Why is the GTX 480m so Expensive

I've been thinking and thinking.

Like all video cards using this format (mxm 3.0b) it has a fixed number of "slots" where the memory can be inserted.
ANd because of it having 2gb of ram, that means the memory modules are higher density than the ones in the 1gb video cards.

Is this the reason it's so expensive ?
Like for instance, the upgrade on laptops from 4gb (2x2GB) to 8GB (2x4GB) of ram, is a lot of money.

Or does it have the extra 1gb of ram beneath the board ?

 

Because the latest and greatest has the largest premium.

 

its an very expensive chip to produce as well .... and needs to pay for all of the R and D both that worked and did not over the span of its development.

NOT the most friendly on performance/dollar though

 

Becouse people still buy it, its that simple. If demand wasnt high enough, theyd lower the price, but it seams they dont have to yet.

 

very hard to produce with 3.1 billion transistors, 2gb of still expensive DDR5 memory, and cuz Nvidia likes to overcharge people.

 

It's called the "early adopter cost factor" - those that want it now will pay.

 

The price isn't significantly different from previous high-end nVidia mobile GPU's.

 

GTX 280m had the same price in the begining ?

I think it's so expensive due to multiple reasons:

1)It's top of the line card
2)Expensive to produce
3)Lots of ram.

It's good though that it has lots of ram, its future proof.

Even so, i wish they'd lower the price a few hundred dollars.
I'd buy it if it would be 200 euros more than the 5870, which is STILL a rip of, but considering, the fact it has more ram, better tesellation, and better performance, it's at the limit of acceptability.

 

The 280M would be an exception since it was a die-shrink. But most high-end nVidia mobile GPU's were quite expensive.

From Eurocom's site:
1GB GDDR3 GTX 9800M Nvidia GeForce Go; 16x PCIe; DX10; MXM [$864]
1GB GDDR3; nVidia Quadro FX 3700M; OpenGL; DVI-DL; MXM 2.1 Type III; 16x PCIe [$1177]
1GB GDDR3; nVidia Quadro FX 3800M; OpenGL; DVI-DL; MXM 3.0b; 100W; N10E-GLM3 [$1450]
1GB GDDR3; nVidia Quadro FX 2800M; OpenGL; DVI-DL; MXM 3.0b; N10E-GLM [$905]
1GB GDDR5 GTX 380M Nvidia GeForce; DX11; MXM 3.0 Type B; N11E-GTX; 40nm; [$723]
2GB GDDR5 nVidia GeForce GTX 480M Fermi; DX11; MXM 3.0b; 100W; N11E-GTX; for W880CU Cheetah 2.0 [$905]
2GB GDDR5 nVidia GeForce GTX 480M Fermi; DX11; PhysX; DVI-DL; MXM 3.0b; 100W; N11E-GTX [$905]
256MB GDDR3; nVidia Quadro FX 1400M; OpenGL; 16x PCIe [$814]
512MB GDDR3; Nvidia GeForce Go 7950GTX; 16x PCIe; Modular VGA [$632]
512MB GDDR3; Nvidia GeForce Go 8800M GTX; 16x PCIe; DX10; Modular VGA; D06 [$691]
512MB GDDR3; Nvidia GeForce Go 8800M GTX; 16x PCIe; DX10; VGA Module [$691]
512MB GDDR3; nVidia Quadro FX 2500M; OpenGL; 16x PCIe [$723]
512MB GDDR3; nVidia Quadro FX 2700M; MXM 2.1 Type III; 16x PCIe; DX10; OpenGL [$632]
256MB GDDR3; nVidia GeForce Ultra 6800 Go; 12L; 16x PCIe [$541]
512MB GDDR3 Nvidia GeForce Go 9800M GT; 16x PCIe; DX10; NB9E-GT2 [$541]
512MB GDDR3; Nvidia GeForce Go 7900GTX; 16x PCIe; Modular VGA [$541]
512MB GDDR3; Nvidia GeForce Go 7950GTX; 16x PCI Express; MXM-HE [$586]
512MB GDDR3; nVidia Quadro FX 1600; OpenGL; DX10; 16x PCIe [$586]

 

Eurocom is substantially more expensive than anyone else in general, they aren't exactly a good example for anything price related, or even customer service related for that matter. You could get those GPU's for cheaper elsewhere.

 

This is not a supply/demand thing. Nvidia won't even come close to breaking even on the 480M and their pricing is not based on the simple intersection of supply and demand curves like you learned in high school.

It's much simpler than that: Nvidia is smoking crack and they're hoping you are too. I've yet to see any hard evidence proving otherwise.

 

lol, your posts have been making my day. Pretty much agree with this. 10% performance gain over a 5870 isn't worth 1000$, IMO.

 

awwww isnt the extra power draw and all that extra heat worth that $1000

 

They may be cheaper to purchase aftermarket--as with many things--, but Eurocom's prices in this case aren't that bad.


I could've used RJTech if I wanted more expensive examples:
nVidia GeForce 8800M GTX 512MB Video Card (D90xC)
CODE: VGA-8800-D90xC
$795.00

nVidia GeForce GTX 480M 2GB Video Card (D900F)
CODE: 480M-D900F
$940.00

nVidia GeForce 9800M GTX 1GB Video Card (D90xC)
CODE: VGA-9800-D90xC
$950.00


nVidia GeForce GO 7950GTX 512MB Video Card
CODE:
$995.00

nVidia Quadro FX3800M 1GB Video Card (D900F)
CODE: FX3800M-D900F
$1,500.00


I used Eurocom because they have a larger selection, however RJTech's prices also show that the GTX 480M isn't uniquely expensive.

 

I honestly don't understand the prices for those videocards. At all. Who would buy a 7950GTX for 1000$??? You get better performance on a completely new laptop with a 5730/330m

 

Well, (on average) the GTX 480m makes 15500 3dmark06 points, while the HD 5870 makes 12500 points. I think thats more than 10%. On PCMark Vantage its GTX 480m @ 9200 points, and the HD 5870 makes about 7200 points. Again, more than 10%.

I'm not an Nvidia or ATi fan, i'm for the greatest bang-for-buck.

 

mobility chips based off the more efficient GF104 design (GTX485M?) should bring costs, temps and power draw down. Certainly did for the just-released GTX460 (GF104) versus GTX465 (GF100) in the desktop market.

 

Cost of production is a big contributor. GF100 has a huge die size, being some 70-80% larger (dont remember exactly offhand) than the die for the desktop HD5870. Since both companies cut their GPUs out of the same wafers of silicon ATI's smaller die gives them a significantly lower cost of materials.

Poor yields make things even worse for Nvidia's larger die, and GF100's yields were supposedly horrible.

 

That being as it may, most people buy these cards to play games rather than run 3dmark. It's performance in games is usually 10-20% better with a few outliers where it's actually worse.

It's expensive because they don't have a lot of these cards and they know that some people will buy them even at this price.

 

RJTech's prices reflect availability more than actual value. There are very few new 7950GTX's left, so the price gets jacked. Supply and demand.

Plus, RJTech is just expensive in general. They want $140 for an AC adapter.

 

480M is only 10% better performance on cherry picked games by Nvidia. On the rest of the current library it's closer to 5% or worse.

 

The same can be said about the ATI 5870 vs the GTX 285M though. The 5870 is not much faster than it, maybe 10% aside from the odd game where it is much faster.

 

True, but the 5870 is actually cheaper than a 285m and uses less power under load (and idle if you underclock).