# AMD Radeon HD 7900, HD 7700 Series Price Cuts En Route: Report



## btarunr (Apr 13, 2012)

Despite losing its competitive edge to NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680, for various reasons AMD was rather slow in adjusting prices of its Radeon HD 7900 series SKUs, the HD 7970 and HD 7950. We are now learning that AMD is preparing the first round of price cuts for its flagship graphics card lineup, since the advent of NVIDIA's Kepler architecture. A Kitguru report pits price cuts of Radeon HD 7970 as much as by US $60 (from $549 to "as low as" $489). The price of HD 7950, on the other hand, is expected to go down by as much as US $55 (that's from $449 to $394). There's also a small price cut in store for Radeon HD 7770, which according to the report, could go down by $15.





*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## btarunr (Apr 13, 2012)

Many Thanks to NHKS for the tip.


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## hhumas (Apr 13, 2012)

and what will be in Asia


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## General Lee (Apr 13, 2012)

OCUK already revealed they're going to drop 7970 prices to 360£ and 7950 to 300£ in a few days, so about 50€ and 30€ price reduction at least for 7900 series. I doubt AMD needs to adjust 7800 prices, 7700 on the other hand could use a drop indeed.


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## moonlord (Apr 13, 2012)

AMD brings balance to the force, i'm an AMD guy so now i don't have to take the path of the darkside


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## NHKS (Apr 13, 2012)

General Lee said:


> .. I doubt AMD needs to adjust 7800 prices,...



for now yes.. once the GTX 670/Ti price & perf. are known, we will know for sure.


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## DarkOCean (Apr 13, 2012)

I want price drop on the 7800 series too.


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## punani (Apr 13, 2012)

Tempting, but i'll still wait and see what the 670 has to offer.


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## TheLostSwede (Apr 13, 2012)

DarkOCean said:


> I want price drop on the 7800 series too.



Me too


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## Quantos (Apr 13, 2012)




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## SIGSEGV (Apr 13, 2012)

i want AMD HD7970 badly.. please amd, give me more price cuts so i can take msi's lightning hd7970 with reasonable price


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## dj-electric (Apr 13, 2012)

A price drop for the HD7800 series is just a matter of time.
Though, prices of 219$ and 299$ respectively for HD7850 and HD7870 could do much more justice...


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## DarkOCean (Apr 13, 2012)

SIGSEGV said:


> i want AMD HD7970 badly.. please amd, give me more price cuts so i can take msi's lightning hd7970 with reasonable price



I want one too at $250.


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## reverze (Apr 13, 2012)

got a friend buying 7770 end of the month, lets hope price drop is place by then.


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## dj-electric (Apr 13, 2012)

Ask your friend if he's got a 250 watt PSU, because if not he might just invest he's money on a HD6870 instead...


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## DarkOCean (Apr 13, 2012)

dj-electric said:


> ask your friend if he's got a 250 watt psu, because if not he might just invest he's money on a hd6870 instead...



+1


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## ChristTheGreat (Apr 13, 2012)

I saw an HD7870 Powercolor, with stock fan, 339$ + on newegg canadaor Free Dirt3 with the MSI dual-fan for 359$ free shipping. I might start to think selling my HD6950  With this price cut, or GTX 670Ti, hard choice


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## FreedomEclipse (Apr 13, 2012)

Its about time....UK pricing for the 7970 is a ripoff.

Lowest price for an XFX 7970 BE = £419
Lowst price for the same card from newegg =  $540

$540 converted into GBP = £339

If i was serious about buying one, i could ask a fellow TPU member to order me one and ship it over via FedEX or DHL and id still be have enough money saved to get totally wasted down at the pub for a whole week.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Apr 13, 2012)

SIGSEGV said:


> i want AMD HD7970 badly.. please amd, give me more price cuts so i can take msi's lightning hd7970 with reasonable price



Honestly no real reason in buying a special 7970, the reference cards clock just as well and save you money.


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## FreedomEclipse (Apr 13, 2012)

1Kurgan1 said:


> Honestly no real reason in buying a special 7970, the reference cards clock just as well and save you money.



sometimes its not about the card itself but about the cooler that it comes with. Reference coolers are often quite noisey and dont cool anywhere near as effectively as graphics card that comes with a Twin Frozr II/III or a Accelero Xtreme or cooler of similar design etc etc


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## blibba (Apr 13, 2012)

DarkOCean said:


> I want one too at $250.



I want one for free! What does this add?


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## Norton (Apr 13, 2012)

Good News! but I'm out unless the 7870 drops under $300 

Until then the 6870 Hawk in my rig will do just fine


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## DarkOCean (Apr 13, 2012)

blibba said:


> I want one for free! What does this add?



Maybe then i could afford one.

Since amd will cut these prices we should expect nvidia do the same on their side?


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## buggalugs (Apr 13, 2012)

1Kurgan1 said:


> Honestly no real reason in buying a special 7970, the reference cards clock just as well and save you money.



Hmmmm, vacuum cleaner sound vs silent gaming.......

 Anyway, no surprise here.....Just like I said when the 7970 was released wait a couple of months and you'll save money.


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## radrok (Apr 13, 2012)

Not anytime soon, huh?


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## NielsCnossen (Apr 13, 2012)

My reference asus 7970 only goes to 30% fanspeed playing BF 3 at max on 1080p, that is with overclock @ 1050 ...you can hear it, but its not noisy. Im really happy with my card. 
The main reason to go for a 7970 is its memory, I'm planning to buy a 1440p mon in the near future, for those resolution's you need the 3 Gb


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## Yellow&Nerdy? (Apr 13, 2012)

Great. It was pretty clear AMD needed to cut the price to at least the same as the GTX 680. Now we just have to wait for Nvidia to release some mid-range cards, so that we can get some price war in that section of the market as well.

EDIT: Actually, I just looked up a European retailer, and the retail price for a GTX 680 was 499€, while the retail price for a 7970 was 460-470€. I guess that's because of supply shortage on the GTX 680. So this must mean that Nvidia is getting more cards out there or what?


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## badtaylorx (Apr 13, 2012)

can we assume that amd has some intel that 680's stock is returning???


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## OhNoesMyOreos (Apr 13, 2012)

The coast is now clear for Nvidia to release their next 1K$ monster


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## Isenstaedt (Apr 13, 2012)

The 7700s should have been cheaper from the beginning because they compete with the 6800s.


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## MikeMurphy (Apr 13, 2012)

ChristTheGreat said:


> I saw an HD7870 Powercolor, with stock fan, 339$ + on newegg canadaor Free Dirt3 with the MSI dual-fan for 359$ free shipping. I might start to think selling my HD6950  With this price cut, or GTX 670Ti, hard choice



Powercolor?  Don't forget to factor in the shipping you'll be paying when you send it in for warranty work.


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 13, 2012)

MikeMurphy said:


> Powercolor?  Don't forget to factor in the shipping you'll be paying when you send it in for warranty work.



In all Honestly your comment applies to all of the companies out there.

The powercolor is fine


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## Vulpesveritas (Apr 13, 2012)

MikeMurphy said:


> Powercolor?  Don't forget to factor in the shipping you'll be paying when you send it in for warranty work.



Too bad all companies aren't HP, where even when you fry the CPU and GPU three times they still take it under warranty, even four months after warranty, and cover all shipping, labor, and fees, and even upgrade your CPU and speakers for you XD.


On topic, yay maybe this means I might go with a 7770 for the tessellation performance over the 6870 then, if the price drops enough.


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## NHKS (Apr 13, 2012)

"We now hear the MSRP will be $479." according to HardwareCanucks for the 7970


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## DarkOCean (Apr 13, 2012)

NHKS said:


> "We now hear the MSRP will be $479." according to HardwareCanucks for the 7970



Nice, but i still can't call this a "price war".


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## Casecutter (Apr 13, 2012)

btarunr said:


> Despite losing its competitive edge to NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680, for _various reasons_...


From [H] "As you have seen in our gameplay and performance testing so far a stock Radeon HD 7970 and a stock NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 are very identical in performance."
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/04/10/sapphire_hd_7970_oc_edition_video_card_review/1

Now that's right under the chart that shows power consumption of the 5 titles B-M, and the GTX680 averages like 6.7% better nobody's loosing on any real _reasons_, because Nvidia has sh!t in the channel and may well not for whoever knows. 

If AMD cuts prices say the 10% being said here (though I doubt that much) that must mean AMD is foreseeing getting decent production from TSMC.  So now they implement the normal pricing reductions that normally offered after 6 mo's in the market.  It just tells me AMD hasn’t felt threatened by a GTX680 because; the $500 price was a one-time release, Nvidia AIB’s will ask way more for customs, and they've had  zero products in the channel and it looks like now about May.  

Basically what I said back March 29th when *btarunr* was all… _AMD must lower the price_, like AMD was shaking in its’ boots.  AMD played it cool and does things in their own sweet time, though I think the issues with TSMC was up in the air and they weren’t about to show their hand till they had faith in TSMC.


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## m1dg3t (Apr 13, 2012)

DarkOCean said:


> Nice, but i still can't call this a "price war".



How can it be a war when there is no competition? When GTX's actually hit retail you'll see ATi price's come down even further and maybe even a new release to push Nvidia, again.


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## Rowsol (Apr 13, 2012)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> Ask your friend if he's got a 250 watt PSU, because if not he might just invest he's money on a HD6870 instead...



Yea, 6870 is the king of bang/buck in US at the moment.


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## PopcornMachine (Apr 13, 2012)

I agree with those who are waiting for a 7870 at $300 or less.  That would be sweet.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Apr 13, 2012)

we can all thank nvidia. Competition FTW


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## TheHunter (Apr 13, 2012)

punani said:


> Tempting, but i'll still wait and see what the 670 has to offer.



I bet between 570- 580gtx, ok a little more in something like BF3.



Ontopic: nice to see it finally happening, now NV will be forced to lower prices too, that what they're doing now is a total ripoff imo 


this is how it looks like in EU atm, 

cheapest 7970: 438€
http://geizhals.at/eu/?cat=gra16_512&xf=1440_HD+7970&sort=p

cheapest 680gtx: 467€
http://geizhals.at/eu/?cat=gra16_512&xf=1439_GTX+680&sort=p


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## Casecutter (Apr 13, 2012)

TheHunter said:


> cheapest 680gtx: 467€


Does that mean they are in stock and available to ship?

Interesting at Egg there's a HIS 7970 reference "like" for $530 No Rebate w/FS 
HIS H797F3G2M Radeon HD 7970 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI... 
All thet before price cuts or GTX680's anywhere.


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## erocker (Apr 13, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> we can all thank nvidia. Competition FTW



Competition would be better if one could actually purchase a GTX 680. I've been wanting to pick one up to try out but they're never in stock!!


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## m1dg3t (Apr 13, 2012)

Don't expect GTX680 price's to come down anytime soon, they need to recoup as much $$$ as possible. They need to get the gk100 or w/e it's called working properly and that is gonna cost, i mean just look at the issues they are having putting gk104 out in ANY number's. The simple fact that 680 price's have _INCREASED_ since launch should be an indicator of what to expect from Nvidia for the time being. They are gonna use that 6% overall performance "advantage" to milk every $$$ they can from their customer's, fact of doing business


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## TheHunter (Apr 13, 2012)

^
yeah no doubt about that.. Btw if NV lowered Fermi 580gtx at 7970 launch things would be a lot different now, but hey everyone wants a slice of a 500$ cake lol i dont blame them, but still its us who pulled the short straw 



Casecutter said:


> Does that mean they are in stock and available to ship?
> 
> Interesting at Egg there's a HIS 7970 reference "like" for $530 No Rebate w/FS
> HIS H797F3G2M Radeon HD 7970 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI...
> All thet before price cuts or GTX680's anywhere.



Its 1-2 day waiting time (some Polish shop)., That main site is like search engine it looks through all better PC shops in EU.


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## suraswami (Apr 13, 2012)

hmm hopefully the 6850/70 goes on sale for under $100 and I can add one more to CF he he.


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## techtard (Apr 13, 2012)

Strangely enough, last time I checked GTX 680s were more expensive here, even before the Radeon price drop.
But I live in Canada, and we probably have a very limited number of the new nV cards available.

And about Powercolor being bad... I dunno. I've been running an overclocked 5850 since launch. The only problem was the stock fan crapped out, but it was running aound 100% for over 2 years.
Just like with most manufacturers, it's down to the luck of the draw and card batch.
Except for maybe Diamond. I have heard nothing but horror stories about those guys. Never owned any of their product though.


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## ChristTheGreat (Apr 13, 2012)

MikeMurphy said:


> Powercolor?  Don't forget to factor in the shipping you'll be paying when you send it in for warranty work.



Well, I never had to send back a card to Powercolor.. If the price gets to high I know that I will try other brand. Gigabyte, this is a no go for me, last time, cost me 40$ to send a mobo that I bought 1.5years ago 85$.

The only one I know, that has something in Canada for now, is Asus, which you can ask to send it in Ontario.

Already send a eVGA 7600GT KO a few years ago, I had to pay for shipping to send the card... 

Like eidairaman1 said, this might apply to all companies..


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## de.das.dude (Apr 13, 2012)

DarkOCean said:


> Maybe then i could afford one.
> 
> Since amd will cut these prices we should expect nvidia do the same on their side?



maybe... i dont think nvidia is as stubborn as intel. and hence arent foolish. If they can cut profits, they will.


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## Totally (Apr 14, 2012)

I'm not stirring s**t here but just wondering. Anyone else notice that the GTX680 has half as many transistors as the HD7970 and uses the same amount of power, how it does that translate into a larger chip?


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Apr 14, 2012)

de.das.dude said:


> maybe... i dont think nvidia is as stubborn as intel. and hence arent foolish. If they can cut profits, they will.



I cant see them dropping prices, and if they do they wont drop in the shops untill supply outreaches demand not the other way round or untill the 7990 or dual 680 come out as they are top of the heap with something, many want , they hold all the cards ,so untill Amd actually counters why Not make all the money you can ,if Nvidia get their dual out in may as sugested in rumours lately then Amd are in desperate need of the 8xxx by xmass latest if not Asap in essence they need todo something


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## Gzero (Apr 14, 2012)

Totally said:


> I'm not stirring s**t here but just wondering. Anyone else notice that the GTX680 has half as many transistors as the HD7970 and uses the same amount of power, how it does that translate into a larger chip?



It doesn't, don't let the fanboi's tell you otherwise. 7970 = GTX480 in terms of direction. Hopefully AMD don't do an Nvidia and drop it all just to gain more frames in games whilst losing compute power.


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 14, 2012)

Gzero said:


> It doesn't, don't let the fanboi's tell you otherwise. 7970 = GTX480 in terms of direction. Hopefully AMD don't do an Nvidia and drop it all just to gain more frames in games whilst losing compute power.



nah AMD didnt focus on compute power until the market was right hence the 7970 having what the 5800 and 6900 series didnt.

NV dropped it to reduce complexity. 7970 is the First Gen GCN arch which is still pretty much a test subject. Revised and 8x series should be the true finished product


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## Casecutter (Apr 16, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> NV dropped it to reduce complexity. 7970 is the First Gen GCN arch which is still pretty much a test subject. Revised and 8x series should be the true finished product


No Nvidia couldn't get a cost effective "Top Dog" to work even with "complexity of Turbo Boost", so they figured better to get the gaming crown ASAP by using a much more cost effective "mainstream" chip and then use Turbo Boost (PCB and components') to make it really *sing*, though not commit _harry carey_ doing so!  It was a good move that work in their favor, but Nvidia’s "test subject" went back into R&D (GK110).  Tahiti came to market and yes bigger and costly from the fact the TSMC pulled a price increase for 28nm just a few month before it came to market. That price increase was what a GK100 couldn't deal with, that and the added cost of PCB for the Turbo boost made a non-starter.  

The thing we see is that 28Nm parts have huge clock potential, but that erodes the efficiency and TDP in a conventional clock application, can AMD bring a "Tahiti" with Dynamic clock controls to market on the next refresh?


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## Norton (Apr 16, 2012)

Looks like some 7xxx price cuts are showing up in Europe....

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/jules/amd-radeon-price-cuts-come-crashing-through/


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## RevengE (Apr 16, 2012)

About time, Make way for the Geforce of doom.


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## Norton (Apr 17, 2012)

PRICE CUT @ NEW EGG (US)

7950's as low as $379.99
7970's as low as $469.99

Links:
 Computer Hardware, Video Cards & Video Devices, D...

 Computer Hardware, Video Cards & Video Devices, D...


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