@DisposableInterloper: I know.
I was just being a dick. :)

I love nvidia, and as long as the shit that's dyin' ain't mine, I'm just fine with 'em.

strider_mt2k

@SneakerFiend: My macbook could get like 600fps with an Intel GMA 950 on Age of Empires...

You could at least let us know what game you get 70fps on... fps isnt like bhp for graphics cards!

hired_geek

@strider_mt2k:
Yep. The ones that were going kaput were pretty much all 8-series GeForce cards but the 8800 line.

DisposableInterloper

That has to be one of the biggest/quickest price cuts I've seen in a while. Its good to see Nvidia get nervous, its been far too long since they have had some stuff competition from the red team

Le0nidas

Nobody's happier than me to see ATI make a comeback. Lack of competition was making nVidia a bit too greedy. I just hope AMD gets their Phenom FX out the door, to give Intel's top-end a kick in the crotch.

DisposableInterloper

@mhlaxp: I dont think i'd be capable of buying anything BUT a Nvidia graphics card. I love them. My single Nvidia runs at 70FPS so im good with my set up.
Next computer is gonna be a gaming rig so lets see how many FPS i can get out of that one x]

SneakerFiend

This is the one that's NOT dying, right?

strider_mt2k

holy shit thats a big cut ... BEFORE the holidays even. Ati's new products are still a bit less than what nvidia has performance wise but if ati's fights with pricing they may get customers back

lilaliendog

The fact that they were able to lower the price by $250 on one of the cards and yet still make a profit shows how much markup there was initially. Early adopters always get screwed.

Quicksilver4648

Sweet, I almost bought one of these the other day but the price scared me off, especially with the promise of the 4870 X2 (which HardOCP shows is pretty comparable to the 280).

Rock on ATI, I'd go with your cards if only my board supported Crossfire. At least I have an AMD cpu, so I'm not totally forgetting you guys. Rock on.

mhlaxp

NVidia's had some admissions of quality problems, lately, so this doesn't come as too much of a surprise.

ninjagin

NVidia ever fix those Vista driver problems they were having? If not, I don't care how much they drop the price, it's not worth the hastle.

Posavoie

It kinda looks like an 80s cell phone

Puck

I'm still in awe over the size of new video cards lately. I understand the why they need the extra space for cooling etc but still these are getting huge.

TheCyberBob

Thx ATI. Go go price war.

tro11

That's some serious price cutting right there boys and girls.

And the iPhone people feel like they got dicked.

Puck

fucking pwned! Just got my two 4850's last week! $320.00 total price for both on Newegg. Needless to say, $320 vs $600, and the 4850's beat the 280 in every bench i've run so far!

V.Volker

According to the CNET article and an Anandtech article, the price for the 280 is $499 not $399. I thought $399 seemed a bit too good to be true for that card, still an improvement though.

[www.dailytech.com]

Le0nidas

Someone needs to alert NewEgg.

jscottd

Wow! I'll have to see about these. That's a huge cut.

aaj111

AMD might need another generation or so to get back in the game, but at least now they can say their acquisition of ATI was a good idea. ATI really hasn't made a superior product since the the 9700/9800 days, but now I can definitely see buying ATI if you top notch graphics. AMD... pleeease make another hit like your opteron 165/170. Those were server class chips at a consumer pricepoint, and they absolutely crushed anything at that pricepoint at the time. My opteron is still going just fine and able to keep up with any game I can throw at it (with my 8800GT's help).

knyghtryda

Tools rejoice.

MarkB

This is why I'm glad I waited.

I want 2 of these in my computer, but I don't want to pay half the cost of the computer for it.

Scuba Steve

499 for GTX 280, not 399.

vjeko

@Quicksilver4648: do you have proof they are still making a profit? im pretty sure they are being sold at a loss

Dapole

@Posavoie: Several months ago. Using Vista with a GeForce 8-series card, myslef.

Rhainor

Any links to specific stores selling them for that price

Zarian

Wow... I didn't get one but am SERIOUSLY considering getting one now... although I don't know what i'd do with the dual 8800GTS cards i'm running off an on of SLI right now...

Anyone interested? :)

switchxfactor

I'll just stick with my 9800GTX.... when it starts to chugg along i'll buy two more and tri-sli it up. I've always been satisfied with buying the 2nd tier product, it always seems to last longer without price cuts, defects, etc.

Ryanraven

if they dropped the price that fast, i will wait for a while more, i got burned on the 8800 dropping as fast as it did
won't get fooled again!!!!!!

godwhacker

Oh my god, I love competition. Good job ATI, keep scaring the pants off nvidia.

behavin

Wow that's a huge price drop for the 280. I may have to get a GTX 260 now.

zed0

it 'doesn't pay' to be an early adopter

OR

early adopter ≠ money $aved,

but man, now i'm really confused. I bought an ATI X800 series GPU for my mac and it was the worst experience of my life because of poor drivers support. I quested in forums high and low to find a work around but alas, I had to downgrade and vowed on that same day I would no longer buy ATI but learn the mystic art of nVidia and now to hear that that dark art is corrupted just the same...is there no sensible alternative (matrox m-series)???

darclex

Eh, my dual 8800GTX's run Crysis with everything on high at 1440. I'm good for now.

JEmlay

This is what nVIDIA gets for using slow memory, a wide bus and a 65 nm process rather than faster memory, a narrower bus and a 55nm or smaller process.

the GTX 280 seems to still be 500 bucks, but if you look at it's performace vs the 4870 it's about 20% extra performace, 80% extra price (at 500 vs 300 dollars). It really needs to be 400 dollars, even if that is at a loss to retain market share. The 4870x2 will almost certainly be in the 500 dollar range, and, so long as there is x-fire driver support will outperform the 280. That's ok though, since that's where nVIDIA wants to be: the best single monolithic GPU.

But for now if you really want nVIDIA (say for CUDA development) I'd be waiting on a new GTX fabbed on a 55nm or 45nm process. 55nm would cut their costs by 40%/chip but force them to use faster memory which might drive some of the cost up, overall I think a 55nm GTX 200 series with DDR4 or DDR5 memory and a smaller bus would be profitable at 400 bucks.

@darclex
Mac hardware all uses a custom bios to be compatible with OSX. The cards Mac bought from ATI in the x1800 series iirc (maybe the x800s) are actually sightly neutered versions of their regular PC counterparts to support that. You'll find with a mac if you aren't using mac parts with the 'mac tax' on them they probably won't work, nVIDIA or otherwise.

sirsri

from NordicHardware

AMD has one or two plans for next year...first of all going to shrink things with the RV740 core. If you hadn't already figured it out, 40 means 40nm. This GPU is slated for Q1 2009.

The die-shrink (to 55 nm) for the 280 is planned for Q4 this year, yet ATI will move to 40 nm by early next year.
This means Nvidia will have lots of catching up to do.

wetboxersguy

@wetboxersguy:
You assume Nvidia doesn't already have something up their sleeve! They have already stated with each card they release they have two more waiting to be released and they plan to share ZERO information about it until that time. aka Steve Jobs.

So far, they have been true to their word.

JEmlay

It's down to the matter of if you need this. I have the 8800GT Alpha version and it runs World of Warcraft in 1920 x 1200 widescreen mode at 60FPS (with max AA set) and never goes below that no matter what's happening. I would really research whether you can or will ever make use of it's power before getting it. They always nosedive in price, just make sure you really need it now, not a year from now, for a game you might never play on the current machine.

Hello_Newman

600 fps.. lol what a nernoob

Cyfer911