AMD aggressively cuts prices on dawn of NVIDIA launch
Whilst gaming and 3D graphics enthusiasts eagerly await the arrival of NVIDIA's GeForce 9 series, rival AMD is pre-emptively striking against NVIDIA's impending launch, by aggressively cutting the prices of its ATI Radeon HD 3800 series graphics accelerators.Sources close to AMD tell us that the ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MiB, Radeon HD 3850 512MiB and HD 3850 256MiB are some of the products set to fall in price...
AMD's new range has fared well and the graphics manufacturer should be fairly confident of its performance when it comes up against NVIDIA's GeForce 9. Nonetheless, there's nothing like a good ol' price cut to keep yourself one step ahead.
In the US, e-tailer New Egg is expected to publish AMD's lowered prices later today or tomorrow. In the UK, online retailer ebuyer is expected to do the same and other retailers will no doubt follow.
A quick visit to ebuyer.com shows that the 1GB GeCube HD 3870X2 has already fallen by £35 to £234.98 and our sources indicate that other Radeon HD 3800-series cards will soon follow suit.
As an example, an ATI Radeon HD 3850 256MiB based card is now available for just £90.99 and for only 75p more SCAN offer its own Radeon HD 3870 256MiB for £91.74 which, coupled with the world leading SCAN2HEXUS free shipping initiative that UK based HEXUS.community members exclusively benefit from, make it a no-brainer for UK based HEXUS readers in the market for a sub-£100 graphics accelerator.
We expect Radeon HD 3870 pricing to drop to £120, down from the present £135.
AMD's marketing team reckons it's not daunted by the competition's upcoming mid-range part, but price-cutting across the range could seem to indicate otherwise, right?
Whatever the case, the winner is you, the HEXUS reader, as there has never been a better time to invest in a mid-range graphics card than right now.
UPDATE - 20th February 2008 18:57 - the price slashing seems to be shaping up as follows: -
ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MiBPowerColor HD3870 ZeroTherm now €179 at Alternate in Germany
SAPPHIRE 100225L Radeon HD 3870 512MB now $184.99 at New Egg in the US
ATI Radeon HD 3850 512MiB
GeCube HD3850 Turbo (Retail, TV-Out, 2x
DVI) now €149 at Alternate in
Germany
SAPPHIRE 100226L Radeon HD 3850 512MB now $169.99 at New Egg in the US
ATI Radeon HD 3850 256MiB
256MB ATI HD3850 PCI-E 2.0 (x16), GDDR3, GPU 670MHz, 320 Streams, S-Video/2xDVI-I, HDCP Ready now £91.74 at SCAN in the UK (including SCAN2HEXUS FREE shipping for UK based HEXUS.community members)
HIS HD 3850 Pro 256MB 256bit GDDR3 Dual DVI TV HDCP now £92.01 at ebuyer in the UK
Sapphire HD3850 (Light-Retail, TV-Out,
2x DVI) now €139 at Alternate in
Germany
ATI Radeon HD 3850 256MiB $149 at New Egg in the US (presently no stock
available)
more as we get it...
