Price Guides, August 2005: Video Cards
by Anand Shimpi & Cara Hamm on August 14, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Ultra High End Graphics
This market segment is for the serious enthusiast who has to game at extreme resolutions and is willing to pay the heavy price to the pocket book. Happily, that price just became a lot lower this month on the reigning king of graphics, the GeForce 7800GTX, falling $100 from $600 to just under $500. Let's take a look at how GeForce 7800GTX card prices have dropped since their June 22 launch:
Here, we have a LeadTek GeForce 7800GTX 256MB at ZipZoomFly [RTPE: PX7800GTX] for $495. Just last month, we were wondering about the possibility for a $50 reduction by year's end. Surely, a $100 drop just one month later is pleasant news that NVIDIA brings us.
Unfortunately for AGP holders, this card is only available in PCIe form for at least several more weeks. People should really think about making the transition to a PCIe graphics slot if they're in the market for a new high-end/extreme card right now, since AGP (for all practical purposes) is dying quickly.
The new show stopper is NVIDIA's GeForce 7800GT just launched this past Thursday. Higher performance than a decent Radeon X850XT, the new card is an upgrade from the GeForce 6800 Ultra series, but at the same cost (or lower) in many instances! With an MSRP of $399, we can easily expect these prices to drop at least $50 in the next few months - which in turn may also drop the prices of comparable cards, like the X850XT series.
The GeForce 6800 Ultra has really lost favor in PCIe form, since it's now competing with the 7800 GT and GTX while being approximately 40-60% slower than the 7800GTX depending on the benchmark. There are some decent deals on the 6800 Ultra in AGP form like the MSI GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB for $350 after Mail in Rebate (MIR) at ZipZoomFly [RTPE: MS-V801-001]. However, we can't really recommend a 6800 Ultra right now, since an equivalently priced GeForce 7800GT outperforms the 6800 Ultra at launch. The fact that GeForce 6800GTs are much more competitively priced doesn't help. Remember that the 6800GT is just a slightly under-clocked 6800 Ultra, same pixel pipelines and same features, making the GT the most popular choice for enthusiasts for almost a year now due to price.
The only people that might want to pick up a 6800 Ultra are users who want to upgrade to 6800U SLI. We'd be hesitant to recommend even that, given the current price/performance offered. If you have $400 for a second 6800U, we'd suggest the 7800GTX instead, and you can then SLI that in the future. Selling the 6800U for $300-$350 would only sweeten the deal. 6800U SLI does come out ahead a single 7800GTX overall, though, so go for it if you want.
ATI, whom of recent seems a bit slow out of the gate with their Crossfire and R520 compared to NVIDIA, have no choice but to slash prices to garner attention, which is good news for us consumers. ATI is offering their AGP Sapphire Radeon X850XT PE 256MB for $339 at EWiz [RTPE: 100111] dropping roughly $100 this month. The X850XT PE PCIe version for $350 from Connect3D [RTPE: Connect3D Radeon X850XT PE 256MB] is also falling by $100. ATI's only chance right now is to outperform the 7800GT on the price rather than performance. Check out how the price of the X850XT series has plummeted since the middle of July:
Connect3D Radeon X850XT PE 256MB
So, there you have it: unmatched GeForce 7800GTX 256MB for $500, GeForce 7800GT for $400 or X850XTs in the mid-to-upper $300 range.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
23 Comments
View All Comments
patrick0 - Monday, August 15, 2005 - link
Maybe you want to check out:www.alternate.de
www.alternate.es
They do send internationally (prices in Euro)
at80eighty - Thursday, August 18, 2005 - link
thanks mate!Hacp - Sunday, August 14, 2005 - link
AGP 6800GTs have always been around the 280 range....neogodless - Sunday, August 14, 2005 - link
What do you mean by "always"? I bought mine about a year ago, and the cheapest I could find for a Dual DVI 256MB AGP 6800GT was around $375.DrZoidberg - Sunday, August 14, 2005 - link
With the recent 6800GT AGP price drops cause of 7800GT coming out x800xl is no longer $100 or significantly cheaper than 6800GT. Theres still alot of x800xl at $270 on that pricewatch.ASUS GeForce 6800GT 128MB - $269
Albatron GeForce 6800GT 256MB - @269
kristof007 - Sunday, August 14, 2005 - link
So where does my Gainword nVidia 5700 FX land?? Yea I need to update. I wish I had the money. I use it for Doom 3 and GTA San Andreas these days and it works. Not INSANE graphics but nice.RMSistight - Sunday, August 14, 2005 - link
I'm waiting until the end of the year for the 6 series cards to be way cheap. After all, the 6 series card and the ATI X800 series are the last of the powerful AGPs.coomar - Sunday, August 14, 2005 - link
with expected price drops on cards soon, seems weird to do a price guidebupkus - Sunday, August 14, 2005 - link
It's funny, but when shopping for a new video card a couple weeks ago so many people swore the 6600GT pwned the X800. I'm convinced now my choice for the X800 was the better of the two.KristopherKubicki - Sunday, August 14, 2005 - link
(nt)