Last-gen graphics cards $

[TechOutsider]

A follow up to my last post. Why does a ATI 9800 cost ~200 some dollars, when even a HD 4870 costs less?

See here:

http://www.google.com/products?q=ati+9800+pro&hl=en&aq=f

and here:

http://www.google.com/products?q=hd+4870&hl=en&aq=f

Surely the 9800 is not > than the HD 4870?

[JRViejo]

TechOutsider, according to GPUReview (http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=34&card2=564), the HD4870 seems to be the better card. Perhaps the price difference is due to their interface? :-\

ATI 9800 Pro = AGP 8X versus HD 4870 = PCI-E 2.0 x16.

[Keyboard_Commando]

Crikey I've still got my 9800 AGP upstairs in its box. I remember when it came out it was one of the first cards to go big time with memory, mine had 250mb on-board.

[Firecat]

The price difference is primarily due to the fact that the 9800 is now a very old card that (generally) people are not interested in buying any longer. Any stocks remaining are used/surplus unsold cards, and in general only someone in desperate need of an AGP card will be buying it. It brings in a good amount of profit to sell it at a premium to such customers since AGP cards are so few these days, and also tends to get rid of the spare stocks......;)

[Raza0007]

^ Thats the reason alright. Sometime ago I went to buy a SDRAM stick for my old computer and was shocked to find that a brand new 1 GB SDRAM stick cost almost twice more than a brand new 1 GB DDR2 stick.

It is a supply/demand issue. Since there is almost zero supply of old RAM/video card, so they are priced higher than a newer far superior RAM/video card.