Another price drop for Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260

Posted at: 5:20pm 15th July 2008 by Antony Leather

Nvidia confirmed to us today that the GeForce GTX 280 has been further reduced from $499US to $449US, meaning Nvidia’s flagship graphics card has seen $200 slashed off its price in its first month. In Europe we were told that this will equate to €359 for the GTX 280, which is just £285. Unfortunately, we were unable to clarify if this price is inclusive or exclusive of VAT at time of writing.

The latest price cut means that a GeForce GTX 280 costs less than £320 inc VAT on Scan and a GeForce GTX 260 costs less than £200 from Overclockers. Prices could fall further as the price drop takes greater efect with resellers. At launch, the GeForce GTX 280 was $649US while the GTX 260 cost $449US, which means that on day one in the UK you’d have paid £450 inc VAT for a GTX 280 and £270 inc VAT for a GTX 260.

The price drops mean that a GTX 280 is now 40 per cent cheaper than at launch. The GTX 260 is now 24 per cent cheaper.

This brings the GTX 260 more in line with the ATI Radon HD 4870. However, seeing as the latter is faster in many games such as Call of Duty 4 and Race Driver: GRID, and costs around £185 inc VAT, the GTX 260 would have cost even less than it currently does for it to be worth buying.

YoYoTech reported that sales of GTX 280s and GTX 260s are continuing in a steady fashion rather than being bolstered by the lower prices. This is despite the GTX 280 now being much better value than it was just a few weeks ago. YoYoTech also reported a few cases of disgruntled customers who paid the large premium to have a GeForce GTX 280 from day one.

These recent price drops are in stark contrast to the first few months of Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 GTX. Due to no high-end competition from ATI, it held it’s £300+ inc VAT price tag for over 18 months. The iconic GeForce 8800 GTX has only recently started to disappear from retailers, since the introduction of the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260.