No doubt feeling the heat from ATI's fast recently released HD 4850 and HD 4870 video cards, NVIDIA has dropped the price on the GTX 280, and GTX 260. The GTX 280 is now selling for $500 at many retailers, which is $150 less than it was selling for when it was released only a few weeks ago. The GTX 260 is now going for $299, which is $100 less than it previously retailed for.

If you read our review of the HD 4870, you'll see that the HD 4870 definitely seems like a better deal at $300 than the GTX 280 was at $650 -- so this price cut was almost required. With these price cuts, and the 9800 GTX+ video cards, the NVIDIA / ATI battle is no longer as lopsided as it first appeared when the HD 4850 came on the scene.  

Unfortunately NVIDIA is in a bit of tight spot right now -- there GTX 280 and 260 cards are fairly expensive to be produced, yet are being beaten by the cheaper HD 4850 and HD 4870 cards in many benchmarks. The company's shares have taken a beating recently as well, perhaps as a direct result of this situation.

NVIDIA reportedly has plans to gain efficiency and lower costs by switching to a 55nm manufacturing process.