Random Thoughts: The Marketing Genius of the RX 480

[Briggsy]

Okay, so this is mostly just me putting my thoughts down about the RX 480 launch, and how AMD actually did a decent job of marketing the product this time compared to the competition they were facing. I'm not wearing a red or green hat, so if you are an Nvidia or AMD fanboy, prepare to possibly be offended. People can agree or disagree. I'm not too worried, these are just my thoughts and not some indepth analysis.

 

So even though I didn't care for it at all, the GTX 970 is the most popular discrete graphic card on steam right now (and has been forever it seems). That's amazing considering custom 970's were breaking past the $340 mark at launch, so they weren't cheap, although reference MSRP was $299. Before the 970 was the big seller, the 660 was the most popular card. The 660 was a $229 MSRP card at launch that matched a $350 HD7870. It's a no brainer that the $229 card beat the $350 card in sales. After all, both cards performed the same, despite the 2GB 660 having 1.5GB of fast memory and 0.5GB of slow memory.

 

So how in the world did Nvidia manage to get so many people to buy 970's at the higher price point? It was pretty simple. They beat their 1000 dollar Kepler card from the previous generation for 1/3 the price.

Suddenly 300-350 dollars seemed like a steal, and at less power draw too. Oddly enough, even after the 3.5GB fiasco, people still kept buying the 970. What are the odds two cards with 0.5GB of gimped memory are best sellers?

 

Changing my focus to AMD - they marketed the RX 480 as being built like a 500 dollar card, with premium components, and having the performance in VR of a 500 dollar card. What this translated to in peoples minds was: "you are getting a 500 dollar card for 200 dollars." It was brilliant. Even on the LTT forums you had at least one thread with the title that said something like "RX 480 performs like a 500 dollar graphic card." For the first time in ages, AMD actually nailed the marketing and had people really hyped. Slides reading "2.8x Performance/Watt" had people believing. Even though 200 dollars is a lot of money for many people, AMD said "No, its cheap!" We're practically giving these away."

 

But what were AMD up against? Nvidia were playing the same game again with the 1070, offering a card that beats the previous Generations $1000 card for less than half the price. No one can deny it was and still is a tempting offer. It's why I went for it. So AMD took a shot at the 1080 instead, drumming up the capabilities of DX12 multi-adapter, the amazing efficiency of Polaris, and AMD's renewed focus on software and crossfire support. At Computex 2016, AMD pitted two 480's against a single 1080 in a DX12 title, and beat the 1080. Of course, Ashes is an AMD title that is heavily tuned for GCN architecture, but the message still got out. Not only are you getting a "500 dollar card" for 200 dollars, but for 400 dollars you are getting the performance of a 700 dollar card.

 

But looking at the RX 480 without the marketing filters, you can see why AMD had to come out swinging so strongly. The 480's power draw is close to a GTX 1080 and GTX 970. The benchmarks for the 480 are everywhere, and the custom 480's are arriving. What we do know is that the 480 is actually in the ballpark of the 390's performance. At 1080p the 480 is a few % ahead, while at 1440p the 390 edges out the 480. So who cares about the 390? The RX 480 is a 500 dollar card for 200-240 dollars right? Well... not exactly. the 390 at launch had an MSRP of $329, But custom 390's can currently be bought (brand new) for as low as $260 on newegg.com. So what does the 480 offer? well, better power draw than the 390 (but not 2.8x perf/watt). HDMI 2.0 as well. VR performance doesn't improve though.

 

Regardless, there are large groups of people waiting for the custom 480's to launch, eager to get their hands on this 500 dollar card for 240 dollars (or probably more like 250-275 for custom 480's). Why? because AMD have actually done their marketing right this time, and they actually have some proof that DX12 and vulkan are not vaporware. Nvidia on the other hand seem to be sabotaging their own 1060 marketing: no SLI fingers, Founders Edition pricing, not squashing rumors about supply, declaring 980 performance when the math says 480 performance. I'm not saying Nvidia are giving this one to AMD, because you can bet the 1060 will still sell like hotcakes. SLI at that performance tier is not a common practice. But AMD really nailed it this time, despite the 480 not being a 500 dollar performer by any stretch of the imagination, not even close. AMD have cleverly disguised the 480 as being something much better than it actually is, and pulled in a lot of buyers - even many people who were currently using older nvidia cards.

 

The mindshare is strong for the 480, no doubt about it... at least for now.

[WereCat]

Not to mention that we are still yet to witness full potential of 480 as the reference one had some limitations.

There may be small or big improvements on the custom cards... we will see in time.

 

I expect it will get from bellow 970 & 390 and get above them very slightly. (In terms of performance).

[FJGC]

I agree with you're assessment, also this also means that by Black Friday or Christmas we might be seeing even better deals than the original 200$ launch price.

[Nup]

Great read man. Good thinking too, nice and objective!