Wow, GTX 260/280 prices are falling faster than airborne bricks.

Too bad mail in rebates are only honored 3% of the time. Actually I pulled that number out my @$$.






Its 5%.

The 4870 is pushing those prices good.

4870 is very strong card to push those 2 cards with price drop; especially beat the GTX260 to hell. The coming 4870x2 is the main reason for Nvidia drop down the GTX280 price to clean up some GTX280 before 4870x2 available in market.

Nvidia rested on their laurels, we all knew that nvidia had got lazy since the 8800gtx release. Now they have been caught out, They got comfortable in the pattern of ATI releasing cards that couldnt come close to competing with Nvidias old 8800gtx. They seemed to expect a relatively mild increment in performance for the single gpu from ati again, requiring an x2 to compete at the high end.

Nvidia clearly expected their "big leap" in performance would be enough to get the 8800gtx buyers back on to the upgrade market, and the early adopters would doubtlessly have the cash to spend on gtx280 and they could corner the 8800gtx upgrade market till the ati x2 came out and then could start price drops or their own gx2 development etc to compete.

ATI managed a big jump in performance and actually give the old 8800GTX early adopters a decent single gpu upgrade path, and whats more they are selling the card way cheaper than the level of performance warrants.

Whilst the 4870 may not be AS fast as the gtx280 its a significant upgrade from the old 8800gtx and its a fraction of the price of the GTX280 which really isnt "that" much faster...

Nvidia have been caught out, their price \ performance was based on the last generation figures with a healthy bonus for "top" card, but its way out of the ball park ATI have created with the 4850 \ 4870. The only thing nvidia can do is drop their prices and get back in the game. I expect to see some more hefty price drops yet or a new release before too long. 10-20% gain for double the money just isnt going to sell in volume.

Im a high end buyer I CAN afford the GTX280, but its hard to ignore the 4870s stunning price \ performance ratio, its a significant upgrade from the old 8800gtx and its "cheap"...

LOL