AMD Readies New Round of Radeon HD 7000 Series Price Cuts

[theeldest]

Have you still not realised how the GPU market works?

They release their cards 6 months apart so BOTH companies are ontop at some point in the year.

They've been doing it for ages

I was going to mention the same thing.

I'm not sure how we're drawing conclusions about one company sucking because their price dropped $100 in 4 months. This happens every generation...

The part we--as consumers--should be upset about is this "back and forth" business. If they released at the same time prices would start lower. The reason AMD and nVidia are able to charge high prices at launch is they're always competing against an aging product.

 

[theeldest]

I wonder if the GTX 660 Ti's will drop down closer to the £230 region in the near future.

I'm sure that in 6 months when AMD launches the 8850 we'll see price drops in nVidia's line. Then we'll all be in that thread trashing nVidia for dropping prices. I'm sure we'll also be complaining about how we overpaid for a card we'd bought just the month before.

*sheesh*


(less snarkily: I can't imagine we'd see a price drop on these cards until christmas time. Once AMD and nVidia have their pricing set to compete against each other again, the next reason to drop is to increase the volume of sales. I see this coinciding with the holiday buying season)

 

[Hilux SSRG]

(less snarkily: I can't imagine we'd see a price drop on these cards until christmas time. Once AMD and nVidia have their pricing set to compete against each other again, the next reason to drop is to increase the volume of sales. I see this coinciding with the holiday buying season)

Do video cards prices drop significantly then?

I have had a blast with my 670 since getting it in May, but I want to get
another for when I upgrade my monitor hopefully eoy. I haven't read
anything about nvidia's 700 series, so I guess I wait for Christmas sales.

 

[m1dg3t]

Welcome to the party ATi! I picked up my 7950 over a month ago for $320...

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Definitely going 7850 Crossfire next. NV 6xx is way overpriced.

 

[N3M3515]

Exactly. AMD tried to be a premiere brand

Honestly i don't give a rats ass if amd or nvidia are premiere brands or not (there are only 2 brands ffs...) ..........whichever gives me the best perf/price is the one i pick.

the 7870 is competitive with 660Ti because NV has nothing under 250$ (a sweet spot).

About that, i don't think nvidia will ever have anything to match 7870 at any price, since gtx 660 seems to be slower... unless they price 660ti equal, and then amd has more price maneuvering, being pitcairn smaller.

Not sure whether a few watts here or there makes a great deal of difference to the average buyer tbh

Truth.

 

[Sapientwolf]

AMD is definitely getting it's butt kicked by Nvidia in this generation of graphics cards. Not only do Nvidia's 6xx-cards perform better, but they are more power efficient too. Which is not good, because though AMD cards will get cheaper, Nvidia will have no incentive what so ever to budge on their prices. Which means no price war for us consumers. This is a necessary move from AMD though, because I think with the old prices, most if not all people with a budget of 250 - 300 bucks would of gone for the 660 Ti.

Last I checked the HD 7970 GHz Edition matched the GTX 680 pretty well. Also, there will always be a trade off between compute performance and gaming power efficiency. Look at how efficient the Radeon 6870s were. AMD stripped out most of the compute elements, cut the transistor count and more or less matched the HD 5870 at significantly reduced power all with no die shrink.

My point is, the HD 7970 has massive compute performance over its predecessor and Nvidia. It uses more power gaming, but that's not unreasonable considering a huge part of its design went into compute this time around.

 

[techtard]

Excellent, I was just starting to seriously consider a new video card and these price cuts and the GTX 660ti hit.

 

[Casecutter]

meaning the 660 series has already hit its cap in overclocking.

Yea, I'm thinking what you buy is what you get, even if you find it saying it's giving you XXMhz, in a real run through on a game the dynamic profiles just hold you back. I think those profiles are more aggressive in the GTX670, and then only slightly better from that in a GTX680.

Welcome to the party ATi! I picked up my 7950 over a month ago for $320...

As to these price cuts... these aren't news this is just confirming what the markets have been at "here and there" over the past 4-6 weeks. Did AMD come out of the gate too audacious? Maybe, but that was, what 7 months ago! At that point the price was to a point compensatory for the improvement over the existing Nvidia competition and a TSMC price increase. Early on AMD was probably thinking they'd be aligned with Nvidia working normal gambit (GK100, GK104, GK106, GK107…) heck probably less. Then Nvidia went backing-up to the "one chip strategy"; that was late game coup for them. I'm sure that once AMD believed that was the case, they were too far along, while they saw Nvidia wouldn't be challenging allthat soon. Why worry! Those original MSRP’s, you don't think Nvidia would have not been the same way? AMD figured stay the course, there will be plenty of time to widdle them down! Because with Kepler the motto has been... We wait!

 

[N3M3515]

Last I checked the HD 7970 GHz Edition matched the GTX 680 pretty well. Also, there will always be a trade off between compute performance and gaming power efficiency. Look at how efficient the Radeon 6870s were. AMD stripped out most of the compute elements, cut the transistor count and more or less matched the HD 5870 at significantly reduced power all with no die shrink.

My point is, the HD 7970 has massive compute performance over its predecessor and Nvidia. It uses more power gaming, but that's not unreasonable considering a huge part of its design went into compute this time around.

Exactly.

 

[camoxiong]

Wow, the 7850 1gb is finally getting cheap.

 

[Xzibit]

Exactly. AMD tried to be a premiere brand when they were alone with the 7000 series asking ridiculous prices for three months. I'm pretty sure they didn't convinced too many NV users to buy their cards in that period but instead milked the usual Radeon user looking to upgrade, for premium prices.

Given the launch price of these cards, the 7950 lost 130$ and the 7970 lost 110$ in 4 months since the 670 appeared. I don't see this as a sign of business going well nor rebuilding a reputation that seem to lack for AMD. I mean, why buy AMD at launch when just waiting a few months will give one much better deals (plus better drivers...).

That being said, the 7950 is very competitive now at $320 for enthusiasts (out of the box for 1080p and average Joe the 660Ti is still a better deal) while the 7870 is competitive with 660Ti because NV has nothing under 250$ (a sweet spot). The 7850 was always alone and the best bang/buck in the AMD new lineup, I'm sure they sold many at 250$ but the price had to go down to make way for the 7870.

So, for those who were missing the action for the first part of the year, the right time for upgrade is just beginning.

I think your overlooking the fact that AMD priced there product to performance of Nvidias GeForce 500 series.
They have lots of room to manuever price wise and compete when Nvidia GeForce 600 series finally hits the market.

Yields from AMD will be far more mature then Nvidia. The GK104 yields Nvidia is a bigger issue now that they switched from paying for working die to wafer buy model. Last 3 CCs with investors has been always that they need yields to improve on kepler.

Plus didnt AMD gain 2.5% in discrete desktop segement in Q2 ?.. That would mean it did okay for going up against Nvidia Geforce GTX 690, 680 & 670.

Nvidia is sitting on 40million of excess inventory with no buyers. Times are tough for both i guess.
To put into perspective. Nvidia made a profit of 60million in Q1.

The lower the price the better the deals.

 

[HumanSmoke]

I think your overlooking the fact that AMD priced there product to performance of Nvidias GeForce 500 series

Nope. AMD priced according to competition. If buying public BELIEVED AMD offered the better choice at a respective price/performance point then AMD wouldn't need to lower prices- the FACT that AMD are lowering prices indicates that all is not well in the sales figures AMD are receiving

They have lots of room to manuever price wise and compete when Nvidia GeForce 600 series finally hits the market

Nvidia likewise have have maneuvering room. A smaller die and cheaper components at the top end, and salvage/throwaway parts in the mainstream segment. The difference is one company shaves their prices down and one stays relatively firm on pricing

Plus didnt AMD gain 2.5% in discrete desktop segement in Q2 ?.. That would mean it did okay for going up against Nvidia Geforce GTX 690, 680 & 670.

2 + 2 = 3.1415 ?
If Nvidia only offered GTX 690/680/670 then your statement is true. The fact that they still offer Fermi and earlier based SKU's means that you can infer nothing from those individual models. If AMD gained ~2.5% against Kepler, it means that they gained ~ nothing against Fermi derivatives...kind of makes the HD 7750/7770/7850/7870 a massive flop, no?

Nvidia is sitting on 40million of excess inventory with no buyers. Times are tough for both i guess.

$40m is easier to liquidate than $833m...

To put into perspective. Nvidia made a profit of 60million in Q1

Not bad for a company supposedly getting hammered by AMD in price, price/performance

Honestly i don't give a rats ass if amd or nvidia are premiere brands or not (there are only 2 brands ffs...) ..........whichever gives me the best perf/price is the one i pick.

I do. Premiere brand = higher average selling price = higher profit line = more $$$$ going into R&D, software support, gaming SDK's.
I don't think there is anything inferior with the hardware- I do however, feel there is something fundamentally wrong with AMD's marketing, their internal perception, and how that correlates into consumer brand awareness.

 

[Xzibit]

Nope. AMD priced according to competition. If buying public BELIEVED AMD offered the better choice at a respective price/performance point then AMD wouldn't need to lower prices- the FACT that AMD are lowering prices indicates that all is not well in the sales figures AMD are receiving

Weird cause thats what you would do to undercut someone.

Nvidia likewise have have maneuvering room. A smaller die and cheaper components at the top end, and salvage/throwaway parts in the mainstream segment. The difference is one company shaves their prices down and one stays relatively firm on pricing

Thats assuming every wafer is producing decent dies enough to bin for the wide varients for GK104 products available.
Cant make a bad die work on a lower product. Has to be in working condition first.

$40m is easier to liquidate than $833m...

They screwed up Llano roll out. Think they made it clear in the Q2 report. Also AMD doesnt go on and on and on complaining about 28nm yields. Since Kepler almost 1/3rd of the last 3 conference call from Nvidia go back to yield issues. Last AMD Conference Call not one word about 28nm yields.

Not bad for a company supposedly getting hammered by AMD in price, price/performance

I would say the same for AMD espicially since revenue and income from Q1-Q2 is basicly flipped on percentage between Nvidia and AMD. With all the hardships AMD is still gaining market share in descrete desktop segment. Impressive considering Nvidia was up 15.3% in the segment and still lost 2.5% to AMD.

 

[Nihilus]

Wow, the 7850 1gb is finally getting cheap.

The HD7950 1GB launched at $195 which was a good deal already (reviewed on TPU) These Price drops are reactive, but nothing to criticize since it is great for the consumer. The HD 7950 probably has the edge now on price/performace, but the Picarins will continue to be unmatched. Nvidia will have to give away their upcoming 660 to compete.

 

[Nkd]

I have a gtx 680 in one of my rigs, to say that nvidia is kicking butt is such an overstatement that I can't even begin to explain it. It makes someone sound more like a fan boy than anything else.

7970 is one hell of a card and yes it is bit slower but butt kicking is just exaggerating the statement.

7870 is probably the best bang for your buck. These cards overclock like monsters and are really really efficient in relation to the number of shaders it has.

I might grab one if I can find it in a month or two around 220. My friend has a 7870 and the thing almost reaches 7970 speeds running at 1200 on the core.

 

[SIGSEGV]

I have a gtx 680 in one of my rigs, to say that nvidia is kicking butt is such an overstatement that I can't even begin to explain it. It makes someone sound more like a fan boy than anything else.

7970 is one hell of a card and yes it is bit slower but butt kicking is just exaggerating the statement.

7870 is probably the best bang for your buck. These cards overclock like monsters and are really really efficient in relation to the number of shaders it has.

I might grab one if I can find it in a month or two around 220. My friend has a 7870 and the thing almost reaches 7970 speeds running at 1200 on the core.

+1, exactly
and gtx680 also overprice cards
sooner or later i'll buy 7970 and cf'ing them

 

[Novaguy]

It doesn't seem to be hurting Nvidia's balance sheet too much. Seems like an ideal way to move excess inventory of GTX560's for instance.

I thought Nvidia's balance sheet was being boosted by the Tegra 2 and Tegra 3 chips, not the graphics division....

 

[xenocide]

Weird cause thats what you would do to undercut someone.

Let's put it in perspective, you could buy any AMD card a few weeks after it's launch no problem. People that missed out on 6xx series cards had to wait months. Nvidia staggering their release was to continuously make AMD's products look overpriced. AMD had almost their full line out and then Nvidia launched the GTX680 which edged out the HD7970, for $100 less. So AMD lowered prices because people had literally no incentive to buy their product. Then Nvidia released the GTX670 for even cheaper, which offered top notch performance (within a few % of 680/7970) and priced it $100 under the GTX680, making them look like an even better value, and causing AMD to restructure their pricing yet again.

They screwed up Llano roll out. Think they made it clear in the Q2 report. Also AMD doesnt go on and on and on complaining about 28nm yields. Since Kepler almost 1/3rd of the last 3 conference call from Nvidia go back to yield issues. Last AMD Conference Call not one word about 28nm yields.

Conference Calls are to explain why the numbers aren't higher, not necessarily to point fingers. Investors always want to know why companies aren't doing better, even when they are doing great. There probably were issues for Nvidia with 28nm, but I assume since their expenses are down and income has gone up they aren't suffering too terribly for it. Plus they reported gains in the Notebook segment from Kepler-equipped laptops.

I would say the same for AMD espicially since revenue and income from Q1-Q2 is basicly flipped on percentage between Nvidia and AMD. With all the hardships AMD is still gaining market share in descrete desktop segment. Impressive considering Nvidia was up 15.3% in the segment and still lost 2.5% to AMD.

Easily attributable to the fact that Nvidia didn't have a new series out at the beginning of the year. OEM's pushed really hard to sell new AMD hardware to people because it was the newest series, when Nvidia doesn't have anything new they are just equipped with another selling point.

 

[Jimmy2k9]

I've been putting back money for the 660ti but now I'm confused again.

 

[Gede Widjaya]

it's a really good news, hope we'll get more affordable graphics because in the third world country like Indonesia, they're still quite expensive, you guys here won't believe that some branded manufactures cost you almost 300+ for just a Radeon HD 7850, come on AMD, get the price cut ASAP for us.