AMD HD 7970 To Get Price Reduction

[SKYMTL]

With the GTX 680 stock situation finally improving in small steps and the possibility of new NVIDIA cards on the horizon, it looks like AMD is finally cutting some prices.

READ MORE HERE.

Last month, we reported that AMD was sticking to their guns by retaining the HD 7970′s SRP at $549 regardless of NVIDIA’s higher performing and lower priced GTX 680. The reasoning behind this seemed to be quite simple: capitalize upon high end sales since NVIDIA’s production was struggling to keep up with demand.

The whispers we have heard from a number of sources peg the HD 7970′s new price at some point between $470 and $490 within the next few days. In our books, this would put AMD’s Tahiti XT in a favorable position against the GTX 680, particularly when the board partners’ numerous overclocked and custom cooled versions are taken into account.

Edit @ 3PM

More price drops:

HD 7950 = $449 -> $399
HD 7870 = Remains same
HD 7850 = Remains same
HD 7770 = $159 --> $139

[TheBreezyBB]

If i can get the 7950 for less than $400 i'll be happy.

[tbone8ty]

i hope this will effect every other tier and create a waterfall of downward prices

i want gtx 580's and 7870's for ~$300

[SKYMTL]

My contacts didn't say anything about lower end cards but I would assume so. But maybe not initially.

[AliG]

Any word on the 7990? I think it's awfully strange that we're starting to hear about the gtx 690 release now and still AMD has no true answer to the gtx 680

[tbone8ty]

My contacts didn't say anything about lower end cards but I would assume so. But maybe not initially.

yah i figure once the 6870 and 6850 go away that segment will have more leway and help prices fall for the rest of the line.

GTX680's r still out of stock every time i look lol

[tbone8ty]

Any word on the 7990? I think it's awfully strange that we're starting to hear about the gtx 690 release now and still AMD has no true answer to the gtx 680

probably using the chips for 7970/7950 while they can, since manuf process is so expensive. no need for the 7990 yet really probably just waiting

[tbone8ty]

hey skymtl....be interesting to see how many sites pick up your story tomorrow... just curious

[jjj]

470-490$ doesn't sound like enough of a cut,lowest price would be ref design,custom designs and OC cards would cost more.If you look at your own numbers (Hardware Canucks) comparing the overall perf for the 7970 and 680,450$ would be more of a reasonable price.For other cards,even if Nvidia doesn't have a new one, at least the 7950 should go down a bit,how much will depend on how low the 7970 goes.

[The Jesus]

470-490$ doesn't sound like enough of a cut,lowest price would be ref design,custom designs and OC cards would cost more.If you look at your own numbers (Hardware Canucks) comparing the overall perf for the 7970 and 680,450$ would be more of a reasonable price.For other cards,even if Nvidia doesn't have a new one, at least the 7950 should go down a bit,how much will depend on how low the 7970 goes.

What? The 680 and 7970 are two different cards in many respects. The 7970 still has the 680 in GPGPU performance. Not to mention, most of the benchmarks are pretty close. Overclocking, neck and neck performance.

The price cuts are exactly what AMD should do. Price the reference 7970 at $479 and line up the 7970 Lightning at $529/539. That's how AMD always does it, undercut Nvidia with similar performance. This time Nvidia skipped GPGPU to win out on temp/noise/power consumption. Whenever they release the "real" 680 that has GPGPU levels similar to Fermi, we'll see what they cut out.

[ColonelCain]

And now I wish I had money...

[Craftyman.]

And now I wish I had money...

Same here bro

[AffenJack]

Are they really costing still 550 in US? In europe they are 490$ since 2 months (tax excluded like us price).

[Levish]

Hopefully nvidia will respond with a similar cut, being such a smaller chip, I'm guessing they have plenty of margin to eat atis lunch

[raghu78]

470-490$ doesn't sound like enough of a cut,lowest price would be ref design,custom designs and OC cards would cost more.If you look at your own numbers (Hardware Canucks) comparing the overall perf for the 7970 and 680,450$ would be more of a reasonable price.For other cards,even if Nvidia doesn't have a new one, at least the 7950 should go down a bit,how much will depend on how low the 7970 goes.

Are you kidding. The HD 7970 is a fantastic overclocker. At stock voltage 1.1 Ghz is easy. Even at stock speeds there are quite a few demanding games which HD 7970 wins like crysis, crysis warhead, metro 2033, alan wake, stalker COP. When OCed the scenario is even more favourable. And this is without voltage OC in the picture. With voltage OC 1.2+ Ghz clocks are easy. check out this review

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/..._card_review/7

the OC'd HD 7970 at 2560 x 1600 Ultra 4X MSAA rocks at avg 50.7 fps. The stock GTX 680 with Turbo upto 1.1 Ghz does 42.9 fps. The GTX 680 needs to scale at 100% to 1.3 Ghz (42.9 x 1.3 / 1.1 = 50.7) to reach the same perf . The GTX 680 does not scale as well as HD 7970 at high clocks and a 100% scaling is not going to happen. For all those people who tell Nvidia runs better on BF3 this is a rebuttal.

All that needs to happen is price parity of ref HD 7970 with ref GTX 680. considering the compute benefits, larger framebuffer, higher bandwidth which is already helping in bandwidth hungry games like crysis warhead, metro 2033, alan wake and will do more so in future the HD 7970 will be a no brainer at price parity. People who spend USD 500 on a graphics card are definitely going to check out OC and then settle at stable OCs. So the stock speed arguments don't hold merit. Wait till the custom HD 7970 models like Sapphire TOXIC HD 7970 are pitted against the custom GTX 680 designs from EVGA. Then you will understand what I said.

[Pantsu]

OCUK said they'll drop 7970 to 360£ and 7950 to 300£ or thereabouts in a few days.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=18392298

[cold2010]

Are you kidding. The HD 7970 is a fantastic overclocker. At stock voltage 1.1 Ghz is easy. Even at stock speeds there are quite a few demanding games which HD 7970 wins like crysis, crysis warhead, metro 2033, alan wake, stalker COP. When OCed the scenario is even more favourable. And this is without voltage OC in the picture. With voltage OC 1.2+ Ghz clocks are easy. check out this review

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/..._card_review/7

the OC'd HD 7970 at 2560 x 1600 Ultra 4X MSAA rocks at avg 50.7 fps. The stock GTX 680 with Turbo upto 1.1 Ghz does 42.9 fps. The GTX 680 needs to scale at 100% to 1.3 Ghz (42.9 x 1.3 / 1.1 = 50.7) to reach the same perf . The GTX 680 does not scale as well as HD 7970 at high clocks and a 100% scaling is not going to happen. For all those people who tell Nvidia runs better on BF3 this is a rebuttal.

All that needs to happen is price parity of ref HD 7970 with ref GTX 680. considering the compute benefits, larger framebuffer, higher bandwidth which is already helping in bandwidth hungry games like crysis warhead, metro 2033, alan wake and will do more so in future the HD 7970 will be a no brainer at price parity. People who spend USD 500 on a graphics card are definitely going to check out OC and then settle at stable OCs. So the stock speed arguments don't hold merit. Wait till the custom HD 7970 models like Sapphire TOXIC HD 7970 are pitted against the custom GTX 680 designs from EVGA. Then you will understand what I said.

from hardocp

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=1#post5079059

[raghu78]

from hardocp

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=1#post5079059

The multiplayer performance could be a driver issue. Also I wonder why a fraps graph of multiplayer with similar settings was not shown to give us a better picture. The same page has 5760 X 1200 single player ultra 4X MSAA with fraps graph.

HD 7970 CrossfireX avg 45.7 fps min 34 fps
GTX 680 SLI avg 40.1 fps min 14 fps

The number of times the fps dips below 30 for GTX 680 SLI is not once or twice (rare) but more than a dozen times. The number of times it hits 20 fps or below is 5 times. If u look to OC the HD 7970 to 1.1 Ghz that gap with GTX 680 SLI will widen to avg 10+fps difference and far superior min fps as HD 7970 scales beautifully with clock speed. That means the GTX 680 SLI cannot provide a smooth playable experience while the HD 7970 CrossfireX can. Isn't this a good example of the benefits of a larger framebuffer ? Why is it when HD 7970 does better u chose to ignore and when GTX 680 is shown to do better u highlight that.

[SKYMTL]

hey skymtl....be interesting to see how many sites pick up your story tomorrow... just curious

We will see. I was hoping that everyone would spread the word regardless of linking back to HWC. Anyone that is thinking of buying a HD 7970 needs to hold off for a few days more so getting this message out will seriously benefit them.

[LordEC911]

It took two weeks to change your tune.

Look what I said last month... I mean two weeks ago.
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.p...postcount=3207

[sergiojr]

Anyone that is thinking of buying a HD 7970 needs to hold off for a few days more so getting this message out will seriously benefit them.

Only a week ago prices for HD7970 went to $529. I doubt there will be a significant price correction earlier than next month.

[labs23]

This is good, expected yet late, but its better a bit late than never. =D
I hope it'll be a major domino effect not just on ATI's current pricing but with the 680 too.

KitGuru has $489 - 7970, $394 - 7950 figures also.

[Motiv]

If this is true, it may be wise for anyone considering to buy the 680, to hold off until the price drop.

[SKYMTL]

It took two weeks to change your tune.

No tune was changed. AMD has a pretty good idea what would have been in store for them had their price stayed the same for another two weeks....


FYI: final price is $479 it seems.

[labs23]

....SNIP....
FYI: final price is $479 it seems.

Now its looking good a little bit more..