After nearly a year of being considered the most capable graphics processing unit (GPU) available to consumers, NVIDIA has today announced a price drop for the GeForce GTX 1080. The announcement arrived as part of a press conference today, ahead of the opening of the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) event in San Francisco.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 has been cited as one of the highest caliber GPUs for virtual reality (VR), far exceeding the minimum specifications for both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive head-mounted displays (HMDs). In fact, so committed to the VR agenda is NVIDIA, that the company launched its own VR videogame title, VR Funhouse, specifically to help promote its many VR initiatives alongside the GPU hardware.

Originally launched in May 2016, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 has been available for $599 USD, with the Founders Edition coming at $699. From today however, the GPU will retail for an estimated $499, marking a $100 price drop. International pricing has not yet been announced.

Whether or not this price drop reveals the intention to launch a new GPU for 2017 is up for debate, but no comment on a potential successor to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 is currently available. VRFocus will of course keep you updated with all the latest details.