AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4890 (UK)
This time last week, we saw AMD and NVIDIA lock horns once again with the launch of the ATI Radeon HD 4890 and GeForce GTX 275.
With both graphics giants looking to outdo one another, we compared launch-day pricing of both AMD and NVIDIA partner cards to see who had availability, and how much consumers could expect to pay.
Back then, we found widespread availability of AMD's new ATI GPU with pricing sitting at an average of around £223. NVIDIA, on the other hand, had clearly introduced its card to market earlier than anticipated, and availability proved to be very limited. So much so, that we found Scan.co.uk had stock of only Palit's GeForce GTX 275 with all other partner cards still listed for pre-order. Importantly for NVIDIA, however, Palit's card found itself priced at £199.99 - tidily undercutting AMD's offering.
So, here we are again, exactly one week later to see what's changed. Let's start by reexamining post-launch UK availability and pricing of the ATI Radeon HD 4890 from some of the big-name etailers:
UK Market |  |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| etailer | Product | Availability | Price at Launch (inc. VAT) | Current Price (inc. VAT) |
| SCAN.co.uk | HIS Radeon HD 4890 | In stock | £220.13 | £204.70 |
| PowerColor Radeon HD 4890 | In stock | £225.39 | £195.50 | |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 | In stock | £224.83 | £209.30 | |
| XFX Radeon HD 4890 | In stock | £240.35 | £210.73 | |
| ASUS Radeon HD 4890 | In stock | £212.41 | £203.55 | |
| HIS Radeon HD 4890 OC | In stock | £253.54 | £217.35 | |
| XFX Radeon HD 4890 XXX | Pre-order | £254.87 | £209.98 | |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 OC Edition | In stock | £236.90 | £202.40 | |
| As always, UK-based HEXUS.community discussion forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUS forum. | ||||
| ebuyer.com | XFX Radeon HD 4890 | In stock | £219.99 | £209.98 |
| ASUS Radeon HD 4890 | In stock | £224.99 | £201.43 | |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 | In stock | £226.93 | £199.28 | |
| GIGABYTE Radeon HD 4890 | In stock | £212.98 | £201.11 | |
| PowerColor Radeon HD 4890 | In stock | £209.98 | £198.95 | |
Competition, then, is clearly a good thing - at least as far as the consumer is concerned. With the threat of £199.99 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275s, ATI's Radeon HD 4890 has quickly fallen in price.
Readily-available stock-clocked cards are now being offered for £200, and what's more interesting is that premium pre-overclocked parts such as Sapphire's Radeon HD 4890 OC Edition are available for as little as £202 - that's a price drop of nearly 15 per cent since its introduction just a week ago.
Let's see how prices in Europe and the US are faring.
