Retailer spills the beans on GTX280

[Clunk]

475.391 GBP...

Absolutely overkill. Not many people would spend that much on a component to have it outdated in a few months by another top end rebrand or OC.. surely?

[ed^chigliak]

When the next generation are released I will be choosing the card that offers the best performance per watt and would even be willing to pay a premium for the higher efficiency. High power consumption is uncool in every sense of the word. Since ATI 3000 series they look good again. Reminds me of ATI9700/9800 vs Nvidia FX dust buster days.

[FifthFreedom]

Meh, we just have to wait for the benchmarks and see if it's worth the money.

Theres no point it only offers 105% of what the 9800 GX2 had...

But remember, if you currently got a 9800 GX2, and will definitely be upgrading...

SELL IT NOW!

If you wait a week, you'll get half as much for it...

[WoLFe]

When the next generation are released I will be choosing the card that offers the best performance per watt and would even be willing to pay a premium for the higher efficiency. High power consumption is uncool in every sense of the word. Since ATI 3000 series they look good again. Reminds me of ATI9700/9800 vs Nvidia FX dust buster days.

Bought a 9700 when they were still damn good, only got it working on my PC once. Might have been compatibility issues and switching from an Nvidia card.. Still a bad day that.

[s3ds]

ill get one of these but ill wait a little while

2012 maybe

lol lol

[shaithis]

Typical price for 'brand new' nV tech. ATi cards are becoming more attractive with every new nV release.

Do you honestly believe that if ATI/AMD had something better, it wouldn't be the same price?

Go back and check out how much X1900XTX cards were when they first released and were the fastest card available.

[dmuz]

/waits for 4870 pricing....

[dangel]

4870 has turned out to be quite a bit quicker than the 9800gtx by the looks of early benchies. Might well be a solid choice given the price.

[aidanjt]

Do you honestly believe that if ATI/AMD had something better, it wouldn't be the same price?

Go back and check out how much X1900XTX cards were when they first released and were the fastest card available.

The 3870X2 was reasonably priced compared to the rest of the nV high-end cards despite beating them all out in performance. And AMD has always been fairly reasonable with their pricing. You can't compare historical ATi prices, AMD now owns and manages 'ATi' (which is merely a brand now, not a real entity).

[shaithis]

We will see then. The 3870X2 was reasonably priced, correct. It wasn't substantially cheaper then the other established cards though.

If people think ATI/AMD will sell a top range card noticeably cheaper then nVidia, then I think there are going to be some disappointed people around here soon. Both are running a business and both need to recoup R&D costs.

[aidanjt]

Recoup R&D costs?... heh, they do that, and then some. Especially in nV's case.

[Saracen]

.... If people think ATI/AMD will sell a top range card noticeably cheaper then nVidia, then I think there are going to be some disappointed people around here soon. Both are running a business and both need to recoup R&D costs.

Yes, but it's precisely because they're running a business that it might happen. Note "might", not will.

For a start, a lot depends on what their costs are, and how much development costs they have to recover. If they've managed to develop it for a lot less than nVidia, they could undermine nVidia by undercutting them. It's not as if AMD don't know that trick, is it? After all, they caused Intel all sorts of problems for years that way. And Intel have now upped their game.

Next, there's market segmentation to think about. How many people will even consider a card at £450, compared to £250, and of those, how many will be prepared to actually pay it? I'd guess that market size at £250 will be a LOT bigger than at £450. Orders of magnitude bigger. Mass market versus niche market bigger. So .... depending on costs, it may well be that AMD could take a lot of business away from nVidia if they can seduce people that would have bought a £200 nVidia card into buying a £250 AMD card because it matches (more or less) £450 nVidia performance. In other words, far better bang per buck. Sorry ... pound.

What would you rather make - £50 for 100,000 buyers, or £10 from 1,000,000? Which recoups more development costs?

I'm not saying the above will happen, because I, like everyone else here, doesn't know what respective cost levels or market sizes are .... just that it might. Just because they're both running business doesn't mean charging less than the opposition isn't a sound business strategy. In fact, it's precisely because they're both running businesses that it is a sound strategy .... in the right circumstances.

[dangel]

According to some of the press AMD's pricing of the new series is *already* impacting on the 200 line from nividia as initial pricing has already dropped considerably. Saracen is bang on - top end cards are low-sellers compared to the midrange.

[TooNice]

To be fair, nVidia made some excellent enthusiast mid-rangers with the 8800GT/9600GT, and while more expensive competed well with the 3870/3850 on a price/performance perspective. What is known about the 4870 at the moment?

[kalniel]

I think if ATi can match the price of the 9800GT and beat it performance-wise then they're sorted. But I don't think even the 4870 is competing with the new GTX cards - it's just catching up to nVidia's last generation top ends.

Price/performance of the 4870 vs the 8800GTS 512 could be interesting.

[aidanjt]

It wouldn't be the first time AMD pulled a rabbit out of it's hat.