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@ 2012/03/14Nvidia has dropped the pricing on its flagship Geforce GTX 580 in order to make room for the imminent release of its successor, the Kepler-based Geforce GTX 680, while releasing a number of mobile 600-series parts.
The drop, already taking effect, allows you to pick up a GTX 580 right now for as low as £299.99, which puts it in on a collision course with AMD’s newer and similarly performing Radeon HD 7950. The HD 7950 was launched at the £350 price tag, which means the new Nvidia pricing will undercut it by around £50, enough to the keep the faithful happy, for now.
While a price cut will empty the shelves of current Nvidia kit, it might not be the biggest move for the company since, well, ever. By undercutting the AMD rival but not launching its follow-up card right away - as opposed to what Intel and AMD usually do with new products - potential 600-series customers might be lured into postponing their buy or simply opting out in favour of the cheaper GTX580. Well, unless Kepler can trample over the competition.
One might also think that Nvidia is giving customers the option, while others might speculate the imminent Geforce 600-series launch might be less imminent than you’d think.
People are still gripping their arm-rests waiting for Kepler to make an impact, but it seems more and more likely that Nvidia will keep on doing its now traditional bait-and-switch on the mobile side of things, ‘upgrading’ 500-series kit to 600-series status.
Nvidia did take the time to announce the first real bona-fide Kepler-based GPU, the GT640m, which powers an Acer Ultrabook, the M3. Details are short.
The drop, already taking effect, allows you to pick up a GTX 580 right now for as low as £299.99, which puts it in on a collision course with AMD’s newer and similarly performing Radeon HD 7950. The HD 7950 was launched at the £350 price tag, which means the new Nvidia pricing will undercut it by around £50, enough to the keep the faithful happy, for now.
While a price cut will empty the shelves of current Nvidia kit, it might not be the biggest move for the company since, well, ever. By undercutting the AMD rival but not launching its follow-up card right away - as opposed to what Intel and AMD usually do with new products - potential 600-series customers might be lured into postponing their buy or simply opting out in favour of the cheaper GTX580. Well, unless Kepler can trample over the competition.
One might also think that Nvidia is giving customers the option, while others might speculate the imminent Geforce 600-series launch might be less imminent than you’d think.
People are still gripping their arm-rests waiting for Kepler to make an impact, but it seems more and more likely that Nvidia will keep on doing its now traditional bait-and-switch on the mobile side of things, ‘upgrading’ 500-series kit to 600-series status.
Nvidia did take the time to announce the first real bona-fide Kepler-based GPU, the GT640m, which powers an Acer Ultrabook, the M3. Details are short.
