AMD to Soon Drop Graphics Card Prices?

The folks over at DigiTimes have stated what a lot of us have been thinking for a while… graphics card price cuts on current product is inevitable, and should be en route soon. Last week, NVIDIA launched its first truly affordable Fermi-based solution, the GeForce GTX 460 (we’ll have our review shortly), and next month, we’ll be seeing the GTS 455 and GTS 450, which will afford those on a budget with access to NVIDIA’s latest tech.

Of course, things won’t stop there, with some entry-level product set to launch also in September. What this means for AMD, is that after soaking up its increasing share of the GPU market, and keeping its pricing unbelievably steady since the HD 5000 series last fall, it’s going to have to suck it up and prepare itself to price its GPU’s a little more competitively.

It’s hard to consider such a move for AMD to be a tough pill to swallow, given that the HD 5000 series has been one of the most successful for the company ever. But with NVIDIA finally rolling out the rest of its primary GF100-based line-up, its the consumers that stand to gain, with great GPUs at hopefully equally great prices.

It’s hard to say just how far prices will drop, but it’s unlikely that pricing will remain intact as it is now. Plus, the rumor is that AMD is planning to launch a fresh series of GPU’s in Q4, so for it to lower current pricing might not only be to compete with NVIDIA, but to help keep current stock low, so that it’s not left with a bunch of old product once Southern Islands hits.

Despite achieving an 8% sequential and 87% on-year revenue growth in its graphics business in the second quarter, AMD’s profits from the segment in the third quarter may drop as competition from Nvidia heating up, according to sources from graphics card players.