Why hasn't the 9800 Pro 256-bit come down?

[mindblendeR]

I kept hearing since February that once the X800 series comes out the natural reaction is for the regular 9800 Pro 128MB 256-bit cards to drop in price. But a quick check on Anand's Hot Deals Forum suggests it's still hovering above $200. I remember it being $225 for OEM 9800 Pro 256-bit in March alone.

How much longer before we see the 9800 Pro 256-bit drop below the magical $175 price point? Seems like its taking forever and a day.

Also, is anyone else (with a low budget for upgrades) interested in something besides the 9800 Pro? Maybe there is something I could buy to tide me over in the meantime, GeForce series maybe?

-Steven

 

[StrangerGuy]

That is because the 9800 Pro is insanely popular even at the $200 price point, so the vendors have little reason to lower it any further.

As for the "low budget video card upgrade"...How much is the budget exactly?

 

[Delorian]

The X800's have not become widely available or into much supply right now and the 6800s haven't started shipping almost at all yet, but the 9800's will drop probably into late this month or sometime July by my predictions.

If you are looking for a budget card, then check out this thread. It is possible to get the performance of a 9800 pro for about $150 with a new 9800 SE, but it's a small gamble. I took it and I got the beautiful performance at a wonderful price.

9800 SE Thread

 

[FishTankX]

Refurbed 9800 pro 128mb's at Newegg for like, $180.

Linkie

 

[Lonyo]

Why would they lower it? It would then compete more with the 9600XT.
At the moment it rests in a price point that for ATi is empty (the $200~$300 market).
What reason is there for it to drop? There is nothing pushing the price down, an X800Pro which is more than $100 more is not going to do anything to it.

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Why would they lower it? It would then compete more with the 9600XT.
At the moment it rests in a price point that for ATi is empty (the $200~$300 market).
What reason is there for it to drop? There is nothing pushing the price down, an X800Pro which is more than $100 more is not going to do anything to it.

Exactly I never understood why everyone was saying they were going to drop when there is nothing out there to push the price down any more than it already is.

 

[Mavrick007]

They don't need to drop the price until the competition drops theirs.
Like it was said, nVidia hasn't even really pushed their next latest
and greatest 6800 and I just started seeing the x800 Pro becoming
available at a steep $475+, so it is far between the 9800 Pro price
or even the 9800XT price (which would be direct competition with
the same company). Wait a bit grasshopper, it will happen.

I'm curious about the street price of the next card above the x800 Pro,
which hasn't even debuted yet. It looks like cards will start costing as much as a basic machine now.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The price already dropped down from $300 in anticipation of the X800, and as everyone above said, there's nothing happening to push the price down any further.

 

[mindblendeR]

Originally posted by: FishTankX
Refurbed 9800 pro 128mb's at Newegg for like, $180.

Linkie

Well, I guess for my GeForce 5200, going to a refurb $179 9800 Pro is better than nothing. I'm thinking of going this route instead.

-Steven

 

[mindblendeR]

Originally posted by: StrangerGuy
That is because the 9800 Pro is insanely popular even at the $200 price point, so the vendors have little reason to lower it any further.

As for the "low budget video card upgrade"...How much is the budget exactly?

Low budget for me is $175. So i will in all likelihood get a refurb 9800 Pro 256-bit. Bear in mind, I am upgrading from a GeForce 5200 so I should see a marked improvement. I can barely play the newer games out now (Thief 3, UT2k3, et al) unless I drop to 800x600.

Thanks for all the input.

-Steven

 

[wkwong]

u can get a sapphire board from newegg as a alternative if you don't want to wait.

 

[Cerb]

Best bang/buck for DX9: 9800 Pro.
Best bang/buck for DX8 or OpenGL: 5900 XT (specifically, Leadtek's, with a good OCing record already).
The X800 Pro is $475 at Newegg, a price at right about the performance gain over the 9800 Pro. So until the FX 6800 hits the stores, there's no need to come down.

 

[imported_oralpain]

I don't think the 9800pros will drop below 195-200 for several more months.

 

[tazman1259]

Originally posted by: mindblendeR

Originally posted by: StrangerGuy
That is because the 9800 Pro is insanely popular even at the $200 price point, so the vendors have little reason to lower it any further.

As for the "low budget video card upgrade"...How much is the budget exactly?

Low budget for me is $175. So i will in all likelihood get a refurb 9800 Pro 256-bit. Bear in mind, I am upgrading from a GeForce 5200 so I should see a marked improvement. I can barely play the newer games out now (Thief 3, UT2k3, et al) unless I drop to 800x600.

Thanks for all the input.

-Steven

 

[tazman1259]

Originally posted by: tazman1259

Originally posted by: mindblendeR

Originally posted by: StrangerGuy
That is because the 9800 Pro is insanely popular even at the $200 price point, so the vendors have little reason to lower it any further.

As for the "low budget video card upgrade"...How much is the budget exactly?

Low budget for me is $175. So i will in all likelihood get a refurb 9800 Pro 256-bit. Bear in mind, I am upgrading from a GeForce 5200 so I should see a marked improvement. I can barely play the newer games out now (Thief 3, UT2k3, et al) unless I drop to 800x600.

Thanks for all the input.

-Steven

What? I have an GeForce 5200 128MB and play URT2k3 on all the hightest settings with no problem at all.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: tazman1259

Originally posted by: tazman1259

Originally posted by: mindblendeR

Originally posted by: StrangerGuy
That is because the 9800 Pro is insanely popular even at the $200 price point, so the vendors have little reason to lower it any further.

As for the "low budget video card upgrade"...How much is the budget exactly?

Low budget for me is $175. So i will in all likelihood get a refurb 9800 Pro 256-bit. Bear in mind, I am upgrading from a GeForce 5200 so I should see a marked improvement. I can barely play the newer games out now (Thief 3, UT2k3, et al) unless I drop to 800x600.

Thanks for all the input.

-Steven

What? I have an GeForce 5200 128MB and play URT2k3 on all the hightest settings with no problem at all.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1933&p=23
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1933&p=24
All the highest settings...right...the Ultra can barely hack it at 1024x768, and that's being backed up by the handsdown best CPU and RAM of the time of the review.

 

[Delorian]

Not trying to get a 2-page quote. I had a GeForce 2 Ti until recently and it fared rather well on UT2K3 settings med-high. UT2K4 I had to lower a bit med-low, but still had a decent framerate.