Connect3D makes a point of packaging its graphics cards in a small, plain box, which we assume is part of a drive to keep its costs low. There is no doubt that this Radeon 9600 card is cheap, but that's not necessarily the same as good value.

Inside the box you get the graphics card itself, a driver CD, an S-Video-to-coaxial adapter and a coaxial extension lead. That's all. There's no printed user guide and you don't get a DVI-to-VGA adapter.

In our tests the Connect3D card achieved very similar results to those of the Asus card, but it has a far shorter features list and no software at all. There is also an odd psychological factor to consider, as the Radeon 9600 card simply doesn't look impressive.

ATi chose to use the new 0.13-micron fabrication process in a budget graphics card, as a way to cut costs, rather than as a way to boost performance. The process allows the creation of a smaller chip which costs less and consumes less power, and that means that this ATi reference design calls for a passive heatsink, with no need for a cooling fan. The memory chips are also bare and at first glance the Connect 3D card looks more like a design from two or three years ago.

Get the latest Dell Coupons and other computer coupons at CheapStingyBargains.com.

We know all this, and we positively favour quiet designs over nasty, noisy fans, yet even so there was an air of disappointment when we opened the box as the card looks so dull and boring. Sad but true.

Just as the FX5600 is half of an FX5800, so the Radeon 9600 is half of a Radeon 9800. It performs well on basic settings with no Full Scene Anti-Aliasing or Anisotropic Filtering, but you'll find that performance suffers if you want to get the full benefits of DirectX 9. Even so, there's a lot of power here for the price.