Update: AMD has stated that there will not be any price cuts.
NVIDIA launched two budget Kepler-based graphics cards today, and the sub-$250 GPUs are competitively priced. The GTX 650 is a card with an MSRP of $109 and is matched against the Radeon 7750 (which retails for around $110 depending on manufacturer). Further, the $229 GTX 660 is pitted against the Radeon 7850 – an approximately $220 card (some manufacturers beat that price, others are priced higher).
The AMD Radeon HD 7850 Graphics Card from our review.
And while you can find these AMD graphics cards for slightly less than the NVIDIA competition, the green team GPU is a faster card in most games (especially at 1080p). In an attempt to sway gamers towards the AMD choice, the company is preparing to cut prices on the entire 7000-series line – including the 7750 and 7850. These are cuts on the, erm, arleady-cut prices announced last month.
The Price cuts are as follows:
| AMD Radeon HD GPU | New Slashed Prices |
| 7970 GHz Edition | $430 |
| 7970 | $410 |
| 7950 Boost Edition | $300 |
| 7950 | $290 |
| 7870 | $240 |
| 7850 | $200 |
| 7770 | $110 |
| 7750 | $95 |
These prices are almost certainly for reference designs, and you can naturally expect to pay for any factory overclocked model. What these price cuts mean, though is that the base versions are now cheaper to get ahold of, which is a good thing (for gamers, not so much for AMD heh).
When specifically talking about the price cuts as a response to budget Kepler cards, both the 7750 and 7850 can be had for anywhere between $5 and $20 cheaper in general. That’s is ~$20 extra dollars that you could devote to more RAM or put you over the edge into getting a better quality PSU. It definitely makes the decision to go AMD or NVIDIA a bit more difficult (but in an exciting/good way).
This is not the first time that AMD has slashed prices on its 7000 series graphics cards and now that it has competition on all fronts, it will be interesting to see how all the prices finally shake out to be. Interestingly, Softpedia seems to have posted the price cut information on Tuesday (two days before Kepler) but states that the cuts will not go into effect until next week – though Newegg seems to have taken some initiative of its own by pricing certain cards at the new prices already. This may have technically been more of a pre-emptive move than a reactionary one, but either way the budget gaming section of the market just got exciting again!
Do the impending price cuts have you reconsidering your budget GPU choice, or are you set on the new Kepler hardware?
Are we surprised by this?
Are we surprised by this? Honestly… a little, only beacause AMD has done rounds of price cuts already.
Though when AMD first released thier HD 7000 series lineup, they didnt hesitate to inflate those prices a good amount, until competition arrived from NVIDIA.
I have a similar line of
I have a similar line of thinking on this, AMD didn't have competition from NV's latest architecture so it was able to price its cards higher. Once NV started moving into that space as well, AMD adjusted it's prices down to be competitive.
AMD didn’t have competition
AMD didn’t have competition from NV’s 500 series until they were released 9 months late, so it was able to price its cards higher.
*fixed*
so far AMD already dropping
so far AMD already dropping their radeon price for several times but nvidia still not responding to this price war from AMD. are they (nvidia) can’t afford to do the same or they were confident with their product that they see they will be fine with their current pricing?
I dont think AMD can afford
I dont think AMD can afford price cuts…. but its the market.
so there is no price cut at
so there is no price cut at all?
Once the initial investment
Once the initial investment costs are covered the company can afford to lower the prices. Consumers like to buy more stuff than they need and both camps end up satisfied. nVidia has cultivated superior relationsips with software developers so i think investing in their HW costs a bit more but not in vain.
thanks
thanks