The NVIDIA-based video card market is a bit more splintered than the ATI one, and we still have the older GeForce cards available at street level, and competing at the entry-level and mainstream sectors. Naturally, the GeForce 8 and 9 Series lines receive a greater number of listings, especially as we move to the popular GeForce 8400/8600/8800 and GeForce 9600/9800 levels. NVIDIA gets the same overall coverage as the ATI list, starting at the entry-level GeForce FX, moving to the GeForce 9600 series, and ending with the powerful GeForce GTX 260 896MB and GTX 280 1GB cards. But just like ATI, some NVIDIA models are becoming increasingly hard to locate, and we continue to adjust our list accordingly.
There is no question that the NVIDIA-based video cards are far more active than their ATI counterparts, and in fact, a single GeForce listing easily eclipsed the entire ATI chart. This was the GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB, which went on first sale this week for just over $200, and shaved an amazing $316 off its price. Realistically, this means little, as the Ultra is a previous generation card and sales like this are to be expected. Of far more interest is the $114 cut to the GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB, and the fourteen double-digit price drops in the NVIDIA chart. This was a very good month for GeForce buyers, as the chart dropped by an aggregate total of $689, or more than twice the $308 decrease we posted last month.