386 was five years old by that point, though you can spend as a much as you wanted of course.

But a 386 and graphics are not needed to do what I mentioned.

Prices didn't fall that quickly. 386s were premium until the 486 came along and $3500 is still a drop from the introductory pricing where they went for $5000. The 386 was an export controlled supercomputer and the market reflected that early on. 286's were the mid grade with 8086 still available for budget PCs.