HD 7970 Price Cuts? Don’t Count on it.

[SKYMTL]

I wasn't the only one who though that AMD would lower their HD 7970 prices after the GTX 680 launch and I know some people were counting on it. Unfortunately for those who have been waiting for something that looked inevitable, they'll have to wait longer. Maybe even MUCH longer depending upon NVIDIA's availability and upcoming cards. So the price wars we all thought would come are on hold.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/...t-count-on-it/

When the GTX 680 was released last week at $499, many thought that AMD would trim a few bucks off of the HD 7970. Cuts to its $549 price tag yet haven’t happened and if what we hear is true; don’t expect any movement on that front….at least not yet.

But right before NVIDIA’s momentous launch party, something odd happened. After weeks of limited to no availability, AMD’s board partners suddenly –and some would say mysteriously- received large shipments of the Tahiti GPUs they were previously begging for. As a result, the HD 7970 is actually available these days while the GTX 680 consistently sells out in a matter of moments wherever stock can be found.

Standing firm with the HD 7970 saves the rest of their lineup from becoming sacrificial lambs and that makes perfect sense from a business standpoint. Plus, the $549 price won’t stick around forever and is largely dependent on NVIDIA’s next move.

[kromosto]

if i were amd i act quickly ...

[TheBreezyBB]

I'll wait patiently for the price cuts.

[Cold Fussion]

Well I suppose being cheaper is a moot point if it can't be bought.

[kuroikenshi]

I wasn't the only one who though that AMD would lower their HD 7970 prices after the GTX 680 launch and I know some people were counting on it. Unfortunately for those who have been waiting for something that looked inevitable, they'll have to wait longer. Maybe even MUCH longer depending upon NVIDIA's availability and upcoming cards. So the price wars we all thought would come are on hold.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/...t-count-on-it/

So would you reckon that AMD has chosen not to drop the prices so that it wont hinder the pricing of the rest of their 7000 line-up? they must be making enough profits in order to see such justification as valid, either that, or they know something we don't.

[Sentential]

It happened once and it can happen again, I smell collusion; this smacks of price fixing to me.

[Mungri]

I noticed this with pricing and availability in the UK, the 7970 is available just about everywhere for as low as £399, while the GTX 680 is OOS everywhere with pre order prices being inflated by the retailers up to £449.

That then leads to AMD fans screaming from the rooftops about how much cheaper and better the 7970 is, but they completely fail to understand supply and demand, and retailers independantly increasing prices on things that are selling better, and reducing prices on things that have a lot of stock, but people aren't buying enough of.

Both the cards are £100 overpriced, but AMD / Nvidia won't start a price war, its actually far more likely that they sat down together for this and fixed the prices on these cards so that they could both make much more profit.

[[XC] gomeler]

I was really hoping they'd drop down below $500. I'll just wait for the inevitable HD 7990.

It happened once and it can happen again, I smell collusion; this smacks of price fixing to me.

Doubt that. Sounds more like NVIDIA launched with low inventory and AMD is taking advantage of the limited supply of GTX 680s. When you can't buy a GTX 680 then I suppose you settle for a HD 7970 or play the waiting game for a few weeks for supply to catch up. Soon, once NVIDIA can stock GTX 680s, expect a minor price drop on the 7970 to make it competitive with the GTX 680.

[STaRGaZeR]

lol ok

[SKYMTL]

So would you reckon that AMD has chosen not to drop the prices so that it wont hinder the pricing of the rest of their 7000 line-up? they must be making enough profits in order to see such justification as valid, either that, or they know something we don't.

I think it is a combination of both. They can keep the HD 7970 where it is because the GTX 680 isn't widely available. Well....it IS widely available but they are selling out crazy fast and the backorder lists are growing. On the other hand, reducing the cost of the HD 7970 will have a trickle-down effect upon the rest of their lineup.

[~CS~]

GTX680 is on average 10% faster, while having higher clockspeed, and boosting on top of that. Both GPUs are made on the same process, and roughly overclock to the same levels, at which point 7970 takes the lead, and on top of that it has more ram, which makes it more future proof, another thing, is that reference 7970 boards are of far better quality then the GTX boards. I see more then just availability, as to the reason of no price drop, the card is competitive as it stands , IMO.

[Manicdan]

Doubt that. Sounds more like NVIDIA launched with low inventory and AMD is taking advantage of the limited supply of GTX 680s. When you can't buy a GTX 680 then I suppose you settle for a HD 7970 or play the waiting game for a few weeks for supply to catch up. Soon, once NVIDIA can stock GTX 680s, expect a minor price drop on the 7970 to make it competitive with the GTX 680.

agree 100%.
when prices are low, demand is high and supply is low (however in this case i think supply is running at maximum capacity)

if amd believes they can sell most of their cards at the higher price, then let them.
keep in mind the only thing they might drop the price of is the top end, the bottom end seemed to be in total, ignorant of the 500$ 680.

i didnt mind being an early adopter of a 680 because i dont expect stock to be plentiful until about 1-2 months. then comes the amd drops, then months later comes the nvidia drops. i expect it to keep its 500$ price tag until mid/late fall.

[SKYMTL]

another thing, is that reference 7970 boards are of far better quality then the GTX boards.

The only reason why AMD needs higher end components is due to their GPU / memory sucking down significantly more power.

[labs23]

Well I suppose being cheaper is a moot point if it can't be bought.

Exactly, newegg had launched the (680) cards only seconds after nda, to be exact just after few reviews were up,
it was a good thing, but that smokescreen if it were; didn't last long.

And now here we are, AMD didn't priced their new cards by accident even a lot of us sees it as dissapointing(why wouldn't you?).
Price-cuts will happen, it might not happen soon, but there's no way that $549 and $499 will change if its not a level playing field.
Winning benchmarks here and there is another story.*

BTW, recently launched 680's here in the Philippines costs at a range of $580 - $670 - converted.
7970? Well, a lil bit(mark-up plus taxes, taxes & taxes) higher than its SRP - consider normal acceptable price..
Now, considering 7970 is already there seating-pretty just before the lower-priced 680 was released,
then those ridiculous 680 prices could indicate that the distro/suppliers here finds the supply so limited... *Imagine what if all of the sudden nVidia will increases 680's price?

I hoping for the best ofc, coz a price-cut should help everybody either eyeing for a 680 or a 7970..
just my 2 pesos...

[kromosto]

i dont think it is logical for amd to wait 680 availability before making price drop unless they are happy with their condition or has some agreement with nvidia. why to loose customer by letting them wait 680. amd can easily sell 7970s fast and hit 680 sellings by dropping the price to 400 immediately. yes this might be a huge price drop but it is certain that their sales numbers will drop dramatically buy the availability of 680 is sufficient.

[Mungri]

GTX680 is on average 10% faster, while having higher clockspeed, and boosting on top of that. Both GPUs are made on the same process, and roughly overclock to the same levels, at which point 7970 takes the lead, and on top of that it has more ram, which makes it more future proof, another thing, is that reference 7970 boards are of far better quality then the GTX boards. I see more then just availability, as to the reason of no price drop, the card is competitive as it stands , IMO.

By the time games actually need 3 Gb vram to be able to play comfortably, the 7970 will be obsolete and far too slow. Vram doesnt futureproof a graphics card, nothing does. If you had an X1950 xtx with 4 Gb vram, would the life of that card have been prolonged any further than a 512 Mb model? I really don't think it would have.

Regarding PCB quality, AMD may or may not have a higher quality PCB, but the GTX 680 still runs quieter, cooler and with lower power draw. You can't deny that overall, the GTX 680 is the single most efficient graphics card that has ever been made.

[Manicdan]

theres also another factor, i think someone kinda touched on it.
if amd shipped out a whole bunch of cards right before nvidia launched, then prices on those cards out in stores i dont think can drop because they were already paid for. the next shipment out to retailers might be cheaper, however they might not run out of stock for a while. this was a smart move by amd, but dumb of the retailers to accept such a large shipment right before competition launches.

[SKYMTL]

theres also another factor, i think someone kinda touched on it.
if amd shipped out a whole bunch of cards right before nvidia launched, then prices on those cards out in stores i dont think can drop because they were already paid for. the next shipment out to retailers might be cheaper, however they might not run out of stock for a while. this was a smart move by amd, but dumb of the retailers to accept such a large shipment right before competition launches.

Bingo.

As I said in the article: But right before NVIDIA’s momentous launch party, something odd happened. After weeks of limited to no availability, AMD’s board partners suddenly –and some would say mysteriously- received large shipments of the Tahiti GPUs they were previously begging for.

[Jamesrt2004]

i dont think it is logical for amd to wait 680 availability before making price drop unless they are happy with their condition or has some agreement with nvidia. why to loose customer by letting them wait 680. amd can easily sell 7970s fast and hit 680 sellings by dropping the price to 400 immediately. yes this might be a huge price drop but it is certain that their sales numbers will drop dramatically buy the availability of 680 is sufficient.

400?! you're smoking something.. the card IS still competitive.. all they have to do is drop it $10 under 68- and they are the perf/price king (for the highend)

7870 obv is the card to beat atm until Nvidia get their card out

[kromosto]

400 is for exaggeration. but i dont think 10 is enough too. i believe there is more potential in the 680 which will act out with new drivers.

[~CS~]

The only reason why AMD needs higher end components is due to their GPU / memory sucking down significantly more power.

What a load of nonsense, in your own review 7970 draws 31 more watts then GTX680( that's significantly more ? ) and these are results from one single app 3dmark06 ,which doesn't not represent a modern load. AMD has a better PCB, because the top card in the AMD lineup is always aimed at the enthusiasts and designed with that in mind, and yes it is designed to be able to draw much more power, WHEN we push it.

By the time games actually need 3 Gb vram to be able to play comfortably, the 7970 will be obsolete and far too slow. Vram doesnt futureproof a graphics card, nothing does. If you had an X1950 xtx with 4 Gb vram, would the life of that card have been prolonged any further than a 512 Mb model? I really don't think it would have.

Regarding PCB quality, AMD may or may not have a higher quality PCB, but the GTX 680 still runs quieter, cooler and with lower power draw. You can't deny that overall, the GTX 680 is the single most efficient graphics card that has ever been made.

It's been proven time and time again, that having more RAM on your card will allow you to keep and use it for longer, whether you plan on keeping your graphics card for a long time, is a different question, but I know a lot of people do. I don't think 7970 will be obsolete anytime soon, besides GPU power isn't always required to take advantage of additional memory.

Again in SKYMTL review 7970 idles and loads at cooler temperatures, it also idles quieter, but loads louder then GTX 680. GTX is far from "most efficient graphics card that has ever been made" , both Pitcairn and Cape Verde has it beat on that front.

[SKYMTL]

What a load of nonsense, in your own review 7970 draws 31 more watts then GTX680( that's significantly more ? ) and these are results from one single app 3dmark06 ,which doesn't not represent a modern load. AMD has a better PCB, because the top card in the AMD lineup is always aimed at the enthusiasts and designed with that in mind, and yes it is designed to be able to draw much more power, WHEN we push it.

Notice the 3DMark test is from a Batch Size test. This puts as much load on the GPU as pretty much any modern game. And 30W may not SEEM like much but it is ~15% which is a huge amount in terms PWM design capacities.

[Mungri]

It's been proven time and time again, that having more RAM on your card will allow you to keep and use it for longer, whether you plan on keeping your graphics card for a long time, is a different question, but I know a lot of people do. I don't think 7970 will be obsolete anytime soon, besides GPU power isn't always required to take advantage of additional memory.

No this has never been proven, and the 3 Gb 7970 wouldnt last any longer than a 1.5 Gb model would.

By the time the GPU is insufficient, the vram wont do anything to help anymore, the card will simply be too slow. Why should I pay an excess for far more vram then I would ever need? 1 Gb is still running just about everything for me at 1920x1200 with all the settings set to highest (exceptions, BF3, and Witcher 2 ubersampling, but those still wouldnt work if my cards had 4 Gb Vram).

A 3 Gb GTX 580 cant even maintain 25 FPS in Shogun 2 at maximum settings, and doesnt perform any better than my 1 Gb Vram does in Civ V end game, hence I cant see the reasoning behind why Vram is over rated so much when GPU performance is the only significant limitation.

I see a lot of people getting hyped up over and wanting a 4 Gb GTX 680, I just dont see why. The 2 Gb model isnt going to have any problems for a very long time yet, and by the time it does the 4 Gb model will also no longer be good enough.

So how exactly is 3 Gb Vram on the 7970 a notable benefit over 2 Gb on the GTX 680? You also know that 3 Gb is the maximum amount available on a 7970, whereas 2 Gb is half of what the GTX 680 will eventually have, not that it bothers me but it does invalidate any merits being given the 7970 for Vram.

[Cuthalu]

I guess this is a good time to buy a new receiver instead of a GPU. Thanks for making the decision easy, NV & AMD.

[~CS~]

Notice the 3DMark test is from a Batch Size test. This puts as much load on the GPU as pretty much any modern game. And 30W may not SEEM like much but it is ~15% which is a huge amount in terms PWM design capacities.

I noticed that just fine, here is a notice for you: General rule of thumb, don't use 6 year old software to test modern hardware. Also your power consumption test is barely informative to make any conclusions, who measures system power anymore... techpowerup.com review tests power consumption during Crysis 2, and 7970 on average draws 163 Watts, GTX 680 166 , highest single peak reading during the same test is 189 for the Radeon and 186 for the GTX 680, as you can see both cards are nearly neck in neck in terms of efficiency.

However, Furmark test paint a different picture, 7970 draws 270 Watts and GTX 680 draws 228, a difference of 42 Watts. Does this mean 7970 is less efficient ? Nope. GTX draws the maximum amount of power that it can, because Nvidia had artificially limited the amount of power GTX 680 can draw, at 225 watts. Could AMD have done the same and limit the amount of power that 7970 draws at 225 Watts ? Absolutely ! But the limit on the AMD card is set much higher,in part because they provided us with a higher quality PCB, that can withstand higher amount of power, so that we can extract more performance when we overclock it.

But you know what, as a reviewer, you should probably know this, so that means you are either incompetent or just biased...

No this has never been proven, and the 3 Gb 7970 wouldnt last any longer than a 1.5 Gb model would.

By the time the GPU is insufficient, the vram wont do anything to help anymore, the card will simply be too slow. Why should I pay an excess for far more vram then I would ever need? 1 Gb is still running just about everything for me at 1920x1200 with all the settings set to highest (exceptions, BF3, and Witcher 2 ubersampling, but those still wouldnt work if my cards had 4 Gb Vram).

A 3 Gb GTX 580 cant even maintain 25 FPS in Shogun 2 at maximum settings, and doesnt perform any better than my 1 Gb Vram does in Civ V end game, hence I cant see the reasoning behind why Vram is over rated so much when GPU performance is the only significant limitation.

I see a lot of people getting hyped up over and wanting a 4 Gb GTX 680, I just dont see why. The 2 Gb model isnt going to have any problems for a very long time yet, and by the time it does the 4 Gb model will also no longer be good enough.

So how exactly is 3 Gb Vram on the 7970 a notable benefit over 2 Gb on the GTX 680? You also know that 3 Gb is the maximum amount available on a 7970, whereas 2 Gb is half of what the GTX 680 will eventually have, not that it bothers me but it does invalidate any merits being given the 7970 for Vram.

Sure you can extract satisfactory performance from a card with half the ram, but that doesn't mean that more ram is not of benefit, there are plenty of people who will use more ram, whether it from using mods/texture packs or ultra high resolution setups. When 4870 came out, it had 2 memory capacities 512MB and 1GB, the 1 GB model stayed viable for much longer, and I know it seems like there is little benefit to 3GB, but that benefit will surely grow with time, and will prove to be a good investment, considering the small price difference.

Also, just like, GTX680 , 7970 will be able to double it memory capacity to 6GB, in fact Sapphire already announced such a model.

At first you sad GTX 680 is the most efficient GPU ever , now it can magically double it's memory capacity when 7970 can't, I think you have unrealistic view of what GTX 680 is, you shouldn't buy into all the marketing.