Those prices are a ripoff. The RX 480 was $220, now granted AMD was behind at the time both driver wise and peerf/w and overall performance wise, but still to charge $349 for a mid range GPU is just silly. Much like the 6700xt, there seems to be 0 improvements this generation unless you are willing to shovel out for a 6800 or higher.
Yeeeeeah. I'm still waiting to upgrade my HD 4850 512MB GDDR3. It still runs most of the titles maxed out at or close at 60 frames per hour. But starting to feel it's time for upgrade. But not at these prices.
Most titles maxed out? Are you playing at 640x480?
* unless you play WoW RT, Fortnight, Dirt 5, Godfall, or simply with "'cripple my fps' gimmick off".
RT only counts if its a Nvidia* Sponsored* games with DLSS Vaseline edition 3.0 running at max speed.
You're forgetting about multiple steam accounts used on same PC in an internet cafe.
The ideal solution would be for AMD to use their REDEEM backend to distribute one time codes to secure an order at shop.amd. Run the tool, verify that you have an AMD board and cpu and allow user to enter queue based on the unique serial numbers (tie it to board+CPU without variations). Unfortunately AMD does not distribute to all countries, plenty of central/eastern European countries are not supported by their store.
If we can't have the ideal solution then simply have AMD expand its store to allow additional countries. The cards are there, dropped regularly on Thursday between 2PM and 8PM. I don't see why users from Poland, Lithuania, Czech Republic, etc can not purchase hardware there. Poland by itself is a massive market for AMD.
Why even bother with all that BS when you could simply limit all purchases to 1 GPU per address per month? Far easier to implement and doesnt require spyware on your motherboard to function.
Here's the reality: AMD/Nvidia dont care if gamers get their bing bing wahoo. You'll either pay for one of their cards, or you'll pay for a console, which uses anvidia ARM chip or AMD silicon anyway. To AMD/Nvidia, they are selling GPUs at bumper crop levels, and have been able to sell every scrap without hesitation. This is fantastic for them. Retailers dont care either. Why would they care if a gamer wants a new GPU to bing bing wahoo when a miner will pay them 2.5X MSRP for the same card, and buy them in bulk?
Gamers have proven, time and time again, that they are willing to spread their wallet WIDE to play their vidya.