Monday, July 31st 2017
AMD Radeon Packs: Expensive Motherboards, Monitor only for Few
If you have not seen our RX Vega Preview yet, you should. It is the most information you can get before independent testing comes in. Adding to it is new information coming out of AMD regarding the Radeon Packs- a bundled set of discount vouchers and games offering more value for your money if purchased with an RX Vega GPU. There are still concerns about implementation given you have to purchase directly from participating retailers, and also purchase the monitor and/or Ryzen system then and there if needed but these new details add further to the complication.
According to AMD, the $200 off FreeSync monitor discount is only applicable in 5 countries- USA, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and Singapore. The rest of the world does not even get that option, which makes the whole deal a lot less appealing. All countries get the $100 off Ryzen 7 combo which includes an option of Ryzen 7 1700X, and Ryzen 7 1800X CPUs paired with an option of three X370 motherboards- the ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Extreme X370 Motherboard, the GIGABYTE GA-AX370-Gaming K7 Motherboard, and the MSI X370 XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM Motherboard. These are all very expensive motherboards, which have not justified their price point with Ryzen CPUs having a limited overclocking potential that can be reached on less expensive motherboards as well. Lastly, the two games available are Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Prey for all countries aside from Germany, Austria and Switzerland where Wolfenstein is replaced by Sniper Elite 4. Between all this, and the Samsung CF791 not having the best FreeSync implementation - with users reporting display flickering in Ultimate Engine mode that increases the FreeSync range (48-100 Hz) - the Radeon Packs are not looking as lucrative anymore and hopefully will be revised, or have the price reduced accordingly for other regions.
Source:
AMD Radeon
According to AMD, the $200 off FreeSync monitor discount is only applicable in 5 countries- USA, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and Singapore. The rest of the world does not even get that option, which makes the whole deal a lot less appealing. All countries get the $100 off Ryzen 7 combo which includes an option of Ryzen 7 1700X, and Ryzen 7 1800X CPUs paired with an option of three X370 motherboards- the ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Extreme X370 Motherboard, the GIGABYTE GA-AX370-Gaming K7 Motherboard, and the MSI X370 XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM Motherboard. These are all very expensive motherboards, which have not justified their price point with Ryzen CPUs having a limited overclocking potential that can be reached on less expensive motherboards as well. Lastly, the two games available are Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Prey for all countries aside from Germany, Austria and Switzerland where Wolfenstein is replaced by Sniper Elite 4. Between all this, and the Samsung CF791 not having the best FreeSync implementation - with users reporting display flickering in Ultimate Engine mode that increases the FreeSync range (48-100 Hz) - the Radeon Packs are not looking as lucrative anymore and hopefully will be revised, or have the price reduced accordingly for other regions.
34 Comments on AMD Radeon Packs: Expensive Motherboards, Monitor only for Few
This is amusing. What? You cannot buy the liquid cooled card from anyone but AMD directly (cough Titan). And what the hoopla, nobody in Europe can buy the liquid cooled version? Sorry @RejZoR, AMD hates you.
None of this info can be true, surely. What I have stated above is ludicrous, so much so that I dont believe it at all, there must be a miscommunication or this is quite possibly the worst release of a gfx card ever.
I'm waiting for someone to tell me I'm being a tool (@Xzibit - you can do that if you want - you've got a free shot at me and I'll simply thank you!) and that's fine because I cannot be reading this right. FWIW, I'm not ranting or angry, I'm in disbelief... If I had waited for Vega I would be buying the watercooled version so I would be absolutely pissed off if that was the case and this is all true.
You can click on the 3 different "regions" to see their rewards.
I think you can still buy EVERY edition there is, only the Freesync monitor discount is available to the united states and others listed.
I think it's more like a manf coupon. A way to increase the price, but maybe not always be taken up on it. So you end up buying the card for the additional $100 this surely adds, and basically get two free games. And some coupons for a MB and Monitor if your in the market.
Surely Asus/MSI/Samsung agreed to sell at a discount to increase potential sales for High End hardware. So there is some margin to be lost, obviously.... But I don't think you are Forced to buy anything other than the card.
It'll be good to see more clearly how the cards hit retail. I think we're not getting the whole picture though the slides do state if you don't want an offer you can buy the non-liquid cooled versions at retail. So there is an implication you can't buy the liquid version without buying a 'package'. Very confused still.
Only with a pack can you buy the water one.....
I haven't read that other regions can't buy the card. But then again, I haven't really looked TOO hard into it, as I am in U.S., and I would be more a NANO candidate.
And then you might as well start writing with shit on walls because you're bloody insane.
But if you can't buy it on it's own, it's most definitely a bit shit. But on my part I'm still questionning how on earth that works. I mean, can you buy the water version at $699 and NOT buy the monitor as well? If so, that's not so bad but it does make it a tad more expensive (moreso than the cooler alone dictates).
So, no whining, legititate questions and head scratchings. Also, at 345 watts, the miners may not like this card as it's power/perf isn't optimal for mining.
You get $50 off a purchase of Motherboard and CPU and an additional $10 off if you purchase memory too...
Sure gald I went with custom loop and not AIO years ago. Very easy to plumb something new into the loop...