If you are planning to get a GTX 260 or 280 card from Nvidia, you may want to hold off your purchase for a few days. It appears that third-party manufacturers have been complaining to Nvidia about having to charge more for their cards despite them performing almost on par with the less expensive Radeon HD 4850 and 4870, which sell for $199 and $299 respectively.

This has several of Nvidia's board partners walking on thin ice and thus demanding price adjustments to protect their margins. Nvidia has caved in to the pressure, it seems, and agreed to cut the price of the GTX 280 by $90 and $30 for the GTX 260. Of course that is just a price cut Nvidia is handing down to its partners, which will then have to set the final retail prices. According to reports, an average 260 model is expected to cost $360 (down from ~$399), while the flagship 280 should be priced at around $560 (down from ~$599).

Meanwhile, AMD is already planning an answer to the GTX and should release the $499 Radeon HD 4870 X2 before the end of the month - if rumors prove to be true. It'll certainly be interesting to see this dual-GPU card pitted against Nvidia's high-end products when it debuts in the coming weeks.