Nvidia is going to have to eat some losses on the GTX 260/280 if they don't want their market share to dip. The 4850 can be found online down around the 170 dollar mark, so you could either get two for 340, or get the convenient X2 for 30 bucks more (probably the same 170 after rebate soon enough). The 4870 is equally as big of a bargain considering it beats the similarly priced (after massive Nvidia price drop) GTX 260, and considering that a single 4870 can almost match up to a GTX 280 for nowhere near the price....
I'd expect the GTX 260 to be down around the 250 mark, if not the 200 mark, sooner rather than later. It's going to cost Nvidia money, but the alternative isn't that pretty either. The 280 will probably hit the 300 dollar mark, and if it doesn't, ATI is going to steal a ton of market share.
One last note...my 4870 runs hot as f*ck in my well ventilated case, with the fan set to about 40% (any higher and it's loud). I can't imagine the heat coming from two 4870's, or two 4850's for that matter. The cooler better be amazing.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Nvidia is going to have to eat some losses on the GTX 260/280 if they don't want their market share to dip. The 4850 can be found online down around the 170 dollar mark, so you could either get two for 340, or get the convenient X2 for 30 bucks more (probably the same 170 after rebate soon enough). The 4870 is equally as big of a bargain considering it beats the similarly priced (after massive Nvidia price drop) GTX 260, and considering that a single 4870 can almost match up to a GTX 280 for nowhere near the price....
I'd expect the GTX 260 to be down around the 250 mark, if not the 200 mark, sooner rather than later. It's going to cost Nvidia money, but the alternative isn't that pretty either. The 280 will probably hit the 300 dollar mark, and if it doesn't, ATI is going to steal a ton of market share.
One last note...my 4870 runs hot as f*ck in my well ventilated case, with the fan set to about 40% (any higher and it's loud). I can't imagine the heat coming from two 4870's, or two 4850's for that matter. The cooler better be amazing.