ATI and NVIDIA.

Can S3's Chrome S27 pull off an improbable coup and snatch the budget graphics crown, or does either the Radeon X1300 Pro or the GeForce 7300 GS prove superior? We've rounded up a trio of graphics cards that cost under $80 and subjected them to an array of graphics performance and video playback tests to find out.