| Sunday, December 7 2008 |
A common feature with shopping seasons, namely summer and Christmas, is that consumer graphics giants, AMD and NVIDIA announce new products that push up the pure performance and performance per dollar envelopes. With this Christmas season however, nothing notably new is going to come out of their stables, making their existing products slog it out. This resulted in both companies resorting to some serious price-cutting with their existing mid-thru-high-end products.
In the wake of massive price-cuts by NVIDIA for the GeForce GTX 260, AMD has decided to prepare its own price-cuts for the one card that goes neck and neck with the GTX 260, Radeon HD 4870. Originally seated in the $299~$399 bracket, the GeForce GTX 260 and Radeon HD 4870 have become some of the key SKUs for both companies. These are the products we have seen going neck and neck, resulting in both companies refreshing them, and later resorting to price-cuts. NVIDIA refreshed GeForce GTX 260 with a 216 stream processor version that came with added shader compute power, while AMD responded with the 1 GB variant of the Radeon HD 4870. As on today, the company pricing for the Radeon HD 4870 has been set around US $199 for the 512 MB and $239 for the 1 GB variants. This roughly catches up with the pricing for GeForce GTX 260, with roughly $199~$219 for the 192 stream processor and $239~$249 for the 216 stream processor variant.
Source: X-bit Labs
In the wake of massive price-cuts by NVIDIA for the GeForce GTX 260, AMD has decided to prepare its own price-cuts for the one card that goes neck and neck with the GTX 260, Radeon HD 4870. Originally seated in the $299~$399 bracket, the GeForce GTX 260 and Radeon HD 4870 have become some of the key SKUs for both companies. These are the products we have seen going neck and neck, resulting in both companies refreshing them, and later resorting to price-cuts. NVIDIA refreshed GeForce GTX 260 with a 216 stream processor version that came with added shader compute power, while AMD responded with the 1 GB variant of the Radeon HD 4870. As on today, the company pricing for the Radeon HD 4870 has been set around US $199 for the 512 MB and $239 for the 1 GB variants. This roughly catches up with the pricing for GeForce GTX 260, with roughly $199~$219 for the 192 stream processor and $239~$249 for the 216 stream processor variant.
Source: X-bit Labs
User comments
I have waited to get my second 4850 1Gb for this.
I'm still debating waiting for next gen cards
by: mikek75lol got you beat (or is it beet as i cant remeber lol) , this price drop will not mean much with the poor £ v's $ . saving my money for the phenom II then might get another 4870 (hopefully be cheaper then)
I've been out of school for 21 years....
LOL, thanks for that, its always nice to meet someone older round here....getting rarer by the day!
by: Skillz4k series already is 55nm. Not sure about GTX200 series, though.
yOU got SUCKered.
Good think i waited, i wonder if i should wait for the 55nm
when are the revised 4870's being released ?
by: rodneyhchefIt's actually less than that!
No it's not, it's a fiver!
Say it costs £100 which would already have the 17.5% VAT pre-applied to it, I can't do the maths lol but from what I remember from Have I Got News For You, it's ~2.1% off the final price. So if it originally cost £200 it would now cost £195.80..........
Pretty pathetic reduction.
by: method526Current Boards are Still Excellent.
darn and i recently bought a HIS ICeQ4 4850 Turbo for $179.99. :/ well atleast it's quiet at 80% fan speed and very overclockable :P
sweet, now it's time to buy a 4870
by: oli_ramsayYeah it's a fiver saving on £235 but I figured it was close enough!
It's actually less than that!
Say it costs £100 which would already have the 17.5% VAT pre-applied to it, I can't do the maths lol but from what I remember from Have I Got News For You, it's ~2.1% off the final price. So if it originally cost £200 it would now cost £195.80..........
Pretty pathetic reduction.
by: DaMultaOn black friday you could have obtained a HD4870 from $193 after rebate lol.
And no one believed me when I said just wait right before Xmas on these prices LOL
That's funny
But it was the PCS+ version from ASUS with the fan issues for some, but I got it and made it work just fine..for a friend :(
What will be the new 4830 prices?
by: InfDamarvelI wouldn't buy a 4870 for two reasons, mainly cause the red ugly color on the PCB they have been using for a decade now... yeh i'm racist like that when it comes on to Vid cards cause it got to look good in my window case, two; not enough support.
On black friday you could have obtained a HD4870 from $193 after rebate lol.
But it was the PCS+ version from ASUS with the fan issues for some, but I got it and made it work just fine..for a friend :(
by: SkillzBuy Sapphire Toxic. You get your blue/black theme. As for "not enough support", thanks for the laughs.
I wouldn't buy a 4870 for two reasons, mainly cause the red ugly color on the PCB they have been using for a decade now... yeh i'm racist like that when it comes on to Vid cards cause it got to look good in my window case, two; not enough support.
by: btarunr
Buy Sapphire Toxic. You get your blue/black theme. As for "not enough support", thanks for the laughs.
You can easily spot the corporate endorcers
by: [I.R.A]_FBiHe he he so true, he he. :toast:
You can easily spot the corporate endorcers
by: btarunrI did a quick check and your little ugly Sapphire and it got owned in almost every test by the GTX 260 core 216 in every test, http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/sapphire_toxic_4870_review/page3.asp
Buy Sapphire Toxic. You get your blue/black theme. As for "not enough support", thanks for the laughs.
Dark Vader XFX GTX260 Black Edition is so black and beautiful it doesn't even come close pal:cool:.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150330
Free Farcry 2 plus 40 MIR and free shipping, that's 200 bucks final just for this beauty.
I was responding to your rather trivial reasons for not choosing Radeon (which was something other than performance/price/ratios), not how Sapphire Toxic cards perform.
Any idea what they're going to do about 4850 512mb prices in the UK? Or will we not be ripped off for once and the 4870's have a price much closer to the 4850?
Good to know. I'm glad ATI is still striving for #1.
by: crazy pyroWhat's really knackered 4850 prices is the 4830! I bought my Palit Non-reference 4850 in October(ish) before the 4830 came out. I paid £100 for it from scan. Now, the same card is £120!
Any idea what they're going to do about 4850 512mb prices in the UK? Or will we not be ripped off for once and the 4870's have a price much closer to the 4850?
Bollocks, if only I had ordered all my parts in september/ october I'd have got my build £50 cheaper.