With the recent introduction of Nvidia’s latest GTX 900 series graphics cards we were bound to see a price drop on the AMD’s GPU. Anandtech reports the R9 290X prices have leveled out to around $370 (about £230) in reaction in the weeks following the announcement of the Nvidia GTX 980 and GTX 970.
Sure enough, a quick look around NewEgg and Tiger Direct reveals some of these AMD cards are currently going for as little as $338 (about £210). The price of Radeon cards was bound to go down eventually but we saw the the R9 290X hold its own against the more expensive $550 (about £341) Nvidia GTX 980. In our benchmark tests the AMD GPU was able to keep up with the Nvidia GTX 980 in most games except for Metro: Last Light.
One theory that Anandtech puts forth is AMD is positioning the R9 290X against the Nvidia GTX 970 as an even more capable card for a relative bargain. At the same time the Sunnyvale-based chip maker continues to provide a Never Settle Forever bundle of games with every GPU.
Without new graphics cards of its own on the horizon, AMD is trying hard to sway gamers its way in light of Nvidia’s latest GPU launch. But that's good news for gamers: right now competition is great for graphics card prices. The R9 290X may not be as fast or as quiet as the GTX 980, but $338 is a great price for the card.
