After weeks of dealing with a retail price that put the HD 7970 in a no-win position against the GTX 680, it looks like AMD will finally cut their flagship card’s price.
Last month, Hardware Canucks reported that AMD was sticking to their guns by retaining the HD 7970′s SRP at $549 regardless of NVIDIA’s higher performing and lower priced GTX 680. The reasoning behind this seemed to be quite simple: capitalize upon high end sales since NVIDIA’s production was struggling to keep up with demand.
At the time, this publication surmised that the only thing which would effectively push AMD to lower prices would be either improved GTX 680 availability or the possible release of lower priced Kepler derivatives.
It looks like AMD’s bean counters may know something we don’t. If our moles are correct, the HD 7970 and possibly other cards in the HD 7000-series lineup are about to get a price cut.
The whispers Hardware Canucks has heard from a number of sources peg the HD 7970′s new price at some point between $470 and $490 within the next few days. In our books, this would put AMD’s Tahiti XT in a favorable position against the GTX 680, particularly when the board partners’ numerous overclocked and custom cooled versions are taken into account.
What this means for the rest of AMD’s cards is anyone’s guess but as we previously discussed, cutting the price on one could very well have a cascade effect upon their whole product stack.
Naturally, as more information as received it will be reported. It looks like the GPU Wars are just beginning to heat up!
EDIT 11:00AM EST:
We now hear the MSRP will be $479.
EDIT 3:00PM EST:
Hardware Canucks has received even more info from our sources. Looks like there will be more price drops. See below.
HD 7950 = $449 -> $399
HD 7870 = Remains same
HD 7850 = Remains same
HD 7770 = $159 –> $139
