The way a Cro-Magnon man sees it, the $20 ATI Radeon X600SE 128mb PCI Express Video Card does everything a fancy $200 card does. Our protohuman pal wouldn’t trouble himself with arcane minutiae like vertex shaders and contour fluency – or computers, for that matter. He’d look over the Radeon X600SE, either clutch the shiny bauble to his chest or fling it away in superstitious terror, and go on about his nasty, brutish, short life.

There’s much to envy in the relaxed Cro-Magnon approach to video cards. For one thing, it’s cheaper. A pampered modern homo like you might simper about how the ATI Radeon X600SE 128mb PCI Express Video Card probably isn’t that much of an upgrade over your onboard video, and how it can’t play the latest games at the highest levels of graphics quality, and so you simply must spend a few days’ wages on a more expensive option.

Hey, whatever tweaks your pixels. But consider this: while you’re oohing and aahing over marginally more convincing on-screen blood-splatters, that Cro-Magnon is having a hot time in the old town with all the money he saved, supping upon the finest raw meat, bludgeoning his enemies with the latest and l33t35t club, and slipping dollar bills into the loincloths of prehistoric exotic dancers. Who’s the advanced one here?

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