Confirmed: Lower Cost Nvidia Cards This Summer

By Kevin Parrish
published

Nvidia confirmed that it will offer cheaper GF100 derivatives this summer.

Friday we reported that Nvidia finally revealed its GeForce GTX 480 and 470, two powerhouse DirectX 11 graphics cards that certainly won't come cheap: around $500 for the GTX 480 and $350 for the GTX 470. Both cards will be manufactured "in-house," and won't appear on the market until the week of April 12. Gamers wanting Nvidia-style DX11 graphics but unwilling to donate organs for the 480 and 470 will eventually look for cheaper, value-priced versions.

Last week there were also reports that cheaper, DX11-capable Fermi-based GeForce graphics cards will be arriving sometime this summer, possibly June. We contacted Nvidia to find out whether this was the case or another churn in the rumor mill. According to the company, that is indeed the case, and was actually mentioned by Nvidia executives at a recent financial conference.

It's certainly clear that Nivida needs to churn out a few low-priced GF100 cards rather quick for the budget gamer. AMD has dominated the market with DX11 offerings for quite some time (since October), and has even launched its first sub-$100 DX11 Radeon card back in January. Despite Nvidia's demonstration of Fermi last week, the company clearly has a tough battle ahead.

Kevin Parrish
47 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Nice, can't afford a GTX 470 or 480 right now, but I do want a newer card. And since I dual-boot Linux, AMD is not an option(horrible drivers).
    Reply
  • shin0bi272
    is this really that big of a deal though? Nvidia always unleashes a range of cards after a flagship card. They will just be lower end versions of the 480 with one of the models being smushed onto a dual card setup and turned into the fastest card nvidia can offer. So basically nvidia told you the song remains the same. Now if we could just get them to actually produce these cards on time and under budget the world would be covered in chocolate and gumdrops.
    Reply
  • bhaberle
    shin0bi272is this really that big of a deal though? Nvidia always unleashes a range of cards after a flagship card. They will just be lower end versions of the 480 with one of the models being smushed onto a dual card setup and turned into the fastest card nvidia can offer. So basically nvidia told you the song remains the same. Now if we could just get them to actually produce these cards on time and under budget the world would be covered in chocolate and gumdrops.

    Can I have sprinkles and icecream with that? =P
    Reply
  • trandoanhung1991
    Well, at leaste NVIDIA can brag about how their cards have super high SLI scaling in DX11 games. I can't wait to test their SLI scaling myself, when these value cards drop in.
    Reply
  • mattfoo2324
    Still rocking a GTX 260 Core 216 since last April, hopefully a Radeon 5850 in my future, unless Nvidia steps up its game. Quickly. And without melting my computer in the process.
    Reply
  • That will result in Nvidia being UNCOMPETITIVE in MORE price markets. Cheaper card ≠ More Competitive
    Reply
  • aznguy0028
    leonleeThat will result in Nvidia being UNCOMPETITIVE in MORE price markets. Cheaper card ≠ More CompetitiveActually that's not the case. The big majority of graphic cards price range of where companies earn their revenues is the ~150$ < sector. High end cards are usually only bought by enthusiasts and actually don't hold much of the market compared to the lower end.

    Now if Nvidia gets their pricing/performance right, it'll put pressure on Ati, we'll have to see.
    Reply
  • "That will result in Nvidia being UNCOMPETITIVE in MORE price markets. Cheaper card ≠ More Competitive"

    Huh? The $150-$200 video card market is quite large - certainly big enough for both AMD and Nvidia. There are still people who have issues with ATI drivers (grey screen of death etc...) or people who simply dislike ATI (for whatever reason) and would prefer to have a lower cost DX11 Nvidia card.

    I see this is a win for all gamers - competition is a good thing, it drives prices down and promotes innovation (without competition no reason to work harder/develop better product nearly as fast)
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    aznguy0028Actually that's not the case. The big majority of graphic cards price range of where companies earn their revenues is the ~150$ < sector. High end cards are usually only bought by enthusiasts and actually don't hold much of the market compared to the lower end. Now if Nvidia gets their pricing/performance right, it'll put pressure on Ati, we'll have to see.Actually a recent article I saw seemed to indicate otherwise, with revenue resulting from "high end" cards totaling 40 - 50% of graphics cards sales. While the total number of low/mid range cards sold is many times greater, the price for many high end cards is also many times greater, so it almost seems to balance itself out. This article was posted on Guru3D and was recent (as in the past month or so), but I can't recall if it was referring to either Nvidia or ATI, or both. Surprising to say the least...

    Anyway it's good to see Nvidia getting in on the mid-range market by early summer, they're in deep need of some value oriented DX11 hardware. Thinking possibly a 256 SP GPU, 1 GB 256-bit GDDR5? Possibly called the GTS450? That would be sweet.
    Reply
  • ZEPd3Z
    possibly June? so... definitely December.
    Reply