Price Drops on vid cards

[Inspirer]

The whole craze of the R300 modification makes you wonder how low would prices drop for retail 9700 cards, if ATI had had any comptetition.

Only a company that's lonely at the top can expect you to pay 400$ for a board that's been out for over 4 months now.

Only now, that I realize the damage it's causing us customers, I wish GeForce FX wouldn't have been so late.

it didn't take NVIDIA 6 months to start shipping TI4200 boards when the Radeon 8500 got too close for comfort.

the real blow to NVIDIA from ATI isn't going to be ATI's Technological lead, it's going to be the agressive price cuts that will force NVIDIA to sell the FX at low margins of profit.

Meanwhile, ATI is laughing their ass off at all the suckers paying big bucks for R300 and puffing breathes of contempt at all the geeks that are dissecting their cards, and saving ATI the trouble of honoring their warranties.

All of you who are sorry you bought 9500Pros are gonna be even more so when you realize you could have gotten real 9700Pros for 229$ with 2.8ns memory components. but then again, you'd be holding on to your card for a few months by then. the people who wait, will have nothing in the meantime.

 

[SFang]

Originally posted by: Inspirer
the real blow to NVIDIA from ATI isn't going to be ATI's Technological lead, it's going to be the agressive price cuts that will force NVIDIA to sell the FX at low margins of profit.

Meanwhile, ATI is laughing their ass off at all the suckers paying big bucks for R300 and puffing breathes of contempt at all the geeks that are dissecting their cards, and saving ATI the trouble of honoring their warranties.

Well, this must also be a lesson for Nvidia for they were laughing their ass off at all the suckers paying big bucks for GEFORCE Video Cards for years.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I don't think they'd be laughing their asses off. I certainly wouldn't feel as if I were ripping off my customer after putting so much time and development into a product. ATI and nVidia don't even have to produce their high end gaming cards, they don't make hardly any money anyways, the money is in the budget board market, the GF2 MX/Radeon 7000-GF4 MX Radeon 9000 make ATI and nVidia most all the money...

 

[MSNY]

Ah....

Your forgetting 2 other important things in nVidia's business plan the last few months:

1) There very successfull cooperation with Microsoft and the Xbox dev

2) There line of nForce motherboards, specially the newest nForce 2 motherboards just released

They have NOT been sitting around wondering why there latest card is late, they have been busy.
Since they're NOT putting all there eggs in one basket...namely making video cards for the
aftermarket enthusist alone your point is moot. ATI cannot claim the same diversity of marketing.
If ATI did not have the 9700 PRO right now, they would be in worse shape then ever.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[zephyrprime]

high end gaming cards, they don't make hardly any money anyways, the money is in the budget board market, the GF2 MX/Radeon 7000-GF4 MX Radeon 9000 make ATI and nVidia most all the money...

Yeah buy S3 and matrox make lower performance products too but where are they? Nvidia and ATI can rule the low end only because they rule the high end. Since the chips used in the low end stuff are the same but slower variants of the high end cards, making a good high end card automatically means you've got a good low end card.

 

[gizbug]

Originally posted by: MSNY
Ah....

Your forgetting 2 other important things in nVidia's business plan the last few months:

1) There very successfull cooperation with Microsoft and the Xbox dev

2) There line of nForce motherboards, specially the newest nForce 2 motherboards just released

They have NOT been sitting around wondering why there latest card is late, they have been busy.
Since they're NOT putting all there eggs in one basket...namely making video cards for the
aftermarket enthusist alone your point is moot. ATI cannot claim the same diversity of marketing.
If ATI did not have the 9700 PRO right now, they would be in worse shape then ever.

Just my 2 cents.

I agree

 

[Inspirer]

For the record, I never said ATI was going to put nvidia out of buisness, I just said that they are in a comfy position, high end graphics wise.

And, by the way, it's not something I can directly explain, I don't think anyone really can, but I noticed over the years that whoever is on top in the high end, ends up being on top everywhere else

 

[policy11]

Originally posted by: MSNY
ATI cannot claim the same diversity of marketing.

I thought the gamecube had an ATI gpu.

 

[PCHPlayer]

Hmm, I thought ATI was also getting into the chipset market. I know they have a laptop chipset, not sure about desktop.

 

[Inspirer]

Originally posted by: MSNY
They have NOT been sitting around wondering why there latest card is late, they have been busy.

if it was up to NVIDIA, they'd ditch all of their side projects to see retailers pimping FX boards a month ago.
but it's not, it's TSMC's fault and there's nothing they could have done to speed up the launch.

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles
ATI and nVidia don't even have to produce their high end gaming cards, they don't make hardly any money anyways, the money is in the budget board market, the GF2 MX/Radeon 7000-GF4 MX Radeon 9000 make ATI and nVidia most all the money...

you need the high-end's buzzwords for brand name recognition when you go out selling low end boards to the idiot mob

 

[CurtCold]

I'm ready for FX, so I can get a sweet deal on a 9500pro. Not that the deal isn't sweet already, but I would sure like to have one of those bad boys in my AMD rig.

 

[Inspirer]

good luck finding one

 

[Inspirer]

wow, it looks like it's going to be a very competitive year as far as Video cards go.
I don't believe they're going to actually ship but there will be an abundance of hype about :
R350
RV350
PowerVR series 5
S3's DeltaChrome
Creative/3Dlabs P9
NV30
NV31
NV34

5 different companies just like old times

 

[lifeguard1999]

You're ready for an FX? At $700? I would not expect a drop in 9700 prices if the FX costs $500+ ... but at $700 it is ridiculous.

 

[Inspirer]

9700NPs going for 230$ while 9500Pro 180$+
9500NP ~ 150$

keep on modding everyone

you're doing NVIDIA's job.

two more weeks of 9500 canibalizing on 9700 and I'll bet the 9700 breaks the 200$

 

[Tab]

9700 Pro for $200? That'd be a hot deal, screw a $400 nVidia GeForce FX.

 

[PhoenixOfWater]

Originally posted by: PCHPlayer
Hmm, I thought ATI was also getting into the chipset market. I know they have a laptop chipset, not sure about desktop.

and the Gamecube video card is made by ATI

 

[Sxotty]

Originally posted by: PhoenixOfWater

Originally posted by: PCHPlayer
Hmm, I thought ATI was also getting into the chipset market. I know they have a laptop chipset, not sure about desktop.

and the Gamecube video card is made by ATI

Well kinda, actually ATI pulled a smarter stunt than Nvidia, they acquired a company who was already building the chip for Nintendo, then plastered on the built by ATI.

 

[Gravija]

Originally posted by: policy11

Originally posted by: MSNY
ATI cannot claim the same diversity of marketing.

I thought the gamecube had an ATI gpu.

yes it does...my platinum GC has a little "powered by ATI" sticker in the lower corner

 

[bunnyfubbles]

No, ArtX designed the chip, and ATI bought ArtX to slap their label on. Technically it is ATI and technically it isn't. Its a piece of hardware that was designed before ATI owned it, kinda funny, just marketing strategy; let another company spend resources on a piece of hardware, then buy it to compete with nVidia. That way ATI is able to compete with nVidia in the console markey while they could still focus a lot of resources on their new video chips with hardly breaking a stride. I did read somewhere that the XGPU in the XBox is a large part of why nVidia is now behind ATI in the performance lead.

 

[Inspirer]

Cool, the 9700PRO version Dipped below the 280$ mark for BULK.

BTW, does anyone agree that intel's pricing of the HT enabled P4 and GeForce FX's introduction Price of 700$ is a disturbing trend ?

I mean, who would mind settling for a 400MHz core and paying "only" 550$ ?
the card will probably be completely choked by bandwidth so the difference would be minimal.

but nooooo, we have to up the bid for a top of the line video card so that the croud in two years will happily pay 1500$ for a piece
of molten sand in the center of a plastic board, decorated by some copper wiring.

this kind of margin will allow them to sustain their current investment in
egineering while tripling the marketing investments which will lead to better margins...
and of course, smart and ambitious goals, like making a chip that weighs like a rock run stable at 6GHz, being actively cooled by a 2 horse power air conditioner. all fitting nicely in a "brick" that takes up no more than 17 PCI slots, not including the AGP.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

what was that bs? GF FX isn't even out, we don't know how it will perform, price certainly cannot be determined just yet. From the "benches" I have seen of the FX, they aren't impressive enough to warrent paying twice as much for a retail GF FX over a retail 9700 Pro as its perfromance was far from twice as high. Even then those "benches" we have seen didn't even stress the memory bandwidth of the cards as much as possible which is where the GF FX will most likely have an Achilles heel. No way could the GF FX cost $700 and still be competetive. Even if it were 2 or even 3 times faster than the 9700 Pro I doubt even power users would jump on the bandwagon as $700 could get you a new core system along with a 9700 Pro as if the GF FX were able to outperform the 9700 Pro by 2-3x then I'm sure ATI would slash prices to be very very agressive and I've yet to meet a hard core game that would "settle" for the "crappy" performance of a 9700 board.

New P4s are always insanely expensive and I would never dream of paying full price for intel's flagship CPU, as again, you end up paying for over twice the ammount for their fastest CPU (3GHz) as compared to a CPU that is far from delievering half the performance (2.5GHz) even though it costs less that half as much. WTF, I guess there are some chumps out there that have some cash to burn. I figure I can get by with the "crappy" peformance of such a slower model and have the cash saved for an upgrade later. Just because prices are high doesn't mean you have to pay that price, you have a choice and many times patience can save you a boat load of cash.

 

[sodcha0s]

Right on bunnyfubbles. I ALWAYS buy behind the technology curve, especially video cards and motherboards. I wind up with a system that runs everything I throw at it without a hiccup, and have more $$$ in pocket for important things, like food, clothing and beer.

 

[DefRef]

Where are you guys getting this $700 price from? The stupid EUROPEAN speculation? Beast Buy is pre-ordering at $400, not $700. Jeez...get a grip. You're all acting like Nvidia would seriously bring out a part at a price you can get complete systems for. Not. Gonna. Happen.

 

[masterxfob]

Originally posted by: DefRef
Where are you guys getting this $700 price from? The stupid EUROPEAN speculation? Beast Buy is pre-ordering at $400, not $700. Jeez...get a grip. You're all acting like Nvidia would seriously bring out a part at a price you can get complete systems for. Not. Gonna. Happen.

one word explains it all: fanboys, they're all a bunch of fanboys