We're Changing How we Handle Pricing in Graphics Card Reviews

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
How did you confirm "tiny volumes" ?
Thought it was just high demand

 

[Randomoneh]

Hi,
How did you confirm "tiny volumes" ?
Thought it was just high demand

One way would be to look at the second Steam hardware survey since 3080 appeared and conclude the per-month growth of 3080 is very similar to that of 1080 back in the day. Another is to talk with retailers and hear the absolute tiny amounts of discrete GPUs they offer. Overall supply is low and even those cards are mostly bundled as a part of a whole PC.

 

[ThrashZone]

One way would be to look at the second Steam hardware survey since 3080 appeared and conclude the per-month growth of 3080 is very similar to that of 1080 back in the day. Another is to talk with retailers and hear the absolute tiny amounts of discrete GPUs they offer. Overall supply is low and even those cards are mostly bundled as a part of a whole PC.

Hi,
Yeah doesn't help for miners and scalpers though, only accounts for actual gamers supply.

 

[neatfeatguy]

Hi,
How did you confirm "tiny volumes" ?
Thought it was just high demand

It's both. It has to be. Considering what I experienced at Micro Center yesterday....

I ran to my local Micro Center yesterday due to seeing a small amount of Zen 3 CPUs were listed as "in stock". I didn't notice any stock quantities listed online for GPUs (RTX 3070/3080/3090 and RX 6800/XT), but apparently they did get some in.

I arrived at Micro Center about 10 minutes after they opened. You had to wait outside in the cold (thank fully it wasn't too cold, only around 25F) or your car after getting a number for any DIY computer hardware. About half the folks outside where there for either a GPU or CPU and some for both. When I got there the manager out front was announcing what they had left in stock for CPUs and GPUs:

• 5600X - couple left (I think they started with 6)
• 5800X - about a dozen left (I think they started with 20)
• 5900X - about 20 left (they started with 24 or 25)
• AMD 6800/XT - only a couple (these sold out first)
• RTX 3070 - 12 left of the 20 that came in (about 10 minutes before I got into the store they were all sold out)
• RTX 3080 - about 10 came in (same as the 3070, gone before I got in)
• RTX 3090 - got in 6 (4 were left when I got in, but I'm not dropping that much for a GPU, ever. If they had any 3070 or 6800 cards I would have picked one up, they are in my budget range)

There were still a good 30+ people outside waiting when they announced they were sold out of the all GPUs except the 4 RTX 3090. About half the crowd left.

When I got inside and stood there waiting for my chance they just sold their last 5800X before me and only had 2 5900X left - so I picked up a 5900X.

This was the biggest shipment of GPUs the guy helping me said they received since the initial launch of them all. Usually they get a maybe a half dozen here and there. Yesterday evening they got in almost 40 cards in total and they were all sold within the first 30 minutes of opening. The AMD CPUs they get in small batches like this, usually around 2-5 dozen once or twice a week, certainly a lot more than GPUs, but they don't sit on the shelves very long....generally sell out the same day they stock them.

 

[Mysteoa]

The problem with this is that ultimately what value is it bringing if the review itself isn't updating to reflect pricing changes? I can understand having street value at the time the review is made as the review can be written to take that into account. Having a graph with updating pricing over time that in fact has no bearing on the actual review or it's content doesn't really help.

You could write in a way that is applicable to the future. For example "We can recommend the GPU for the current street price, but that price may be different at the time of your purchase. You can consult our dynamic price graph to see what is current price and if it is above $$$ it's very hard to recommend"

 

[chrcoluk]

100% agree with this policy change, if the reviews publish scalped prices, then if nvidia/amd want to fix it, they have to the proper way by enforcing MSRP at retailers, and supplying more stock, whilst the old review practice gave them a free ride.

I am not sure shy some are against the idea, in the UK most of the AIB GPUs MSRP is not even legal (for a MSRP to be legal the bulk of product has to be sold at that price).

You could write in a way that is applicable to the future. For example "We can recommend the GPU for the current street price, but that price may be different at the time of your purchase. You can consult our dynamic price graph to see what is current price and if it is above $$$ it's very hard to recommend"

In my opinion the official MSRP should not even be mentioned if its a la la land price. e.g. there is only one model of the 3080 now which can claim a valid MSRP, the founders edition, all the AIB cards have had several price increases at the distributor level, even before we consider ebay scalping.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
It's always a buyers market
No buyers = prices drop.