Yesterday, KitGuru carried the news that AMD was making some strong price moves. Naturally, these tend to be in dollars, so it's always nice to see how they translate into local currency before we celebrate too much. Checking the latest postings in their forum, it looks like OcUK were quick off the mark. KitGuru pulls out a calculator to check for ‘reasonability'.
According to our sources in the channel, AMD prepared a significant price move yesterday, which reported exclusively here.
To summarise our report, it looked like the reaction to nVidia's launch of the GTX660 would line up as follows:-
- 1GB 7850 down $40 to $190
- 2GB 7850 also drops $40 to $210
- 2GB 7870 down $50 to $250
- 3GB 7950 down $30 to $320
We've done a quick calculation based on the available $-to-£ exchange rate with 20% VAT added. On that basis, these cards should be around £165 for the 2GB version of the 7850 with the 2GB 7870 under £200 and the 3GB 7950 around £250.
So, in the 24 hours since KitGuru's announcement, what have Overclockers (OcUK) managed?
- 2GB 7850 at £164, which is in the zone
- 2GB 7870 at £199, which is also spot on
- 3GB 7950 at £239, which is actually a little cheaper than predicted – not bad going
.
KitGuru says: It's good that graphics companies are willing to fight for your hard-earned cash. It's also nice to know that when price cuts are announced, that they are made available in the market almost instantly. We're still a little disappointed that AMD did not move the price down just before the new cards launched from nVidia – but now it's happened, all eyes will be on nVidia's GTX660 price to see if it drops in reaction.
Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.
Maybe AMD announced the price changes purposely after nVidia launched the 660ti so they couldn’t react and cut pricing themselves at the last minute to match them?