GTX460 price cut kicks in to hurt GTS450 – AMD forced to react

As KitGuru reported a week ago, nVidia has pointed the business end of a $2 Million marketing budget at price protecting the channel. This will allow nVidia to drop the price of the GTX460 by up to $30. It's a powerful statement and a very strong move in a bid to stem the Rise of the Radeons. Shots have been fired, but will the 5770 be taken down or will the GTS450 be killed by friendly fire?

Dusting off the blue helmets we used in the last UN police action, KitGuru set off to investigate just how far the GTX460 pricing has moved.

With stores like Scan, Eclipse and CCL all droping the price of the GTX460 to less than £117, we can see that nVidia's ex-VAT price is now just £100. As KitGuru said in our in-depth analysis of the MSI GTS450 Cyclone, if you're looking to spend around £100 on a graphics card right now – you are TOTALLY spoilt for choice.

At that price point, the low end GTX460 cards are now cheaper than the overclocked GTS450 products reviewed by KitGuru earlier today.

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With the GTS450 fighting the 5750/5770 hand to hand in the field of battle, it was always going to be hard for nVidia to drop in GTX460 support without things getting very heated.

We're thinking Transformers, desert scene… “Roll in Strike Package Bravo”, “Light em up” and “105mm – Bring the Rain”. At heart, we're Ninja-loving, head-banging, 15 year old uber-geeks. No apologies.

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It also seems that there is a price repositioning from the AMD partners. This kind of response should be very encouraging to nVidia. The competition only moves price when you're doing something right.

Recent KitGuru interviewee, Craig Connell, is responsible for making sure moves from nVidia are countered swiftly and it seems that Connell has already applied some thumbscrews with 1GB 5770 cards down around the £106 mark.

KitGuru says: There can only be one winner here. You. The KitGuru reader. Who wouldn't want a pair of multi-billion-dollar-turnover-mega-giants-of-the-graphics-arena slugging it out with increased performance at ever lower prices – and all of that splash/flash/dash/peacock-displaying is for one thing and one thing only. To attract your hard earned cash into their respective coffers. Nice.

JUST AS WE WERE ABOUT TO GO TO PRESS ON THIS STORY, WE HEARD THAT SCAN AND OTHERS WOULD BE DROPPING THE GTX460 TO JUST £112. WE'LL CONFIRM AS SOON AS KNOW FOR SURE.

Squark and ident below.

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