It appears that Nvidia has been feeling the pulse of the market and took some note from comments regarding the original launch price for the upcoming GM204 Maxwell based Geforce GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards. The company has adjusted the launch price and the new price, which AIB partners got yesterday morning, is set at US $329 for the GTX 970 and US $549 for the GTX 980.
In less that 12 hours, Nvidia will launch its newest Geforce GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards, both based on the new 28nm GM204 Maxwell GPU. While we already reported the launch price, which partners had before yesterday, it appears that Nvidia has either seen all the comments regarding the quite steep price for both graphics cards or simply wants to put a bit more pressure on AMD's Radeon lineup, which recently got a decent price cut.
While the price was set at US $599 for the Geforce GTX 980 and the US $399 for the for the Geforce GTX 970, Nvidia apparently decided to cut it down significantly, down to US $549 for the Geforce GTX 980 and US $329 for the GTX 970. The price of the Geforce GTX 970 is actually US $299, but for reference design and since most, if not all, AIB partners will come up with a custom GTX 970 design from day one, the expected price on the market is set at US $329.
According to our sources, most Geforce GTX 980 graphics card available in the first batches will be based on a reference design while custom ones, although might be announced during launch, will be available in about three weeks. According to the story that is going around the rumor mill, AIB partners simply did not have the final driver and were unable to determine the final design of any custom GTX 980, so that one will happen with a three week delay. Most, if not all, Geforce GTX 970 graphics cards will be based on some sort of custom design.
Both graphics cards, as well as the new GM204 Maxwell GPU will be announced during Nvidia's Game24 event which kicks off on September 18th at 6PM PDT, or about 2AM CEST on 19th of September.
You can check out the live Twitch feed from the Game24 event below or go directly to Nvidia's dedicated Game24 site.