Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices is preparing the launch of its next generation of graphics processing units by lowering the prices on its current line of Radeon HD 4800 series of GPUs. With the announcement made on Thursday, the company has basically lowered the prices of its flagship series of graphics products for the third time this year, in an attempt to better position its products in the market, compared to those of its main competitor, NVIDIA.

While the price reduction isn't very significant, it will allow computer users to take advantage of the performances delivered by AMD's family of Radeon 4800-class GPUs, at a lower price point.

 

According to AMD, the new official price tag of its Radeon HD 4850 512MB GPU will be US$109, while the Radeon HD 4850 1GB version will go for US$119. Meanwhile, the higher-performance Radeon HD 4870, with 512MB of graphics memory, is set to become available for a price ranging from US$125 to US$175, with the 1GB model to go for US$159. The price of the company's highest-performance, single-GPU graphics card, the Radeon HD 4890, will drop from US$249 to US$199, providing gaming enthusiasts with a more affordable offer.

 

As for its 40nm Radeon HD 4770 GPU, AMD hasn't announced any price changes, but as Digitimes reports, the chip maker still has problems with the mass production of the GPU, due to the low yields on TSMC's manufacturing process.

 

With the recently announced price reduction, AMD hopes to better position its products in the market, as it sees strong competition from its main rival, NVIDIA. The price drop will also help partners relieve their inventory of increased stock, as the chip maker prepares the launch of its next generation of graphics chips.