8500LE 128MB not on sale at SF Fry's for $99

[puppyfriend]

In the Fry's ad today they have a Hercules 8500LE 128MB for $99. It's not on sale, this is their "everyday low price".

David

 

[gwlam12]

is this a hot deal? or are u just informing us of something?

 

[joe678]

good price for not being on sale

 

[puppyfriend]

It's a smoking deal. I was just trying to be funny because it's a great deal yet it's just the regular Fry's price.

It's retail and it's cheaper than the cheapest OEM price on pricewatch.
David

 

[GotSomethingCheaper?]

Arent the new cards gonna be fairly cheap? $139 or so..

 

[puppyfriend]

Yes the 9000/pro cards will cost retail $99 and $139. You can already get them OEM for $74 and $99. The problem is that they are slower. They reved the chip to be cheaper to build, but they had to take out some capability for that. Most important is multi-texture support So in some games, the 9000 series is twice as slow as the 8500. The 9000s do have a new feature. You can pixel shade video. So you can get the blockiness out of low bandwidth streams in exchange for blurriness.

The reason the 8500/LE is dropping in price, is that ATI is trying to flush the pipeline. It doesn't want the older cards competing with the newer cards.

And remember those cards are 64MB and this one is 128MB.

David