NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 480, 470 Will Come in Low Supply, High Prices
NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 480, 470 Will Come in Low Supply, High Prices
Posted 02/25/2010 at 4:53pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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Just the other day when the naming scheme for the new Nvidia Fermi cards was announced, we speculated that supply would be very low at launch. As such prices could be high. Now we’re hearing that is likely the case. Sources in the graphics manufacturing market have indicated that the new GTX 470 and 480 will be in very short supply at launch. In fact, the cards may only be available through select companies close to Nvidia. This may mean that only companies that do not sell AMD parts will have access to the GF100 cores at launch.
As for price, Nvidia is said to be aiming for numbers well above AMD’s current line. The GTX 470 may retail for $499, and the GTX 480 could go for an eye-popping $680 at launch. For perspective, AMD’s Radeon HD 5970 dual GPU card tops out at only $599 MSRP.
The real bummer here is that high priced Nvidia cards would probably give AMD no reason to cut prices. Even if the Fermi cards are substantially faster, very few people will be dropping almost $700 on a GPU. Sure, these are new flagship parts, but is the price justified? If you’ve been waiting for Fermi, are you still in? Is it better to go AMD, or wait for lower end Fermi cards?
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dcblues355
March 12, 2010 at 3:21pm
My dual 8800GT's cost me lass than $375 brand new 7 months after the G92 chip was introduced.I won't spend over that for one card.
Nyarlathotep
February 28, 2010 at 6:55pm
I was actually hoping the release of Fermi would force the price of the ATI 5xxx series down. Alas, that will not be the case. I''ll probably end up buying a 5870 now. That should be a nice upgrade from my 8800 GTX.
noobstix
February 26, 2010 at 10:26am
My whole PC at the moment still costs less than either one of these cards. Hell, even what I pay for textbooks for college costs less (despite spending around $300 for Chemistry books alone). I wouldn't be surprised if an Nvidia card would cost as much as my tuition.
UndeniablyPC
February 26, 2010 at 9:47am
Wow, this is just ludicrous. I have read the other websites stating this information, and after reading it here, I just have to comment. What is going on over there at the big green factory? I mean Nvidia must think that we PC builders have ass loads of cash just lying around waiting for them. I mean really $700.00 bucks I haven't seen a gamer GPU sell for that price, for o'say never! What the hell Nvidia? Get a damn clue, we are in an economic downturn and you want to throw a GPU out there that has been sighted as running hot and eating gobs of power, and you want to sell it for $700.00 bucks. Nvidia I have been a fan, but I sure as hell ain't a fan of your new methodology. So until you show me some true innovation and uber framerates, I will be leaning to the Red House over yonder, cause at the moment, that's where my baby stay's.
Mr_Armageddon
February 26, 2010 at 10:19am
Although I do agree that a $700 GPU is a bit excessive, just 2 years ago many gamers picked up the coveted 8800 GTX which at the time retailed for well above $600. My EVGA 8800 Ultra was $680. But at the time, the 8800 series was MUCH faster than anything ATI could bring to the table, so you were paying for a huge performance gain.
I have no problem droping some cash on high-end PC components, but only if the high price is justified. If the GTX 480 is say 40% faster than the 5870, the to me the $700 is justified.
So I am not going to go out on a limb and say the $700 is out of the question, but until I see some acutal benchmarks showing that it can readily beat out ATI's best, it is really tough to claim "No Way".
trident60
May 19, 2010 at 8:20am
I agree that the 700 dollars may be justified, but I also agree that it seems these companies seem to believe us PC builders/enthusiasts have thousands and thousands of dollars to spare.
I'm the type of person that builds a machine, and then five years later I might start to THINK about building a whole new machine. That's what's happening right now. I finally have the money and want a new machine bad enough that I'm going to do it. And yes, it's been at least five years since my last build. I'm currently running an Athlon 3200+ 32 bit single core. That's how long it's been. On top of that, I feel like I'm going all out on this next build and it's going to cost me roughly 1400 total... And nVidia wants half that just for the video card. No thanks.
Get with the program, this economy sucks right now.
K0BALT
February 25, 2010 at 8:28pm
Guess it's about time for me to throw my 295's on ebay. :D
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i7 920@4.4GHz,Heatkiller 3.0, (2X)GTX295 Quad-SLI, EVGA X58 3X SLI, 6GB DDR3 OCZ Gold
k11k
February 25, 2010 at 8:19pm
If they think they can charge $500-$600 on the cards, they must think they are like Apple for GPU. I like Nvidia but I'm not going to spend that much for a card that will be outdated by the end of the year.
Danthrax66
February 25, 2010 at 7:30pm
Enough speculation I want benchmarks and the actual non-speculative price.
JohnP
February 26, 2010 at 11:04am
"With large price you must show me large gains in graphics" is a twist on miracles. Can NVidia deliver?
RodyMcAmp
February 25, 2010 at 7:16pm
I will probebly still get this but may wait 6 months to a year insted of getting it right away. I run linux a lot and in my opinion ati's linux drivers still suck, compared to nvidia's.
Havok
February 26, 2010 at 4:35pm
Please pardon my ignorance, but what are you gonna be running on a Linux distro that needs a graphics card powered by a diesel engine?
CLICK.
Havok
February 25, 2010 at 7:16pm
I'll gladly roll with AMD/ATI for this round, I don't want to pull a second mortgage on my home.
PLUS!
Has anyone played the Supreme Commander 2 demo yet? Has anyone noticed that it doesn't say, "Nvidia:The way it's meant to be played" but instead it says "AMD: The future is fusion" ? C'mon, if Square Enix and Gas Powered Games aren't buying into Nvidia this round, it may just get interesting for other games and publishers...
CLICK.
DBsantos77
February 25, 2010 at 8:02pm
Heh. That's funny. At least ATI isn't so screwed up as to disable cool game features just because you're running an Nvidia card.
-Santos
Gigabyte 785GX Micro Atx
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6 GB DDR3 1333
Corsair 500w
Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro Rev.2
HIS HD 5850 @ 940/1175/1175v
500 GB
nickcdll
February 25, 2010 at 6:24pm
Actually ATI's top end card the 5870 tops out around 500$ on newegg.....will it bring down ATI's high end prices, maybe a little, will the amount of energy the new "fermi" cards require cause me to build a nuclear reactor to power it, DEFINATELY...!!!!!!
Scootiep
February 26, 2010 at 6:38am
Actually it won't make a single dent in ATI's prices. The reason being that nVidia's card supply is so minimal that there simply won't be enough of them to compete with ATI's supply.
To start press any key...ohh, where's the "Any" key. - Homer Simpson
johnny3144
February 25, 2010 at 6:32pm
does 5970 don't have any saying in who is the top card ATI Offer?
nickcdll
February 25, 2010 at 6:24pm
Actually ATI's top end card the 5870 tops out around 500$ on newegg.....will it bring down ATI's high end prices, maybe a little, will the amount of energy the new "fermi" cards require cause me to build a nuclear reactor to power it, DEFINATELY...!!!!!!
Caboose
February 26, 2010 at 9:05am
Don't forget to hit up NASA for some of those thermal tiles used on the space shuttle. THey should help with the heat that the damn thing will generate!
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Nyarlathotep
February 25, 2010 at 6:15pm
I'm due for a new video card but I'm going to wait this one out too. Since ther're coming in a little later than schedule as it is, why wouldn't they put the release off a little longer to ensure they could fill initial demand without causing prices to spike. It feels like a tactic to maximize their profits since they didn't beat AMD on release schedule and don't have a product that will dominate them. I'll wait to see benchmarks and where the retail prices settle.
JohnP
February 26, 2010 at 11:47am
that I am an ATI fanboy now! ALWAYS have bought NVidia but even though Fermi is announced, I iust bought the 5870. All I got is a 1920 by 1200 monitor and the 5870 can give me framesrates that are way overkill for most of the games I play. And the XFX card runs quiet even under load AND uses little electricity when on idle.
What could NVidia possibly offer me (except Physx and shuttering 3D) that ATI cannot already?
sybert
February 25, 2010 at 6:10pm
That GTX 480 costs nearly as much as my first custom build. I'm not surprised at the high price tag though.
lll_ll_l_llll_lll
February 25, 2010 at 5:55pm
I'd love to see where you can buy a 5970 for that price.
highsidednb
February 25, 2010 at 5:17pm
So how long to wait for the affordable cards? And why should I get rid of my 260? Thanks nVidia for killing my enthusiasm.
Baer
February 25, 2010 at 5:15pm
My 285 does all I want right now. The only thing that is tempting me to go to ATi is Eyfinity as I want to add a 3rd monitor without adding a dongle.
As far as Fermi goes, the high price is a put off but the reason for the high price, that being lack of supply, makes me wonder if there is a real manufacturing issue of if this is an interum release with yet a new release comming. Either of these casses gives me pause. I also will with hold judgement until I see the benches.
bikerbub
February 25, 2010 at 5:00pm
is anybody suprised? I just can't see Nvidia catching up with this race untill the next version, unless the Fermi cards are just stupid fast. Most people will get all they need out of a 5970, and if they need more, just get another. there's no way that the lesser of the two new Nvidia cards will beat out the 5970. if it does, i'll be impressed. I can't see myself dropping enough for a 5870, let alone 700 bucks for a GTX480.
btw, isn't Nvidia already on MSI's case about selling AMD parts?
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