Nvidia Geforce GTX 500 Series Price Drops: Is It Worth It Or Save Up For Kepler?

As you may already know, Nvidia has officially launched its first batch of Nvidia Kepler models, namely the Geforce GTX 680. The reference models are all that are available and the price will set you back around $500.

You may have also noticed that there have been significant price drops on Nvidia’s latest generation, the 500 series. The GTX 580s are down to as low as $359.99, a huge discount from Kepler’s pre-launch price. Days before the Kepler’s release, you’d be lucky to find a GTX 580 for $400, and prices hadn’t fluctuated much over time. Deal sites all over the web have been posting the price drops.

Is $359.99 enough to entice you to buy a GTX 580? Let me explain why your answer should be a resounding NO!

While the price may seem attractive to some, you should consider AMD’s role in all of these. If you’ve forgotten, the Radeon HD 7970 launched in January for $550 and beat the GTX 580 in most benchmarks. With these stats on the books, most people expected the GTX 680 to cost AT LEAST $650 due to what Nvidia claims would destroy the performance numbers of the 7970.

The surprising point I’m trying to make is this: the Geforce GTX 680 is not only below the predicted price of $650, but it’s actually $50.00 cheaper than the 7970 as expected, and performs better as advertised. I expected. If the GTX 680 were priced at $650, then I would consider the GTX 580 price drops somewhat lucrative. But because we have the EXTREMELY rare case where an Nvidia card not only performs better (which is usually the case), but is cheaper in cost (which is NEVER the case). Many people don’t mind paying an extra $50-$100 for an Nvidia GPU compared to its AMD counterpart, myself included, mainly because Nvidia usually wins banks and game compatibility/optimization. What can AMD say now?

The lesson here is don’t be tempted to buy a GTX 580, even considering the price drops. The reasons listed above should be enough to convince players of the kind of deal they’d get here. If the 580 is under $300 then it may be worth it. The generation-to-generation comparison between Nvidia and AMD has had consistent trends around power for years now. Until 2012 rolled around, that is.

I hope this has given you an idea of ​​why buying a GTX 680 far outweighs any bargain-priced GTX 500-series card. You can find good deals on video cards around the web, but keep an eye out when the 670 is released where we can expect the price of the GTX 570 to drop this time around.