More to come
The other group that might have an ambivalent view of the price cuts is the channel. “The channel is currently sitting on a vast amount of NVIDIA stock,” insists Grasby, and you have to wonder what it’s costing NVIDIA or, indeed, the channel, to shift this stock at significantly reduced prices.
Those problems may be compounded if demand for the new AMD products is as high as it seems to be. “Etailers are normally very cautious at this time of year but they are putting in big orders,” said Grasby.
While the 4870 also hard-launched today, it isn’t available in the large quantities the 4850 appears to be. Grasby insists this won’t be the case for long: “The 4870 should be appearing in significant numbers in the channel by the end of this week.”
One major advantage NVIDIA still has over AMD/ATI is the overall performance leader in the form of the (lest we forget) recently launched GeForce GTX 280. As we commented at the time, not many people are going to shell out 400-odd quid for a graphics card, but the ‘halo effect’ of having the performance leader often leads to a boost in sales of lower priced products.
Well, AMD is planning to get a couple of 4870 GPUs and stick them on one card, much like it did with the 3870 X2 at the start of the year. The card doesn’t even have a name yet, although 4870 X2 would seem reasonable, but it’s codenamed R700 and is intended to give the GTX 280 a run for its money when it’s launched in a month or so’s time.
“The R700 is going to be the king of the hill and it will be at the right price points,” claimed Grasby. Now that really would make things interesting.
