AMD Begins Massive Wave of Price Cuts on R9 290x and 290

[deathjester]

In case you're still looking for the G1 Gaming it's has some that can be had this month for $380 at ShopBLT

And @CreativeTHC already said that he meant GBP not USD

 

I see 51 back ordered on that page (negative stock). Add to that I have never heard of the vendor, nor would I trust them with my money to get a card possibly months from now. Fact is the only one in stock I can find is 600 bucks and now that has gone to pre order on NCIX. Like I said I don't blame them for gouging. I blame the people BUYING the card for that much. We saw the same thing happen with AMD GPU's with lite coin mining.  

 

Retail price GTX 970's do not exist atm. I wish they did. The only ones I have seen in stock lately have been low clocked models without bigger power connectors that don't clock that high and those went quick. 

[juretrn]

They can keep that oven of a graphics card. 

 

nah jk

[ThreePinkApples]

Starting to regret that I cave in and bought an R9 290X a month ago. original plan was to wait for November and then look at price compared to rumors of upcoming cards. 
I am a weak man :<

[Sakkura]

1. This is AWESOME for consumers. Just awesome. 

 

2. Does AMD hate earning money? Did they suddenly come across so much money they can afford to slash prices like this? 

 

2. The Hawaii GPU in the R9 290 and 290X is 438 mm^2. The GM204 GPU in the GTX 970 and 980 is 398 mm^2. Sure, the GM204 is smaller and thus (most likely) cheaper - but not by much.

[Viiksi-Vallu]

God bless fair competition between AMD and Nvidia.

Hoping to see the same thin happen whit AMD and Intel

[patrickjp93]

2. The Hawaii GPU in the R9 290 and 290X is 438 mm^2. The GM204 GPU in the GTX 970 and 980 is 398 mm^2. Sure, the GM204 is smaller and thus (most likely) cheaper - but not by much.

On today's current 300mm-radius wafers (282743.3388 square millimeters of space) that difference equates to roughly 65 more chips per wafer. That's huge.

 

Note: I know not all the area can be used, but the total number that can be fit is theoretically increased by 65, and there's no reason this shouldn't approximately scale.

[spartaman64]

Well at least AMD doesn't release drivers that actually KILL cards.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/544882/geforce-drivers/official-nvidia-320-18-whql-display-driver-feedback-thread-released-5-23-13-/62

http://modcrash.com/nvidia-display-driver-damaging-gpus/

http://community.futuremark.com/forum/showthread.php?175532-DO-Not-install-Nvidia-320-18-killing-gpu-s

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/nvidia-320-18-drivers-killing-gpus.185046/page-2

lol i remember that my card PCB melted

[Sakkura]

On today's current 300mm-radius wafers (282743.3388 square millimeters of space) that difference equates to roughly 65 more chips per wafer. That's huge.

 

Note: I know not all the area can be used, but the total number that can be fit is theoretically increased by 65, and there's no reason this shouldn't approximately scale.

 

It's only a 10% difference. Not huge, though of course it matters.

 

The difference between Hawaii and GK110 is MUCH bigger.

[AMW1011]

Eh, I've heard reports of unplayable screen flicker

 

I personally didn't have screen flicker, but constant driver crashes.  To be fair, I've had nothing but trouble with nVidia drivers over the past year before I upgraded (black screen bugs, certain games crashed with certain drivers, very variable performance).  Sometimes I feel like graphics drivers havent really gotten any better since ~2008.

[seiny]

Sweet Jesus :mellow:

[patrickjp93]

It's only a 10% difference. Not huge, though of course it matters.

The difference between Hawaii and GK110 is MUCH bigger.

Put another way, more chips per wafer greatly dampens the effect of each defective chip and lowers the failure density per wafer. The profit gains aren't a 1:1 relationship.

[MonkeyFace]

Damn it AMD! I just bought a 780 this morning for my second build...SOB!

[ZacDaMan72]

Here's some New Zealand you y'all:

[dalekphalm]

AN R9 290 STILL COSTS $550 HERE.

 

 

AAAAAAAHHHH!

Ya well fiber internet still costs hundreds of dollars here

 

Can't win 'em all!

[Sakkura]

Put another way, more chips per wafer greatly dampens the effect of each defective chip and lowers the failure density per wafer. The profit gains aren't a 1:1 relationship.

 

The difference is still way smaller than between Hawaii and GK110.

[patrickjp93]

The difference is still way smaller than between Hawaii and GK110.

True, but when you think about it, Nvidia has dropped its prices about 15% from Kepler while increasing yields by at least 10%, maybe more when you consider silicon spot-defects affecting a lower percentage of chips per wafer. That's a pretty big difference. Hopefully AMD can counter with a smaller die too and keep their prices low. 4K might finally be coming down to mainstream if Apple goes forward on its 4K TB displays & 4K MacBooks, and if other laptop makers can provide 4K screens for really good prices. I can barely see pixels on my 15" MBPr screen, but at 17" I'm sure even 1440p starts revealing pixels to the viewer.

[Da'Argo]

Knock down 980 to $499 plz.

[Techhog]

1. This is AWESOME for consumers. Just awesome. 

 

2. Does AMD hate earning money? Did they suddenly come across so much money they can afford to slash prices like this? 

Microeconomics 101, yo. The market ultimately decides the price,

[digitalnav]

Here's some New Zealand you y'all:

 

 

About $200 USD more for the Vapor-X 290X

[dalekphalm]

1. This is AWESOME for consumers. Just awesome. 

 

2. Does AMD hate earning money? Did they suddenly come across so much money they can afford to slash prices like this? 

I think this is just your regular PR sort of response to Maxwell. Maxwell is a really strong release, and AMD needs to keep some of the attention on themselves as they wait for the 3xx release and their rumoured 390x which is "supposed" to demolish the 980 and any hypothetical 980 Ti.

 

They need to keep sales up, even if their margins are down. This keeps the cash flowing in.

 

Course we'll just have to wait and see how their 3xx architecture actually performs. But I'm quite excited!

[PhantomChevron]

AN R9 290 STILL COSTS $550 HERE.

 

 

AAAAAAAHHHH!

What????! Here you can buy one for 399, and prices over here tend to be super inflated!

[PhantomChevron]

Make it go down to under 150 dollars for top end, go competition!

[Sakkura]

True, but when you think about it, Nvidia has dropped its prices about 15% from Kepler while increasing yields by at least 10%, maybe more when you consider silicon spot-defects affecting a lower percentage of chips per wafer. That's a pretty big difference. Hopefully AMD can counter with a smaller die too and keep their prices low. 4K might finally be coming down to mainstream if Apple goes forward on its 4K TB displays & 4K MacBooks, and if other laptop makers can provide 4K screens for really good prices. I can barely see pixels on my 15" MBPr screen, but at 17" I'm sure even 1440p starts revealing pixels to the viewer.

 

I don't think we will see any smaller die from AMD until next year. They can still do alright-ish with Hawaii. They have to trim their margins, but they're still making money on each card that goes out the door. Just less per card than Nvidia at the moment.

 

Not really sure what the relevance of Macbooks is here. Sure they may go 4K, but they won't go R9 290 or GTX 970 anyway. And Apple does not provide anything for really good prices (unless you mean good for Apple).

[Misanthrope]

I don't think we will see any smaller die from AMD until next year. They can still do alright-ish with Hawaii. They have to trim their margins, but they're still making money on each card that goes out the door. Just less per card than Nvidia at the moment.

 

Not really sure what the relevance of Macbooks is here. Sure they may go 4K, but they won't go R9 290 or GTX 970 anyway. And Apple does not provide anything for really good prices (unless you mean good for Apple).

 

Shit maybe is not too late so listen closely: Never address an off topic Apple related comment. It's just an invitation to a bunch of fucking idiots to make any and all topics about Apple whenever is arguing for or against them. It's beyond me why LTT moderation doesn't bans this people (on both sides) on sight but for fuck's sake, please don't ever reply to them unless for some inexplicable reason you're willing to go into an Apple related thread and dive head first into that shithole. 

[patrickjp93]

I don't think we will see any smaller die from AMD until next year. They can still do alright-ish with Hawaii. They have to trim their margins, but they're still making money on each card that goes out the door. Just less per card than Nvidia at the moment.

 

Not really sure what the relevance of Macbooks is here. Sure they may go 4K, but they won't go R9 290 or GTX 970 anyway. And Apple does not provide anything for really good prices (unless you mean good for Apple).

I wouldn't quite say that about Apple. They are the sole providers of the most powerful mobile CPU I7 4980HQ. Their speakers are the best of any laptop I've ever heard, and despite the fact I hate trackpads, I find theirs close to tolerable. And they're smart enough to build a keyboard in such a way that you can use a silicon guard to prevent crumbs, hair, shedding cells, or even water from getting into the machine to possibly short out the motherboard.