Price-war won't occur between AMD's and NVIDIA's DirectX 11 cards

Mar 25, 2010 10:08 GMT  ·  By

The imminent launch of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 470 and GeForce GTX 480 graphics cards most likely has NVIDIA loyalists and enthusiasts eagerly awaiting the moment when AMD's reign over the DirectX 11 front is finally challenged. At the same time, AMD loyalists might also be happy about NVIDIA's entrance on the market, as they hope this will lead to price cuts on AMD's part. Sadly for these consumers, however, reports seem to indicate that a price war won't start anytime soon.

Normally, when two or more companies are fighting over the same target-consumer base, they do their best to increase the appeal of their product, either through adding special features, enhancing existing ones or, of course, offering as high a value as possible at a convenient price.

Many consumers likely hope to see lower prices on AMD's Radeon HD 5000 series. However, sources indicate that, at least for a while, this will not be the case, due to several possible factors.

NVIDIA has been saying, repeatedly, how its GF100 will be the most powerful GPU known to man. Regardless of how true this is, the fact remains that the GTX 480 and GTX 470 both have higher price points than the Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850, respectively.

Specifically, while the HD 5870 costs around $400 and the HD 5850 bears a tag of $325, the GTX 480 and GTX 470 will be priced at $499 and $349, respectively. Also, NVIDIA's products have a higher thermal design power (TDP). Not only that but, even though the official launch of Fermi will happen on March 26, it will take some time before the cards start selling (reports point to April 12).

AMD will most likely play the Eyefinity 6 card and will count on its partners' 2GB and 4GB devices to hold the line. Of course, the final decision will likely depend on just how powerful NVIDIA's dynamic duo turns out to be.