Editorial AMD Issues Official Statement on RX Vega 64 Pricing Woes

[ratirt]

No, Vega is nowhere near what AMD intended. And where is the 4× in performance per watt they promised?
Vega was intended to be the gaming king, but it turns out the performance per clock is worse than Fiji. Those who have been following it closely noticed a change in narrative around the demo at the end of last year, when AMD realized Vega10 would be in the GP104 league. Ever since then they've tried to focus on the "value" of Vega (with FreeSync) and it being "good enough".

The perf per clock maybe it's worse but the actual performance is better than Fiji's. I think that is what matters here. With that perf per watt I agree. It's a bummer for AMD and it's nowhere near what they have promised.
I remember that when AMD announced vega it was hitting on the best GPU that was back then which is 1080. If TPU had a wish list of Vega competing with 1080 TI ( a lot people hoped it would) That's great but it wasn't built for that puprpose and AMD stated that very clear. Vega competing with top tier card which was GTX 1080.

 

[nemesis.ie]

Agreed and indeed it does do that and is also faster in compute tasks. Is it even faster than the ti in compute? I think it might be.

And yes, some of us want both.

Getting one at a good price is the real sticking point.

 

[efikkan]

Because it's the excuse you make for Vega. If that was true and it was indeed made for datacenters, AMD would have stopped at Vega FE.
And if you really want to see how a piece of silicon aimed squarely at datacenters looks like, take a look at Volta today

As a note; The primary concern for GPUs in datacenters is energy consumption. This is why Vega10 could never be suited for datacenters. Datacenters typically put 8 GPUs in a rack, so those extra watts becomes a huge cost in terms of cooling. Vega FE is a workstation card for development and content creation, a few extra watts there matters less.

 

[bug]

that was inflated prices from vendors.

This is waaay different and pretty misleading. They didnt tell a soul these were sale prices out of the gate, but msrp. so everyone went with it. Now, they say it was on sale at that price...

In all honesty, if you're not Apple, you can't dictate pricing anyway. You can gouge supply, but the price is always in the hands of sellers.

 

[EarthDog]

Except where on day one you say price a, then two weeks later price b which is +100...

To me, this dwarfs the 970 shenanigans...

As a note; The primary concern for GPUs in datacenters is energy consumption. This is why Vega10 could never be suited for datacenters. Datacenters typically put 8 GPUs in a rack, so those extra watts becomes a huge cost in terms of cooling. Vega FE is a workstation card for development and content creation, a few extra watts there matters less.

it can be a lot more than that, actually... 8 gpus can fit in 8u of rackspace... there is still 34u left (cooling dependent of course)

 

[vega22]

Except where on day one you say price a, then two weeks later price b which is +100...

To me, this dwarfs the 970 shenanigans...

the longer amd take to come out and say what is happening the worse it looks too :|

 

[Vya Domus]

What is happening is that they are trying to sell something that cost a lot more to make than the price would suggest. Retailers weren't happy that they tried to force them to sell these things at a price that would've yielded them little or close to no profit. Retailers don't give a shit that you want to see your product being sold at the price you want , they only care if they can make a profit from it.

 

[EarthDog]

This isnt a retailer price hike...

 

[bug]

What is happening is that they are trying to sell something that cost a lot more to make than the price would suggest. Retailers weren't happy that they tried to force them to sell these things at a price that would've yielded them little or close to no profit. Retailers don't give a shit that you want to see your product being sold at the price you want , they only care if they can make a profit from it.

Retailers' margins have nothing to do with the MSRP covering or not the manufacturing price.
Retailers simply look at how much inventory they have and how many people are asking for a specific SKU. If you have 2 SKU and 4 people asking for them, you can still price gouge even in the absence of overwhelming demand.

Now, if your SRP does not cover your manufacturing costs, that puts you a tight spot. You don't actually want to sell many SKUs, because that will incur significant losses. But if you limit stock, you allow retailers to price gouge (see above) and you still suffer from the public backlash.

 

[Vya Domus]

This isnt a retailer price hike...

It kind of is , no retailer on this planet will happily sell your product for say 500$ if they get it for the exact same price or even more. AMD simply cannot get these to a low enough cost in order to reach MSRP , hence the retailer will just price them at whatever the hell they want.

OcUK's Andrew Gibson went on to say that AMD's launch price of £449 "(...) is not possible, $499 is below what they cost us direct from the board partners by a large chunk of cash

This is both AMD's fault and retailer's fault. AMD, that they try to sell something in a way that yields no profit to anyone. And retailers for astronomical price gouging , you don't seriously think the 1300$ liquid cooled Vega 64s are AMD's fault ?

 

[EarthDog]

It kind of isnt... at all. AMD said price is going up. What was the launch price, retailers were told is actually a sale.

I dont care about the retailers and how they jack the price up. Im stritcly talking about the amd price hike.

 

[Vya Domus]

I dont care about the retailers and how they jack the price up. Im stritcly talking about the amd price hike.

So tell me how much of that price hike comes from AMD and how much comes from retailer price gouging ?

At the end of the day it's simple : AMD is selling an expensive piece of silicon for less than it's worth. They thought they can do that , well , they can't. There's a reason why Nvidia's comparable silicon , P100 , is priced 5000$ a minimum. ( yes I know it's not the same market , but I am talking strictly from a manufacturing cost point of view)

 

[EarthDog]

It is simple... they mislead reviewers and jacked prices up $100. Due to lack of inventory, retailers are jacking that up even further.

I really don't care much about profits, etc... just saying AMD was shady as hell NOT telling any reviewer the launch price was a sale. Misleading... period... no matter what profits are made/not, and no matter what retailers are doing on top of it. AMD's action is an entirely different level of shady IMO.

 

[bug]

So tell me how much of that price hike comes from AMD and how much comes from retailer price gouging ?

At the end of the day it's simple : AMD is selling an expensive piece of silicon for less than it's worth. They thought they can do that , well , they can't. There's a reason why Nvidia's comparable silicon , P100 , is priced 5000$ a minimum. ( yes I know it's not the same market , but I am talking strictly from a manufacturing cost point of view)

Bwahahahahahahaha!!!

 

[Vya Domus]

It is simple... they mislead reviewers and jacked prices up $100. Due to lack of inventory, retailers are jacking that up even further.

I really don't care much about profits, etc... just saying AMD was shady as hell NOT telling any reviewer the launch price was a sale. Misleading... period... no matter what profits are made/not, and no matter what retailers are doing on top of it. AMD's action is an entirely different level of shady IMO.

Now I understand why you are all pissed. You don't care that prices are jacked up at all , you just care that part of the reason is AMD's failure. Cool , in general , I for one couldn't care less who screws me over , I just care that I get screwed over. Seems like not everyone thinks that way though.

 

[medi01]

t is simple... they mislead reviewers and jacked prices up $100.

I'm not buying into "reviewers drama", who checks reviews for card pricing, ffs?

 

[Vya Domus]

I'm not buying into "reviewers drama", who checks reviews for card pricing, ffs?

Yeah , I agree , people look at reviews for information with regards to performance , not price , that's always subject to changes.

It's not like anyone just presses the order button without looking at the god damn price tag just because of a review.

Bwahahahahahahaha!!!

Back with the intelligent comments I see. Keep it up.

 

[EarthDog]

• Prices being jacked up from retailers are normal... supply and demand. AMD misleading reviewers and the public about the actual msrp is different level shit.

I'm not buying into "reviewers drama", who checks reviews for card pricing, ffs?

lol, msrp is msrp.

Seemingly denying the fact they lied through their teeth, or minimizing it because retailers dont have stock amd raised prices, blows my mind...

Conclusions in reviews were based off that price for god sakes...

How you two are seemingly absolving them of fault by deflecting is disappointing.

 

[bug]

I'm not buying into "reviewers drama", who checks reviews for card pricing, ffs?

Probably nobody. But people do tend to skip over reviews and consider only the conclusion and/or the final score. Surely you can see how adding $100 to the cost will change those.

 

[medi01]

But people do tend to skip over reviews and consider only the conclusion and/or the final score. Surely you can see how adding $100 to the cost will change those.

lol, msrp is msrp.

Oh, really?
Remind me, in how many months did 1070/1080 hit announced (non FE) MSRP?

Oh, and jay2shitstorm's shitstorm about it.

 

[EarthDog]

But nvidia didnt lie about it medi... that was a retailers price hike, not a bait and switch msrp + retailer hike like we are seeing here.

 

[Vya Domus]

How you two are seemingly absolving them of fault by deflecting is disappointing.

Read back my comments , I most certainly agreed that AMD failed hard on this. But just as usual this is blown way out of proportion.

 

[EarthDog]

Sorry, not absolving, minimizing. The scope is farther reaching than price. They manipulated review resuots because of this. Yoy have reviews based on this price and now it's different... making review conclusions different...

You feel it is blown out of proportion because its hidden under natural new card/no stock price hikes...

I guess a wolf in sheepskin is a sheep...or, just dont care because we cant tell its a wolf under the blanket of retailer/new card/availability...

 

[bug]

Oh, really?
Remind me, in how many months did 1070/1080 hit announced (non FE) MSRP?

Oh, and jay2shitstorm's shitstorm about it.

1080 and 1070 didn't have any competition, why would you expect them to stick to MSRP? FE was Nvidia's way of telling resellers: this is what we think you can really charge. Still a crappy move, but nothing unexpected given the circumstances.

 

[Vya Domus]

Jacked up prices are jacked up prices. Whether it is AMD or retailers behind it , I as a user don't care and don't have control over it anyway , I only get to see the final price tag. If it fits my needs I'll buy it , if it doesn't I wont. For something this basic ,yes , it is blown way out of proportion I am not minimizing anything.

Now if you have any expectations beyond that , then yes it might matter to you.