Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti graphics cards don't start hitting store shelves until next Tuesday, but it seems AMD is already girding itself for a battle over budget and mainstream graphics superiority. In an email it sent out this afternoon, the company reiterated some of the benefits of its Radeon RX 460 and Radeon RX 470 cards, including FreeSync support and DirectX 12 performance. We've already painted an independent picture of how those cards perform in our reviews, and their performance will soon be available at a lower price: $99 and up for Radeon RX 460s, and $169 and up for Radeon RX 470s. Those new prices kick in this Sunday, October 23.
We're still in the dark about the real-world performance of the GTX 1050 series, but AMD seems to anticipate a more competitive marketplace after a relatively uncontested couple of months for its cards in the $100-$200 bracket. For reference, the GTX 1050 will sell for $110 and up, while the GTX 1050 Ti will go for $140 and up.
It seems some board partners have already started dropping prices on their Radeons in anticipation of this move: this Radeon RX 460 4GB card is going for $119.99, and this RX 460 2GB card is already selling for $99.99. This Radeon RX 470 is available for its $189.99 suggested price, as well—a rarity until recently.
No matter which team triumphs in this latest round of price and performance wars, builders of mainstream machines should soon enjoy a wealth of affordable, high-performance graphics options for their systems, and we're all for the renewed competition. May the best GPUs win.
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