4790K prices HIGHER in 2018 than than 2015?

[Matrixunloaded]

I bought a 4790K on Amazon in August 2015 for $329 (yes, I even went back and checked my invoice!). Now I check and the price on Amazon is $454. Why is this 35% HIGHER over THREE YEARS LATER and after Intel has pumped out three successor generations of “improved” chips which only marginally outperform the 4790K?  It looks like Intel has jacked the price to drive the sale of its newer chips (which also appear to run hotter than the 4790K). Is this price-fixing? I love the 4790K but it looks like Intel is raping users on the pricing. Any thoughts? Thank you.

[Jurrunio]

because supply and demand. No more i7s for old boards = higher prices.

[Enderman]

They are discontinued and out of production so less supply = higher price.

[corrado33]

3 minutes ago, Matrixunloaded said:

I bought a 4790K on Amazon in August 2015 for $329 (yes, I even went back and checked my invoice!). Now I check and the price on Amazon is $454. Why is this 35% HIGHER over THREE YEARS LATER and after Intel has pumped out three successor generations of “improved” chips which only marginally outperform the 4790K?  It looks like Intel has jacked the price to drive the sale of its newer chips (which also appear to run hotter than the 4790K). Is this price-fixing? I love the 4790K but it looks like Intel is raping users on the pricing. Any thoughts? Thank you.

Buy it on ebay for 210.

 

Pretty sure the top of the line chips of any generation area ALWAYS expensive, even long past their usefulness. 

 

Hell, the top of the line LGA 775 chip (from literally more than a decade ago) STILL sells for close to $200, while the large majority of 775 chips are < $20. You pay a premium for the absolutely top of the line chips. 

[Snipergod87]

Dont buy new, buy used.

 

Supply of new 4790k's is extremely limited, so the seller (not intel) can charge what they want.

Supply of used 4790k's is high, though you might want to step bay to a 4770k for a price drop.

[corrado33]

5 minutes ago, Snipergod87 said:

Dont buy new, buy used.

 

Supply of new 4790k's is extremely limited, so the seller (not intel) can charge what they want.

Supply of used 4790k's is high, though you might want to step bay to a 4770k for a price drop.

In my research, 4770ks are about $50 cheaper than 4790ks on ebay US. (They average ~$160) (And the difference in performance is negligible.) 

[Xplo1t]

At this point, anyone stocking a 4790k has succeeded to the shelf space and is going to charge an inflated price.  The only demand is someone that has to replace a bad part and is not price constrained.  Price decreases are only relevant for discussion for electronics that are still in production over a long period of time.

[-rascal-]

It's not Intel doing the price gouging, it's the seller / retailer.

Intel doesn't even manufacturer the 4th, 5th, and 6th generation chips anymore.

 

I don't know why you bought a i7-4790K *brand new*.

Intel CPUs, or CPUs in general, a pretty robust; they either work, or don't work at all.

[Daniel644]

thats what happens with New old stock (NOS) PC parts, once you get past the clearance prices so the major retailers like Amazon and Newegg clear there inventory you are left with the resellers using Amazon, Ebay and Newegg (among others) that where always overpriced and so they never sold them. This is just one of many reasons why you should buy the newest gen (or 1 gen old) stuff, first Gen Ryzen just went through a massive Inventory Purge this last week with Ryzen 1700x's selling at Microcenter for $130 and for $150 on Newegg, now all thats are the secondary sellers using those sites Marketplace Accounts, with prices like that you'd be a fool to even want to buy a 3+ year old CPU at retail prices, let alone the inflated prices of marketplace resellers.

[Matrixunloaded]

Thanks for all the replies. I haven’t built a system in over three years since my existing one with the 4970K is still performing admirably.  I want to rebuild a second tower now that is an even older 3570K and am just starting to pick out components for the rebuild. I am older and forget we now live in a “consumable” economy, where the technology is evolving at ever faster rates. I had initially thought the 4970K would have dropped in price because of its age. Again, thanks to all for the clarification.

[Daniel644]

1 minute ago, Matrixunloaded said:

Thanks for all the replies. I haven’t built a system in over three years since my existing one with the 4970K is still performing admirably.  I want to rebuild a second tower now that is an even older 3570K and am just starting to pick out components for the rebuild. I am older and forget we now live in a “consumable” economy, where the technology is evolving at ever faster rates. I had initially thought the 4970K would have dropped in price because of its age. Again, thanks to all for the clarification.

you DO NOT want to build with outdated hardware, the parts required are overpriced and it's often cheaper to start over, it's not about being a "consumable" economy, it's about basic math, the new parts from the last year are simply so much better with all the extra processing cores for the dollar spent that it's simply foolish to mess with older hardware, as exampled by your findings on the 4790k CPU price, parts for older hardware have not scaled in pricing to stay competitive with the market of new hardware, the other day someone on here was asking what there system was worth and it was a 7600k i5 and the first couple guys responding just went to PC Part Picker and built the guys system on there as prices still showed up, but I was like, well an 8350k i3 has the same core count, higher speed and is overclockable and comes in 50 dollars cheaper, so it was actually cheaper to build that, then you could go first gen Ryzen (which is being clearanced out right now) and get a Ryzen 5 1600 with 50% more actual cores AND SMT allowing for a total of 3 times the number of threads as the 7600k for even cheaper by like another 30-40 bucks, the simple fact is with the deals available on the newer stuff the price to "rebuild" an old machine is cost prohibitive, it's cheaper to go all new unless you only need one part, you could of course bring the Power Supply, HDD/SSD, case of the old build over and just swap ram (unless it's already DDR4), Mobo and CPU, those are the only real parts that have to be upgraded to swap an older CPU to a newer, more efficient, more powerful CPU. Reviving old hardware is pointless with the current pricing market.

[maartendc]

28 minutes ago, Matrixunloaded said:

Thanks for all the replies. I haven’t built a system in over three years since my existing one with the 4970K is still performing admirably.  I want to rebuild a second tower now that is an even older 3570K and am just starting to pick out components for the rebuild. I am older and forget we now live in a “consumable” economy, where the technology is evolving at ever faster rates. I had initially thought the 4970K would have dropped in price because of its age. Again, thanks to all for the clarification.

If you buy used, you can buy it for a good price no doubt. Buying old, new hardware is like buying a collectors' item almost: elevated prices.

[maartendc]

14 minutes ago, Daniel644 said:

you DO NOT want to build with outdated hardware, the parts required are overpriced and it's often cheaper to start over, it's not about being a "consumable" economy, it's about basic math, the new parts from the last year are simply so much better with all the extra processing cores for the dollar spent that it's simply foolish to mess with older hardware, as exampled by your findings on the 4790k CPU price, parts for older hardware have not scaled in pricing to stay competitive with the market of new hardware, the other day someone on here was asking what there system was worth and it was a 7600k i5 and the first couple guys responding just went to PC Part Picker and built the guys system on there as prices still showed up, but I was like, well an 8350k i3 has the same core count, higher speed and is overclockable and comes in 50 dollars cheaper, so it was actually cheaper to build that, then you could go first gen Ryzen (which is being clearanced out right now) and get a Ryzen 5 1600 with 50% more actual cores AND SMT allowing for a total of 3 times the number of threads as the 7600k for even cheaper by like another 30-40 bucks, the simple fact is with the deals available on the newer stuff the price to "rebuild" an old machine is cost prohibitive, it's cheaper to go all new unless you only need one part, you could of course bring the Power Supply, HDD/SSD, case of the old build over and just swap ram (unless it's already DDR4), Mobo and CPU, those are the only real parts that have to be upgraded to swap an older CPU to a newer, more efficient, more powerful CPU. Reviving old hardware is pointless with the current pricing market.

I agree, at this point, i wouldnt put money into a 3rd or 4th gen intel system. 4 core systems are getting really outdated now, so it is just a waste of money. I would invest in a good 6 or 8 core system, ryzen 2600 or 2700. Depending on what you need, it might even be the same price as upgrading your old system.

 

Unless you are keeping everything from the old system, and just upgrading the CPU. In that case it may be worth it if you can find a used CPU for cheap.

[Matrixunloaded]

18 minutes ago, maartendc said:

I agree, at this point, i wouldnt put money into a 3rd or 4th gen intel system. 4 core systems are getting really outdated now, so it is just a waste of money. I would invest in a good 6 or 8 core system, ryzen 2600 or 2700. Depending on what you need, it might even be the same price as upgrading your old system.

 

Unless you are keeping everything from the old system, and just upgrading the CPU. In that case it may be worth it if you can find a used CPU for cheap.

Thanks. Rather than continue this thread,  I just created a new post for request for recommendations for a new build and identified my uses, preferences and budget in it. 

[Mick Naughty]

Does it really matter what the price is? Not many should be buying on given the performance. 

[Enderman]

3 hours ago, Matrixunloaded said:

Thanks for all the replies. I haven’t built a system in over three years since my existing one with the 4970K is still performing admirably.  I want to rebuild a second tower now that is an even older 3570K and am just starting to pick out components for the rebuild. I am older and forget we now live in a “consumable” economy, where the technology is evolving at ever faster rates. I had initially thought the 4970K would have dropped in price because of its age. Again, thanks to all for the clarification.

New prices go up, used prices drop.

That's how it's always worked for discontinued products.