ATI is at it again, messing up Nvidia's tactics, and it decided to coincidentally drop the prices of Radeon 3870 512MB all the way to $189. This happens on the eve of Nvidia's 9600GT launch.

ATI knows that 3870 is faster than 9600GT and that Nvidia prices its cards from $169 to $189. This will be a tough decision, as for just a few bucks more you will get a significantly better card.

Also, the fact that the Geforce 8800GT has already dropped to $199 doesn't help, either, so making a decision is even harder, thanks to in-house competition.

Radeon 3850 is going to end up slower than 9600GT and the 512MB version of 3850 has dropped to $169, while the 3850 256MB retails for $155.

Thanks to ATI’s efforts to make Nvidia’s life miserable, end users are ending up with affordable and great graphics, and today $199 or less buys you an exceptionally good graphics card.

You can check out the Newegg.com listings, as it has these prices as of yesterday morning EU time.