AMD and NVIDIA’s GPU price war continues to escalate

The GPU wars between AMD and Nvidia are heating up, and as a result, prices are coming down. If Newegg listings are any indication, AMD has slashed prices for its top-of-the-line Radeon R9 295X2 graphics card to around $800. To put that into context, the R9 295X2, which features two graphics processors and 8GB of GDDR5 memory, cost $1500 when it launched earlier this year. Once Nvidia released its $550 GeForce GTX 980, AMD responded by slashing its prices. AMD dropped the R9 295X2 dropped to the $1000 range, and the R9 290X to $300.

The high-stakes desktop GPU wars are spawning bona fide price carnage, as AMD just attacked again in its never-ending duel with Nvidia. State-of-the-art graphics cards based on Radeon R9 295 GPUs can be purchased this holiday season for well under $800 after yet another massive cost reduction. Both Newegg and Amazon seem to have ratified the discounts, and the cheapest all-around R9 295×2 solution is available via the former retailer at $769.99. That’s a dual-GPU configuration put together by HIS with 8GB GDDR5 memory and four Mini DisplayPort connectors. The deal also includes a free copy of Civilization: Beyond Earth, the latest turn-based strategy gaming title from Firaxis. An identical graphics card assembled by XFX is $769.99 after a $30 rebate, and similar high-end gaming cards from VisionTek, Sapphire and Diamond can be had for between $780 and $800. Amazon only has the XFX and Sapphire products up for grabs, at $800 each. Back when they first went up for sale, all these cards cost $1,500. Almost twice the price!