Nvidia Introduces Ubisoft AAA Title Bundle with Geforce GTX 900 Series GPUs
AMD R9 290X Now At $329, 290 at $269 – The High End Just Got More Affordable
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Nvidia ‘Pick Your Path’ Bundle Packs Assasins Creed, FarCry 4 and The Crew
The games that are included in this package are “The Crew”, “Assassins Creed: Unity” and “Far Cry 4”. All of the games are highly anticipated titles and it seems that Nvidia is finally responding to AMD’s absolutely brilliant Never Settle promotional bundles. Nvidia has bundled games in the past but to be honest, nearly all of these offered very little value or entirely uninteresting titles. This time however, all three of the games included are high demand.
Since all titles support a price tag of $60, this is a value addition of sixty bucks no matter which ‘path’ you chose with your new 970 or 980. While it still remains a good deal with GTX 980, the value of the GTX 970 has never been higher. The PR mail also mentions that this promotion may vary according to region and locale. The games will be one of the first titles out on the market to utilize Nvidia display tech (most of these libraries are proprietary) such as Nvidia Godrays, Nvidia HairWork, Nvidia TXAA and Nvidia PCSS (percentage-closer soft shadows). Some of these are part of GameWorks while others are mostly stand alone features. There is word that this particular offer will be available on GTX 7xx and Mobility Maxwell as well.
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AMD Just Made The High End More Attractive, Puts Pressure On Nvidia
Nvidia initially put pressure on AMD by positioning the GTX 970 at $330. Which makes this whole situation much more amusing. Because it’s AMD now that’s exerting pressure on Nvidia with the new pricing structure. The fact that Nvidia has been having supply issues with the GTX 900 series makes things even more complicated.
Between the $330 GTX 970 and the $220 GTX 760 sits a $110 gap. A gap that occupies the mainstream discrete graphics segment. A segment that’s four times larger than the $300+ high end segment according to market analysts.
Unfortunately for Nvidia this segment is currently a mess. It’s occupied by a three graphics cards, none of which is actually worth the money. The GTX 760 4GB, GTX 770 2GB and GTX 770 4GB. These are three graphics cards which have suddenly been made completely irrelevant by the new R9 290 positioning. Amusingly just as the GTX 970 made both the R9 290X and R9 290 irrelevant at $550 and $400 when it was first introduced at $330.
The R9 290 is unquestionably the fastest card in this segment and by a very significant margin. At $269 it has also become just as affordable if not more affordable than the alternatives in this segment.
While AMD’s R9 290 is clearly a winner at this new price point. The situation is less clear cut with the R9 290X. The R9 290X and GTX 970 trade blows according to which game you play. On average they’ll perform indistinguishably the same. The GTX 970 uses 60 watts less than the R9 290X to achieve the same performance. While it might not seem like a lot (A CPU overclock would add even more watts than that to your system power consumption). It can still prove to be an advantage in small enclosures like mini-ITX cases. Especially if your card uses axial fans instead of a blower which end up kicking heat into your case.
You can find custom cooled R9 290X cards from various AIBs between $30-70 cheaper than the GTX 970 with and without rebates. Both vendors also include a game bundle of some sort with their cards. Nvidia allows you to choose one of three new Ubisoft games. The Crew, Far Cry 3 or Assassin’s Creed Unity. AMD on the other hand allows you to choose three of 25+ games, ranging from brand new titles to older ones.
The choice becomes even more difficult when you factor in variables such as G-Sync, FreeSync, TrueAudio, GameWorks, and Mantle. You could be swung either way depending on what your needs are and In this instance what it really comes down to is individual preference.
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