Thursday, August 24th 2017
Retailers are Buying AMD RX Vega 64 at $675 Each
The Radeon RX Vega series launch has been particularly disappointing for gamers and PC enthusiasts because their otherwise interesting price-performance ratios at $499 for the RX Vega 64 and $399 for the RX Vega 56, were quickly stripped away by dwindling stock and sky-rocketing prices, with the RX Vega 64 even going above $1k in some places. We are not even sure if the miners are to blame or whether supplier-level pricing has been adjusted after the launch to a higher price point that makes AMD's promised pricing impossible to achieve.
It turns out that retailers might not be the ones making a quick buck at this madness. Leaked invoices show that distributors (entities that supply inventory to retailers) have inflated prices even at their level. A San Jose-based distributor, Ma Laboratories Inc., is quoting USD $675 per unit of a reference-design (not Limited Edition), Radeon RX Vega 64 SKU to a computer store. The $499 price AMD launched the RX Vega 64 at, is supposed to be the end-user price (minus government taxes). The retailer we're in touch with confirmed that they were offered no volume pricing discount due to low stock at the distributor itself. A distributor should ideally sell the product to a retailer at a much lesser price than $499, so the retailer can make their margin. The higher up the supply-chain, the more control AMD gets. The company is in a better position to rein in on distributors than retailers. If distributors are inflating prices with apparent impunity, it wouldn't surprise us if this goes even higher up.
Can AMD do anything about this? It can work with AIB partners to significantly increase production to bring down prices. But that would be a huge gamble, which will either work, putting cards in the hands of gamers at the prices they were promised; or won't, by creating more miners; or worse still, end up as bankruptcy-causing unsold inventories, if the mining craze were to somehow subside.
There is another option AMD can try, in our opinion. It can re-launch RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56 as new SKUs which come with crippled cypto-currency mining abilities (a special BIOS or something driver-level, or even something at the silicon-level), and discontinue the RX Vega 56 and RX Vega 64. The new SKUs could be clearly advertised as not being meant for crypto-currency mining (so as to deter false-marketing lawsuits). This is important for AMD, because the Radeon brand is under threat.
The more overpriced Radeon cards end up in the hands of miners, the fewer cards end up in the hands of gamers at the prices AMD promised; and conversely the lesser game developers are inclined to optimize their games for AMD Radeon, because fewer gamers use Radeon. NVIDIA can accelerate brand Radeon's demise by doubling down on game developer relations and pushing the next-generation of Game Works.
It turns out that retailers might not be the ones making a quick buck at this madness. Leaked invoices show that distributors (entities that supply inventory to retailers) have inflated prices even at their level. A San Jose-based distributor, Ma Laboratories Inc., is quoting USD $675 per unit of a reference-design (not Limited Edition), Radeon RX Vega 64 SKU to a computer store. The $499 price AMD launched the RX Vega 64 at, is supposed to be the end-user price (minus government taxes). The retailer we're in touch with confirmed that they were offered no volume pricing discount due to low stock at the distributor itself. A distributor should ideally sell the product to a retailer at a much lesser price than $499, so the retailer can make their margin. The higher up the supply-chain, the more control AMD gets. The company is in a better position to rein in on distributors than retailers. If distributors are inflating prices with apparent impunity, it wouldn't surprise us if this goes even higher up.
There is another option AMD can try, in our opinion. It can re-launch RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56 as new SKUs which come with crippled cypto-currency mining abilities (a special BIOS or something driver-level, or even something at the silicon-level), and discontinue the RX Vega 56 and RX Vega 64. The new SKUs could be clearly advertised as not being meant for crypto-currency mining (so as to deter false-marketing lawsuits). This is important for AMD, because the Radeon brand is under threat.
The more overpriced Radeon cards end up in the hands of miners, the fewer cards end up in the hands of gamers at the prices AMD promised; and conversely the lesser game developers are inclined to optimize their games for AMD Radeon, because fewer gamers use Radeon. NVIDIA can accelerate brand Radeon's demise by doubling down on game developer relations and pushing the next-generation of Game Works.
135 Comments on Retailers are Buying AMD RX Vega 64 at $675 Each
AMD Radeon RX 470 0.34%
AMD Radeon RX 480 0.92%
That's less than NVIDIA GeForce 840M which is a mobile only GPU which has sold less than 100K units.
RX 4XX series has been on the market for more than a year already.
RX 5XX series has been on the market for four months.
RX 570 and 580 are nowhere to be seen. Keep deluding yourself that people use modern AMD GPUs for gaming. I'd love to see this dying breed. :)Logistics and post-sale support (warranty, returns, etc). AIBs don't have money, people and resources for that.
Hey now!!! Something we can hang our hats on... data sets which have been out long enough to be worthwhile in the RX4xx... good job! :)It absolutely was as that is what the thread title is about!!! Who knew he meant older cards??!!! So many people here on both sides are full of piss and vinegar, it is hard to have an intelligent conversation without these useless barbs and insults being heaved. TPU has more staff than ever, yet this problem is more rampant........and TMM is about to be let loose. Its like, armageddon here.
My post was about the fact that modern consumer level AMD GPUs are not bought for anything other than mining but you can think anything you want. Just be grounded in reality - it might help.
Anyway, this discussion is completely worthless. Keep fanboyism running.
The warning goes for everyone, I'll be handing out thread bans and/or points for anyone that can't be civil.
If you or anyone else here decides to continue posting offensively or aggressively, then expect to earn points from infractions. Follow the TPU forum guidelines, play nice, enjoy your time here.
Feel free to share your information and facts, that is always appreciated. But there is no need for any kind of aggressive or offensive treatment of others here from any member to any other member, period. If anything, that kind of drama devalues the facts and points made, because the focus is now on said drama. No thanks.
If you feel your point and posts must degrade to offending others with personal insults, you're better off not posting. This goes for everyone involved in this thread. Thanks! :toast:
I was going to go from my i7 4770k with a 390x to a ryzen 1800x with a 1080 or Vega 64(I have solar panels so I don't give a crap about power usage) but the prices are all over the damn place. the 1080 has gotten more expensive and the VEGA is in 1080ti territory which makes no sense.
I have yet to find someone selling the Aqua pack VEGA for a reasonable price either. They are marking up other items to make a huge profit on the "discounts"......I give up.
They shipped to themselves once they received they stamped it and either called the buyer or this was the slip put into the package sent out to the purchaser.
UPS-Ground-Collect = Someone payed for it with there UPS account. If it was the distro he could have just added the shipping cost to the final price.
Many unknowns due to redactions and just left out of the article. One purchase became a blanketed statement.
Thats why I wonder.. Some rumors said volta will with HBM, some said with GDDR. If Vega used GDDR, maybe the price not this high, despite all miners craziness..
actually, what was AMD purpose with HBM ?