We heard rumors from the PC world this weekend that NVIDIA would be dropping the price of the GeForce3 from US$599 to US$399, so we checked Appleis Web site today and found that Apple has apparently lowered the price of their GeForce3 product by US$100. Checking with Apple PR, a company spokesperson confirmed that the stand alone card and the BTO option have both been lowered by US$100.
Currently, the stand alone product is priced at US$499. Adding it to the high-end PowerMac G4 models will now cost US$250 extra (in place of a GeForce2MX), while adding it to the low end model will cost US$350 (in place of the less expensive ATI Rage 128 Pro).
NVIDIAis Web site does not have pricing information, and phone calls to the company were not returned at press time. We were not able to confirm, or find any hard evidence, that the PC version would be dropping by US$200, but we expect some form of hard news to hit this week.
The bad news, however, comes to us courtesy of MacInTouch. That site posted a letter that an Apple Store customers reportedly received from Apple. That letter warned of an extended delay in shipping the computer due to delays from NVIDIA, but offered to ship the computer now with the GeForece2MX with a GeForce3 shipping when available at not extra charge. Please check out MacInTouch for more information and the quoted letter.
You can find more information on the GeForce3 at Appleis Web site. To order a stand alone card, go to the Apple Store and click on Accessories. From there, go to Displays. Please note that Apple Store URLs are tied to expiring sessions; we would otherwise provide direct links.