970/980 Is price going to drop?

[desertcomputer]

By any chance at end of this year the 970 or 980 going to drop in price... it like 800 bucks for 980 in Australia. Right now the 970 is still like 500 bucks it really expensive compare to the states. How much do you think the price will drop to or it wont at all.  

[the jolly roger]

i guess once the 1000 series is released

 

or if the raedeon 300 series wipe the floor, then they will drop to compete

[Comessy]

It has just been going up here in Canada

[CoolaxGaming]

i guess once the 1000 series is released

 

or if the raedeon 300 series wipe the floor, then they will drop to compete

Usually Nvidia and Intel dont drop prices when a new series launches.

Look at the 780 and the 780ti

[Unlikelyjoker]

If the 300 series makes the 900 series its bitch then they will drop the price.

[desertcomputer]

Isnt the 300 series coming out next year? of it this Mid year?

[Notree]

Isnt the 300 series coming out next year? of it this Mid year?

There set to release in the next few months. Where did you hear next year ?lol

[TheKDub]

By any chance at end of this year the 970 or 980 going to drop in price... it like 800 bucks for 980 in Australia. Right now the 970 is still like 500 bucks it really expensive compare to the states. How much do you think the price will drop to or it wont at all.  

 

The price isn't gonna drop for a while.

[orcinhell]

I am kinda sick of hearing people complain about stuff being so expensive in other parts of the world. That is because the US dollar is worth more. See:

 

 

 

So If you were to compare the 970 price in the US to that in australia, it is only really like $60 more there considering the difference in the dollar value.

 

There is also a thing called the Australian tax for Australians. No its not a real tax. But even with working out the exchange we get charged more because they can. I shop at umart which is about the cheapest place you can go (everyone agrees on this) but still the cheapest 970 is about 500.  a 980 your looking at 799... It really depends on the brand how much of a Australian tax we get. I5 retails for 235 in the us we pay 335. some brands are really good others not so much.

 

Example the MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G Graphics Cards retails for 334 us converted that is 430 but retails at a wholesaler for 519 go anywhere else and your looking at 560ish +

[Virtual01]

I am kinda sick of hearing people complain about stuff being so expensive in other parts of the world. That is because the US dollar is worth more. See:

So If you were to compare the 970 price in the US to that in australia, it is only really like $60 more there considering the difference in the dollar value.

"Only $60 more" says the rich man

[Tacitus]

There is also a thing called the Australian tax for Australians. No its not a real tax. But even with working out the exchange we get charged more because they can. I shop at umart which is about the cheapest place you can go (everyone agrees on this) but still the cheapest 970 is about 500. a 980 your looking at 799... It really depends on the brand how much of a Australian tax we get. I5 retails for 235 in the us we pay 335. some brands are really good others not so much.

Correction: the everyone-but-north-American tax.

I remember a video talking about PS4/Xbone launch prices - an xbone was almost $700 when converted from £ (£430), yet retailed for $500 USD

[pablopg69]

Australians also need to realize that they live under a very protectionist regime, hence the general higher prices. Also, Brazil.

[Virtual01]

If you are paying $300+ for a graphics card, $60 isn't the end of the world.

It's almost a 20% increase. How is that not significant?

[desertcomputer]

60 Dollar Can almost pay for internet or a month....

[orcinhell]

If you are paying $300+ for a graphics card, $60 isn't the end of the world.

 

100% agree, people often talk on shows, radio etc about living on what a American lives on as on average we get paid more (not saying Americans are poor just saying your the rule everyone measures themselves against for economy). But you guys pay less for things. I think looking at it from a percentage perspective of how much say 1 graphics cards cost compared to a weeks or even a years salary on average there would be little difference.

 

whether that's the right way to look at it is beyond me. I'm just saying on paper it might seem largely unfair but in reality its not that bad.

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as for the cards coming down in price, I would think not unless the 300 series is mind blowing, even then I don't think they would drop the price so much that people wished they waited.

[Briggsy]

nvidia prices never drop. there are sometimes sales however..

[RinnyDinDin]

It's almost a 20% increase. How is that not significant?

970/980 is enthusiast.  If you can't afford an extra $60 spread out over 2 years you probably shouldn't be buying enthusiast level hardware.

[TW1ST3R]

@Yoyomah20 & @orcinhell both make valid points however there are other factors to take into account.

Let's take that $60 price difference for example and have a look at what else plays into that. Firstly as the Australian dollar is lower, it costs more for Australian companies and consumers to ship products from overseas (when operating under a USD exchange rate, as most international monetary exchanges do), into Australia. So let's say for example the costs of ordering a bunch of cards from the supplier works out at approximately $20 a card for a bulk order. If companies were selling the card dollar for dollar with the US price, the company would be making a loss of $20 per card, which is not economically sound business unless you're trying to clear out old inventory. Thus the costs of shipping is passed on to the consumer in the price of the product. This applies to all goods imported from overseas.

Secondly, a business must also generate a profit large enough to pay it's employees. Manual labour, packing, inventory management etc. these are all additional costs that need to be funded in one way or another, and that must be also paid for indirectly by the consumer. For arguments sake let's say this equates to another $20 added on to the price of the card. Considering that the minimum wage for adults (casual work) can be over $20/hour, this is fairly reasonable.

Finally a business still needs to maintain a profit to be financially viable and avoid bankruptcy. They need additional profits to pay shareholders (if it is a public company) and additional funds to order new inventory, etc.

Whist these figures I've given are hardly accurate for the actual amounts for these factors, you can see that this $60 price increase doesn't come out of nowhere, there are reasons for it. Now I will agree that some products and companies do place an 'Australia tax' on things. This is particularly true of enthusiast and consumer products of social marketing significance/name brand products. For example the iPhone 6 plus works out $147 more expensive here in AU when ordering directly from the Apple website. I don't see a price hike of that amount completely justifiable even when factoring in the reasons given above, I may be wrong, but there is some element of getting charged more because they know we will pay for it. However this is also related to another factor of economics - the relationship between demand and supply (as demand increases against a static or decreasing supply, the price will increase respectively). So even though that significant price hike is not entirely proportional (for lack of a better word), there are some economic principles that factor into it.

I will note that there is one particular area of the Australian market that is consistently subject to the 'Australia tax' for no reason at all - digital goods. When it comes to digital goods, nearly everything is automated, from the transaction, to the delivery, to the download. Yet there can be absurd price hikes greater than 50% in comparison to US prices even when factoring in exchange rates. Aside from ISP/download server costs, (which are more expensive in AU just because Optus and Telstra can), there is very little I can think of contributing to an increased comparative cost.

tldr - increases in the cost of physical goods is largely subject to economic forces. Increases in costs of digital goods is predominantly due to the 'Australia tax'

Edit: In regards to 970/980 price drops, I'd say we'd see at most a drop of $50 on the 970 and $100 (although I highly doubt it) on the $980 at the launch of AMD 300 series cards. With the way the current market shares stand, Nvidia doesn't have much incentive to drop prices for a couple of reasons - they know people will buy their cards regardless, and they almost certainly don't want AMD's market share and profits to fall even more. If they undercut the price of AMD cards, they'll be putting themselves in a position where AMD could possibly go bankrupt, and as the only real competitor for them, if this were to happen, Nvidia would be subject to a monopoly situation where they would be subject to multiple monopoly laws and whatnot in pretty much every developed country. Intel would also be subject to the same situation, which would be detrimental for both consumers and the company.

The only other price drops I'd foresee are at the release of a new Nvidia product and would be entirely dependent on the retailing company, who may or may not want to lower prices to get rid of old stock. Like when the price of Titan Z's was slashed from $3000 to $1500 by retailers such as Mwave Australia to clear out the inventory of those cards prior to the 900 series release.