Pricewatch – There is trouble in Nvidialand. AMD’s new graphics cards apparently have surprised Nvidia, forcing the company to cut the prices of its new cards. Sources told TG Daily that Nvidia is adjusting its marketing strategy to GeForce 8800 cards to avoid what has all the signs for a big sales decline on the high end. Of course, that means that it is a good time for graphics cards shoppers. Here’s some insight in what you can expect to find on the market.   

Nvidia has been dominating the graphics chip market for some time now. In fact, the last troubles are about five years back, when Nvidia faced the ATI Radeon 9700-9800 series in 2002 and 2003 and Nvidia’s own GeForce FX turned into an embarrassment. The new GTX 200 looked like a solid design, but it appears that AMD’s Radeon 4800 is shaking the ground in Santa Clara once again and we may be seeing a time in which Radeon desktop cards are gaining market share again. Nvidia products are experiencing substantial price drops: Some GTX 200 series cards are now 25% cheaper than just a week ago.

Taking a quick look back down the memory lane, ATI hasn’t had an easy ride over the past four years. In 2004, the GeForce 6800 outperformed the Radeon X800 and brought support for DirectX 9.0c. In 2005, the GeForce 7800 slaughtered the Radeon X850 while the GeForce 7900 trumped the Radeon X1800/1900. The GeForce 8800 was introduced in November 2006 and remained on top until the debut of the GeForce GTX 280. Nvidia had a clear 18 month lead over AMD/ATI.

ATI’s back-from-the-dead announcement came with the release of the Radeon 3800 series. The GPU did not have
the success the ATI guys expected, but it was enough to show that there is still life in ATI. The law of graphics industry is very simple: If you screw up, one decent chip generation won’t brick you back. But the second can.

Today’s market has a simple competitive structure: The Radeon 3800 is battling the GeForce 9600GT, the Radeon 4850 is going against the GeForce 9800GTX and the Radeon 4870 is fighting the GeForce GTX 260. What brought a surprising element to this scenario is the fact that Nvidia did not expect that the Radeon 4800 might reach Nvidia's level of performance. Now we are seeing new market dynamics that create problems for Nvidia and opportunities for AMD/ATI. Actually, we are noticing that AMD is gaining traction on a marketing level as well and is going after Nvidia wherever it can.

The prices mentioned below are the lowest we were able to find as of July 11.



Entry level

Looking at retail/etail price data provided by PriceGrabber.com, Nvidia is pressured on several fronts: The Diamond Radeon 3850 with 512 MB GDDR3 memory sells for as low as $99.99 (current average retail price: $121). On Newegg.com, we even found a $20 rebate, bringing the cost of the card down to just $79.99. Nvidia's competitor is MSI's passively-cooled GeForce 8600 GTS 512 MB, which costs $70.93. However, we have to note that a 3850 GPU will drive circles around the 8600 chip and may be the better deal. This concludes the low-end debate: Diamond's 3850 with 512 MB GDDR3 is the most powerful $80 graphics card in the history of 3D.

Gigabyte sells its 3870 with 512 MB GDDR3 memory for $129.99, but Asus has a better deal with higher clocks and GDDR4 memory for just $125.99 after a $20 MIR check. The GeForce 9600 GT is a price competitor at $129.99 and some manufacturers even offer a $20 check, but this is not the deal you should be looking at: The best $129.99 card is BFG's 8800GT 512 MB. The card delivers the full performance of the G92 chip, which makes the card our winner in this segment. However, Nvidia is phasing out the 8800GT - if you are looking for a deal, be quick. What makes the 8800GT even more interesting is the fact that Nvidia and retailers apparently are counting on this card to compensate for sluggish GTX 200 sales. So keep your eyes out for this product for a potentially good deal. More on that below.  

Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 (average retail pricing; courtesy of Pricegrabber.com)

Diamond Radeon HD 3870 (average retail pricing; courtesy of Pricegrabber.com)

PNY GeForce 8800 GT (average retail pricing; courtesy of Pricegrabber.com)

XFX GeForce 8800 GT (average retail pricing; courtesy of Pricegrabber.com)

Asus GeForce 9600 GT (average retail pricing; courtesy of Pricegrabber.com)

Mainstream

As we're moving higher in the price bracket, we are seeing more fireworks and better deals than at any other point in the history of 3D industry – at least as far as we can remember.

The Radeon 4850 was introduced as a $199 card. But if you are looking closely, you can find much cheaper cards, such as Palit’s board for $169.99 (including a $20 rebate). In the $149-199 range, you can find many GeForce 8800 GTS boards: The 320 MB and 640 MB versions are using the original 90 nm G80 chip, while 512MB boards integrate the 65 nm G92 chip. If you own a SLI motherboard and an older GeForce 8800 GTS, getting a second card might be a steal.

If you compare Radeon 4850 to GeForce 9800GTX (Nvidia's preferred case scenario), we have a dilemma between Palit's board for $169.99 and Zotac's 9800GTX for $196.99 and free shipping.  Our advice: Go for the cheaper card.

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 (average retail pricing; courtesy of Pricegrabber.com)

XFX GeForce 9800 GTX (average retail pricing; courtesy of Pricegrabber.com)

Read on the next page: Performance cards, Vendor struggles, Conclusion