Tuesday, October 7th 2014
AMD Cuts Prices of R9 290 Series and R9 280 Series Even Further
AMD cut prices of its Radeon R9 290 series and R9 280 series graphics cards further down from last month's price-cuts. The cuts see the company's flagship single-GPU product, the Radeon R9 290X, drop from $449, down to $399, an $150 overall drop, from its launch price of $549. The Radeon R9 290, on the other hand, has its price cut to $299, from its launch price of $399. The drop in price of the R9 290 is squeezing AMD's sub-$300 lineup like never before. The R9 280X is down to $270, just $30 less than the R9 290. The R9 285, which launched barely two months ago, has its price squeezed to $229, just $10 more than NVIDIA's GTX 760. If you're in the market for a graphics card with about $250 in hand, you're now open to a ton of options, including ramen for a week, in exchange for the $329 GeForce GTX 970.
Source:
Tweaktown
140 Comments on AMD Cuts Prices of R9 290 Series and R9 280 Series Even Further
970 is still a best buy at $330.
R9 290X needs to be $250-290 in order to sell, with R9 290 ~ the 200 dollar mark and 280X/280 ~ 170/140.
;)
The R9 and R7 lineup are changing to match the market, but saying that the 290X needs to be way below the 970 is not true as the 290X overall is still a bit more powerful. It needs to be close to its price and well below the 980 which it is at least below the 980 (I would hoping for 350) but its pricing along with the rest of the lineup is decent enough to where everyone can get something nice from both sides for a reasonable price which I feel people should not be complaining about.
All this has done is bring high end gaming into a more affordable realm for everyone!
It doesn't deserve its price tag because virtually you have performance compared in the range of possible statistical error.
R9 290X and its architectural efficiency suck badly compared to anything Maxwell.
GCN 1.1 is not as efficient as Maxwell in the same way Kepler is not. Its a new generation and was more than expected by everyone to be much more efficient...
In fact price cuts that come out well after the product was release rarely come in response to performance drops. AMD is purging inventory to make way for the next gen. It's nice for people like me who were thinking of picking up a second card on the cheap this holiday season, but I seriously doubt the 970 is the driving factor here. It's not like AMD or Nvidia sell direct. When then want to clear distribution channels for the next round they have to offer incentives months in advanced to try to get consumers to clear the items off retailer/etailer shelves/warehouses.
So sure I'd love to see the 290 new in box for 200$, it's just not going to happen.
AMD are NOT cutting the prices - it's the partners.
hexus.net/tech/news/graphics/75613-amd-cutting-price-radeon-r9-290-r9-290x-gpus/
I see XFX and HIS are currently offering thethree cheapest 290X models on Newegg at the moment(MIR included). Nice to see Asus sticking to its guns and not budging on the Ares III pricing - way to make a statement.
But then nV can only dream of having a gaming scientist.
NVIDIA have no answer until ~Q2 2016 until their own cards with HBM will be ready (if they aren't delayed).
NVIDIA backed the wrong horse in stacked memory. HBC looked looked bad from the start and it was no surprise that NVIDIA dropped it last year, forcing them to scrap the entire 2015 series of GPUs and institute major changes to subsequent families. They're now pushed into licensing HBM from AMD/Hynix, who co-developed it.
They desperately need to have a good Q4 '14, because for the whole of '15 they're going to be nowhere near any performance crowns, and have to very heavily discount in order to sell.
As far as the market currently stands, AMD 285 and NVIDIA 970 are clearly the bargains.
The 970 also comes with a nice cooler, but other than that it's bundle is a 5$ promotional gift card. So extras + price = 5$ on newegg.
The 970 is 11% faster at 1080p according to TPU reviews, and 7% faster at higher resolutions. It is also a bit more energy efficient, but not exactly a fermi to Kepler jump.
If you see that as worthwhile over the 290, then by all means go for it. I hate to tell you though than any reasonable person will likely decide the other way considering all it includes. This is especially true for fanboys.
AMD loves to throw in bundled accessories like games, but just adding their retail value and saying you save that much in the bundle is not representative of the way the market works. The number of people who actually were going to buy all five games at retail and saved money by buying the bundle is likely zero. The majority of people who are swayed by the bundle pricing will do so for only one of the games; at that point the rest are a bonus worth a few dollars at best. I personally loved when AMD came out with the 290X BF4 bundle. You had a choice to get a $60 game bundled or to skip the game and save $30. This is the way cards should be sold; it's too bad that offer was a one-time affair.