The latest developments on the graphics cards market need to be summed up, since consumers can now enjoy lower prices for high-end video boards. The events behind this state of facts are probably known by most of you, but a review is necessary. The dropping price result comes form the war between two of the biggest players on the market, AMD/ATI and NVIDIA, and we have already mentioned several rounds from this battle.

The truth is that consumers, either ATI enthusiasts or NVIDIA fans, should all thank AMD for the release of its latest 4800-series graphics cards. The Santa Clara based developer had the lead of the market for quite a while now, but these latest releases have shaken it up a little bit. Not only have AMD's new cards proven to be better competitors in performance, but the small prices they brought to the market forced NVIDIA to dramatically lower its own as well. This way, we can now purchase the next NVIDIA-based mainstream GPUs for a few hundreds less.

ATI's 4850 and 4870 made it possible to have mainstream cards for prices lower than those featured by today's gaming consoles. At least, that is the explanation ATI gave to the price cut down. While high-end graphic GPUs were priced $600+, now they are under $400 for gaming consoles. This is a good thing for games. Since the number of people that own a capable card rises, game developers will probably be pushing their graphic engines as well, and that's another gain.

Up until now, developers have released on the market only few high-end games available for those who could afford a similar graphics card. ATI's 4850 and 4870 have brought a change in the price-to-performance area and opened the path for developers to design more elite games since today's great-performing GPUs enjoy such lowered prices.

Let's see how a price offer for these GPUs would look like. Radeon HD 4870 Video Card can be purchased online from 6 different sellers at prices between $299.99 and $330.24. GeForce 9600GT Video Card (512MB, PCI Express 2.0 x16, Dual DVI) has 13 sellers and the prices range from $148.00 to $222.19. GeForce 8800GT Video Card (512MB, PCI Express x16, Dual DVI) ranges between $169.99 and $249.99 at 12 sellers. Finally, N9800GTX-T2D512OC Geforce 9800GTX 512MB Overclocked is listed at seven sellers for $298.99 to $340.69.