Thursday, March 25th 2010

AMD Comfortable with Current GPU Pricing, No Cuts in Sight

A little later this week, NVIDIA will release two of its front-line GPUs that are compliant with the latest industry standards, notably Microsoft DirectX 11. This brings competition to AMD's high-end Radeon HD 5800 series and Radeon HD 5970 graphics cards, or does it? Competition often tends to have a pro-consumer effect out of price-wars. Sources indicate that AMD is not inclined to cut prices of its products after NVIDIA's launch of GeForce GTX 400 series. A few factors we think could prevent a price-war:
  • AMD could have a fair idea about how GeForce GTX 400 series GPUs compete with its GPUs, and given that their estimated performance levels and estimated target prices (estimated US $499 for GTX 480 and $349 for GTX 470), the performance/price equation for AMD's Radeon HD 5800 series GPUs iron out, with HD 5870 at around $400, HD 5850 at around $325, and HD 5830 at $240, barring HD 5970, which is being priced at a premium for its premium performance levels.
  • Although NVIDIA and its partners officially launch their GeForce GTX 400 series products on the 26th of March, market availability, backed by sizable inventories could just take some time, allowing AMD to maintain its prices.
  • AMD is introducing newer variants of its HD 5800 series GPUs, namely HD 5870 Eyefinity6 2GB, and allowing AIB partners to come up with 2 GB models of Radeon HD 5800 series cards.
Sources: Shane Baxtor, Donanim Haber
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82 Comments on AMD Comfortable with Current GPU Pricing, No Cuts in Sight

#51
DonInKansas
Pfft. ATi probably has the "fermi destroyer" driverset in their backpocket waiting to be unleashed. :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#52
PopcornMachine
MKmodslol, there have been a few threads asking if the prices are gonna drop..

ATI would have to be idiots to lower their prices when the Nvidia stuff runs so hot, takes so much power and isant a huge jump in perf over the ATI cards.(speculation)

Add to that that Nvidia and ATI should be working together to keep prices at a steady level..

(All of this price guessing is speculation til the Nvidia cards show up for real, so hurry the hell up Nvidia)

LOL, quite a while as last week they had an 5830 for $299
Like I said, I can wait...even a year. My 4830 crossfire is doing just fine.

Would like to have a 5850, but not at these prices. The 5830 is very disappointing so far. Needs to be priced much lower. Even then, I'd still prefer the 5850.
Posted on Reply
#53
MKmods
Case Mod Guru
besides the price the biggest prob to me with the 5830 is they are using 5870 PCBs so they are Huge.
Posted on Reply
#54
erocker
*
DonInKansasPfft. ATi probably has the "fermi destroyer" driverset in their backpocket waiting to be unleashed. :laugh:
They already do! It's called MSI Afterburner. :laugh: Well.. we'll see. I hope Fermi is good so ATi will have the need to make something like a 5890.
Posted on Reply
#55
suraswami
toyoI'm one of those that put $ to $ in the piggy-bank, waiting for them prices to go down. However, my 4850 seems OK for now. I think of skipping this entire gen of GPU/CPUs... Well, maybe if Bioware would put out some amazing RPG that won't work at 1680x1050 on my 4850, then I'll buy something.
But AMD, you sons o' bitc**s... put the 5850 on the cheepo level, please. 200$ will just do.
4850 is still a monster that can chew up most of the games (may be not with the best eye-candy level on the latest games). So if the price is going to stay where it is, well, money saved for me. Yesterday I thought of selling my 4850s and upgrade to comparable 5xxx series as they save lot of power, but I don't think its a good idea to do now.

Ofcourse situation changes daily in Tech world.
Posted on Reply
#56
PopcornMachine
MKmodsbesides the price the biggest prob to me with the 5830 is they are using 5870 PCBs so they are Huge.
Yes, and more power hungry than the 5850 despite being closer the 5770 in perfromance.

Not the deal the 4830 was.
Posted on Reply
#57
FreedomEclipse
~Technological Technocrat~
shevanelit all depends on the benchmarks.

for $100+ more than a 5870, the 480 better give more than lol 10%.. for $0 I can overclock my 5870 and get 15%.

so yes, it all depends on the actual performance of the new Nv cards vs the 6 month old ATI cards.

img.techpowerup.org/100325/340x.jpg
but isnt $100+ 5970 territory
Posted on Reply
#58
Completely Bonkers
ATI pulled a fast one on nV with the launch of the 3xxx and 5xxx series. They deliberately under-specced the cards, so that when they launched there was a whooping and much more attention because of their far better than expected performance.

So it wouldnt surprise me if, when nV launches GTX4xx, they will try to pull the same trick: perhaps a new set of drivers or unlocking more shaders.

nV will want to make sure ATI has the WRONG price in the retail channels... it will take them, the distributors, the wholesalers, the retail shops, too long to fix prices of cards already on shelves. A retail shop wont sell at a loss.

So if nV comes in with better performance, they will have the upper hand for about a month before ATI's price move trickles through to the shop floor.
Posted on Reply
#59
R_1
Yes, they deliberately made them 50% smaller than Nvidia G200&Fermi, but ATI's silicon surprisingly performed on par with it's bigger competitor. The good thing is that there is a lot more power packed in R700&Evergreen series, 1.20 to 2.8 TFrops to be precise. If somebody made an application/game, optimized for ATI's superscalar architecture, it will hammer Nvida badly.
Posted on Reply
#60
Tatty_Two
Gone Fishing
Completely BonkersATI pulled a fast one on nV with the launch of the 3xxx and 5xxx series. They deliberately under-specced the cards, so that when they launched there was a whooping and much more attention because of their far better than expected performance.

So it wouldnt surprise me if, when nV launches GTX4xx, they will try to pull the same trick: perhaps a new set of drivers or unlocking more shaders.

nV will want to make sure ATI has the WRONG price in the retail channels... it will take them, the distributors, the wholesalers, the retail shops, too long to fix prices of cards already on shelves. A retail shop wont sell at a loss.

So if nV comes in with better performance, they will have the upper hand for about a month before ATI's price move trickles through to the shop floor.
I couldnt decide back in November 2007 whether to get the HD3870 or the 8800GT as they were both released same week.... well I ordered both, it's the HD3870 that got sold to a friend in here as it was generallly inferior, despite the fact that it took ATi 6 weeks to get any acceptable drivers I am fairly sure that ATi took a bit of a :nutkick: against G90/G92 on that one. Although i certainly have to agree with the 4XXX series, ATi certainly surprised NVidia with it's offerings, although the GTX260 was a fine card, it was not long before NVidia had to raise the shader count to ensure they could better a 4870.
Posted on Reply
#61
crazyeyesreaper
Not a Moderator
meh i bought my cards at launch for $259 each back when ppl were hollering to wait wait fermi is coming price drops will follow bah. and here we are 6 months later and just more of a cluster fuck. Ati has no reason to lower prices everythings pretty much even performance wise in terms of single gpu cards. PPL need to get over it and re evaluate the gpu market a bit do you NEED a 5850 if u have a 8800gtx or better to enjoy your games no you dont. so at the end of the day all you want is more performance and if thats the case you pay the price. As it stands now only 2 games need this much gpu power to run flawlessly 2 out of 1000s think on that a minute
Posted on Reply
#62
TheMailMan78
Big Member
As far as I'm concerned this is all the proof I need that Fermi will suck. All the benches in the world don't mean crap when it comes to the almighty dollar.
Posted on Reply
#63
KainXS
I think fermi will probably suck at launch but get better and better with newer drivers since it is a new architecture and will get better with time just like the unified architecture(which fermi is still based on)

but still we should all get much more info tommorow.
Posted on Reply
#64
crazyeyesreaper
Not a Moderator
agreed mailman agreed my $1 buys me a Whooper Jr the amount Nvidia wants for what i paid i got 2 5850s and enough whooper jrs to eat for a year for the price of 2 470gtx's ill take the deal that gives me equal performance and keeps food in my stomach lol
Posted on Reply
#65
Meizuman
This isn't exactly anything new. There will be no price war. Maybe really small drops on ati's side but nothing remarkable.
Posted on Reply
#66
TheMailMan78
Big Member
MeizumanThis isn't exactly anything new. There will be no price war. Maybe really small drops on ati's side but nothing remarkable.
There would have been if Nvidia came to win. But instead we got Fermi.
Posted on Reply
#67
Zubasa
MKmodsbesides the price the biggest prob to me with the 5830 is they are using 5870 PCBs so they are Huge.
The non-reference designs for these cards should come really soon.
I think there already are non-reference 5830s.
You can think of the 4770 in this regard, the reference design is gone before you know it.
Posted on Reply
#68
trickson
OH, I have such a headache
You know seems to me like AMD has shifted it's R&D a little ? Get the GPU market ? Easier to take on nVidia NOT Intel . :twitch:
Posted on Reply
#69
overclocking101
There will be a 5890. 2 volterra controllers should have 2gb GDDR5 better voltage scaling higly binned 5870's basically an exact copy of the 4870/4890.
Posted on Reply
#71
Zubasa
tricksonYou know seems to me like AMD has shifted it's R&D a little ? Get the GPU market ? Easier to take on nVidia NOT Intel . :twitch:
AMD never had the resources needed to take on Intel, not even close.
On the other hand, ATi now the graphic divison of AMD took on nvidia for ages before AMD acquried them.
Posted on Reply
#72
WarEagleAU
Bird of Prey
well shit, they better, cuz I want me a new gpu and I am not paying that much money for a 5870 nor a 5850, cant afford to. Not wanting a 5770 with a 128bit pipe either :(
Posted on Reply
#73
MadClown
My 4870 is still smoking all the games I need it to, going from a 3870 to a 4870 gave me that "Holy shit this is sooo much faster!" feeling that still hasn't went away. Not to mention I got college to worry about in the near future, which is the main reason why I haven't bought 2 5970s already.
Posted on Reply
#74
trickson
OH, I have such a headache
I think that in this hard economy they would make them affordable after all we need a break if you know what I mean . . Hint hint .. ;)
Posted on Reply
#75
mabszy
I doubt that AMD have a reason to reduce their prices other than if they want to make way for their new 6xxx breed of cards. My new 5850 outpaces a more expensive GTX 285. Consumers are getting smarter - an legendary 8800 GTX / Radeon 4850 still runs all games so why make the leap to buy a new expensive GTX 4xx while a cheap 5830 etc does the trick?
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