When we first brought you news of ATI's next entry into the high-end gaming card arena, known as the Radeon 8500, the projected cost of the card was expected to be similar to the competing NVIDIA GeForce 3: $399 retail, $350 on the street. However retailer EBworld has blown the doors off of that expectation by offering the low pre-order price (for the PC version of the card) at a mere $299.99!

The site also offers a projected retail release date. Often retailers are a very unreliable source of information on release dates, for various reasons; however we certainly hope they are wrong in this situation as they expect to ship the cards on October 10th -- the 8500 was previously expected to ship in late September.

We must emphasize again that this is the PC version of the card, and the pricing and availability of the Radeon 8500 Mac Edition is unknown at this time. However in our talks with ATI they promised a much more aggressive release schedule for Mac users, and we don't expect pricing to vary much from the PC version either.

The EBworld pre-order price seems to indicate that ATI plans to challenge NVIDIA not only in features, but in cost as well. Hopefully the ensuing price war will trickle down to Mac gamers, and put workstation-class graphics in the hands of everyday gamers and not just the hardcore crowd. Keep your eyes on IMG for more Radeon 8500 details.

Preview: ATI Radeon 8500

Radeon 8500 Pre-order at EBWorld

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