Price drops by Q2 2010?

[llmercll]

I'm wondering what I an expect as far as price drops for Q2 2010 (for those who know these things =p) on ati video cards.

Anything big? Thinking waiting a few months would be worth it?

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Only if those factories in Taiwan fix their manufacturing problems, and if Nvidia finally releases Fermi...

 

[KidHorn]

No one knows. Not even ATI.

 

[jay2tall]

You are asking a question about prices in Q2 2010? In this industry that is SO far away it's ridiculous to ask, please don't take offense to that. These are my thoughts.

1) Fermi isn't out yet. You can speculate ALL you want on it's performance. We know it will be a larger chip, meaning it will cost more. However, no one REALLY knows if it will outperform the 58xx cards from ATI. So you can't assume they will be "better" until they are out and the major review sites have at them.

2) The ATI cards did ballon up in price a bit, but they are starting to come down to their original release prices. You should have got them when they first came out man!. hehe. 5850 was $270 and 5870 was $380.

3) So lets say the 5870 DOES reduce in price to lets say $350. It is currently $410. That is $60. So you are meaning to tell me that getting the card NOW and enjoying the awesome graphics for 4-6 months isn't worth $60 to you? Rather than waiting for the cost to come down? That is 4-6 more months i get to enjoy my card before I have to sell it and get the next best upgrade. I would most likely than not put the card at maybe $380 or so by that time. If Fermi doesn't deliver higher performance OR it does and the cost it ridiculously high, you maybe not even get a price drop at all.

So get what you want now and enjoy it.

 

[llmercll]

The fermi is what i was thinking about the most. I read an article where an nvidia tech said how every three years there's a huge breakthrough (like the 8800 series), and the fermi is it. When asked about Ati's 5000 series he simply laughed.

I find something like this very believable, since, at least to me, nvidia usually invents the breakthrough technology, while ati makes it affordable.

Fermi is coming out soon, Q1 I read, and if its as good as nvidia says, there will inevitably be price drops in older cards. I'm thinking that maybe ati got word of fermi and how powerful it is, so released the 5000 as a way to make some quick buck before fermi came out and crushed them. if they waited for fermi (assuming its as powerful as they say) to release the 5000 series it wouldn't stand a chance.

I really don't know, just evaluating a bit of reading, what do ou guys think of that?