ATI Cuts Price of HD 4870 512MB
Everyone likes cheap without cutting down quality. Apparently, ATI is hacking HD4800 prices like a crazed maniac from a slasher movie.
As Nvidia's GTS 250 rebrand peers around the corner, waiting to pounce of consumers, ATI is gearing up for the fight, standing its ground on the graphical front with not only the release of the upcoming Radeon HD 2890, but by slashing the price of its Radeon HD 4800 series. The hacking begins with its Radeon HD 4870 512 MB card, ready for end-user consumption at Newegg and other online retail outlets for $149, a $50 drop from its original price. The price cuts are supposedly taking place this week, just in time for Nvidia's big reveal at CeBIT this week.
From a pricing point of view, the card will mostly compete against Nvidia's GTS 250, rebranded using the existing old GTX 9800+, donning the same $149 pricetag. Consumers seeking better performance for the buck may turn towards ATI's HD 4870, as the card has shown that it even outperforms Nvidia's GTX 260 series. The Radeon HD 4870 card joins the Radeon HD 4850 512MB, previously receiving a drop in price and now selling for $129. Still, at its new price, ATI has positioned the 4850 to compete directly with Nvidia's GTS 250 512 MB card, also offered for $129.
Based on the RV770 chip, the HD 4870 beams with 800 stream processors, a core clocking in at 750 MHz, a memory clock of 900 MHz using GDDR5, and a 256-bit memory bus. In comparison, the GTX 260 offers 216 stream processors, a core clock of 576 MHz, a memory clock of 999 MHz and a 448-bit memory bus.
Other price cuts are expected later down the road although ATI did not offer further details.
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YYYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wow $150.
i might get crossfire mobo and get another 4870 then
omg just when i need a graphics card too!!!
"ATI is gearing up for the fight, standing its ground on the graphical front with not only the release of the upcoming Radeon
HD 2890, but by slashing the price of its Radeon HD 4800 series."
I think you mean 4890 ^.^
It's cool just because ATI responded to NVIDIA's decpetive rebranding plan, by just smashing it by making their 2year younger and all round better card the same price. Ouch. Nvidia can't be to happy, only the uniformed or fanboys will be choosing the 250.
wow is right, $150! the consumer wins!!! Finaly.
Wow just last year I thought it was all over for ati and now there just not giving nvidia a break. there is no reason to buy a 250 gtx or whatever. Glad to say I been an ati fanboy since 1998.
Does this mean the 4890 will only be around 200 dollars?
i would love to see 4870x2 @ $200'ish !
Haha I already got my 4850 for 125!
AMD should have been a GPU company not a CPU company, they would have made millions.
ATI vs. nVidia = Consumer FTW! I love price drops from competition.
The HD 4870 has always been good value for money even when it was first launched and now it's crashed down to just $150 it makes it even better value for money.
I was going to wait for the HD 5870 to arrive but at this price point it's tempting.
Is it possible to cram so much value for money into one product!?!
that price is absolutely awesome! I remember spending over $200 for my 4850 a while back, but with the 4870 being even cheaper than what my card retailed for.. I don't know what to say, hooray!!
Just plain awesome! Competition FTW!
Are they going backwards or was it supposed to be 4890?
Kinda sucks for me, jut bought a 4870 1GB version for 225, a good deal but it probably would have been less if i knew and waited.
From the start, ATI gave every indication their 4870/4850 was very cheap to produce. They released the 4870 at $300 when the GTX280 was still at $650. ATI easily could have charged $400 or $500. Everytime Nvidia reduces prices, so does ATI.
ATI has a much better business model, create affordable power. Nvidia just goes for power at any cost, and its hurting their bottom line when not everyone can afford a brand-new $700 GPU. I mean, why isn't there a legit GTX 250 instead of a rebranded one. Seems like the GT200 Nvidia created was a one-trick pony.
I guess everybody who was saying last year that AMD/ATI was dead has pretty much been pwnd. You know Nvidia is hurting when they can't afford to design a new GPU. Couple that a forthcoming fiasco with Intel's Core i7(after about one year@ 80c under load, people are going to realize they don't last forever at those temps, even if they aren't BSODing when new), and AMD will be EVERYONE'S favorite company again, just like the good old Athlon64 days...
This is great, right now is one of the best times to buy hardware as the competition is so stiff, and the bang/buck ratio is awesome.
um, where??
I am looking to buy a 4870 on newegg, but instead of dropping in price, the one I WAS going to get is now more expensive (it lost its $25 off, and went from $174 to $199).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102810
There is an article somewhere on the GTX 260/280 issue. Nvidia produced a VERY LARGE DIE chip. So it much costs more to make a GTX 260 vs ATI's 4800s. So when Nvidia went from $650 to $400 overnight on the GTX 280 - they were hurting. In some benchmarks, the 4870 is almost as fast and sometimes faster than the GTX 280.
Nvidia has been screwing up with their product naming for the past few years with 4~5 versions of the 8800 and then throw in about 4-5 rebranded 8800GT at different clock rates. The 9600, 9800GT, GTX are still 8800GT in heart. Now its a 250? The 9500 becomes the GTX 120? And whats with the GTX or GT in front of the name now? Today's 9800 cards SHOULD have been called 8700, 8900 cards. Not this mess we have today.
Also, does this mean the GTX 250 is an upgraded GPU that doesn't have the manufacturing defects in the G9x series?
Imagine those who paid $600 for those 8800GTX a year ago.
Would 3870 in crossfire be better than a SINGLe 4870?
That's wonderful for the 19" crowd who don't need the 1 gig to run everything on full
Cool, now Nvidia will HAVE to drop their prices. Looking forward to getting a GTX 260 for 160$ soon.
um, where??I am looking to buy a 4870 on newegg, but instead of dropping in price, the one I WAS going to get is now more expensive (it lost its $25 off, and went from $174 to $199).http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102810
Damn I'm still running an ATI 3850 256mb,I might just take the plunge and buy a 4870 512.As you can imagine Crysis Warhead gets pretty laggy with the card I have now.
BTW I hope AMD can get there CPU line as competitive soon.
Yes!!! This is great news for someone prospecting a new computer or videocard now or in the future
Sweet might be able to get another 4850 for a crossfire setup.
Perhaps they're actually going to be so cheap I could consider adding another one to my p35 and not be feeling like wasting money by crippling it via the bandwidth .... but I think I'll stay sane ..
Hmm... Sounds like I may have to start a new adventure in to Crossfire land for the first time.
Prepare for great "Oh no... what'd I do?"-age!
Either way. Let ATI and nVidia fight over me as much as they want! I get the good end of it!
And after they sold everyone one card, people are considering switching from old cards to new cards, adding a 2nd card, man the person in charge of marketing at the GPU section needs a raise and a new job, work on both sides, so the CPU's can be sold like this too.
It's like AMD's always one step ahead on GPU's nowadays. After the long reign of the 8800 GTX, the king has died and the new generation is kicking him left and right.
AMD realised that the cost of new cards was the biggest issue. Except for the few enthusiasts, most people rather pay less and save money to pay the bills or get another piece of hardware extra. Better buy a 4870 +SSD than buy a 295. And while most games are cpu bound nowadays anyway, with very little performance gains from a better gpu, especially when you look at the cost to produce those monster chips, you realise that a 4870 is enough (or xfire it for higher resolutions).
Now to see how they'll revolutionize the scene with the new 4890.