7970 price gouging? 6970 comparitive pricing...

zamardii

2[H]4U
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Nov 22, 2004
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So, I returned my HD6970 about 3 weeks ago because I heard the 7970s were coming out soon. I really hated returning it because I just got done updating my system after over 4 years, and just got done playing Battlefield 3 on Ultra and was incredibly impressed by the performance of that single card... never a hitch during the campaign. But, after returning it, I have been having to settle on using my old 8800GTX which is still okay but nowhere near good enough anymore. I was super excited scrolling through Engadget seeing that the 7970 was announced, but when I saw the price I seriously doubted getting it. I had planned to get one as soon as it releases so I can complete my new rig in my Sig, but seeing that price made me want to reorder the 6970. It was a great performing card and was able to set all my current games on highest settings, but the fact is that i's over a year old which is why I sent it back to begin with. So, I have a dilemma.

What should I do? I looked at the HD6000 series page on wikipedia and it said the HD6970 released at $369. I know the 7970 is new technology and a new architecture all together, but with that price I couldn't even foresee when a price-drop would happen so I am wondering what others would do. Money is tight after the holidays, which is why this is a weighty decision. I know if I spend the money on the 7970, then I will be future proof for a good while with the benches coming out now and the future driver updates this card will be great for a long time... might even be able to play Doom 4 and Half-Life 3 on highest settings with this card by the time they come out. lol

So, I don't know what to do. Maybe just reorder the 6970 for now since it can run everything on Ultra already and just purchase a 7970 later in the year when prices go down, or just wait altogether and stick with the 8800GTX I have. Ugh... choices... :(
 
Its expensive to be on the cutting edge. If you have the dough, then upgrade. If you don't, then get what you can afford. You might want to look at 7950 or even 7870 when they come out. You can also wait to see what nivida comes out with.
 
I say wait untill the 7k series launches, and people who upgrade will be selling their 6900s and 580/570s and you buy those. Maybe even two?
 
I say wait untill the 7k series launches, and people who upgrade will be selling their 6900s and 580/570s and you buy those. Maybe even two?

This^.

I'm having my own crisis-of-card as well. Coming from a single 5970, any two 2GB 6000 series cards would be an upgrade for me. At the same time, a single 7970 will at least give 2 6000 series cards a run for their money, and I could always just buy a 2nd one later on. Decisions, decisions. A potential game-changer is the price point of the 7950s, and whether they will be unlockable to 7970 BIOS like so many 6950s are. Obviously that'd be a better choice for future xfire from a wallet standpoint. All this aside, plenty of people here are going to be offloading their 6950s/70s to upgrade to 7000 series. No telling what will be the best option till the cards actually hit market. To make matters more interesting, I'm no AMD fanboy. Not going to be too happy if I invest heavily in a 7970 just for NVIDIA to drop something better come May or so.
 
7970 is far from being a new architecture.

its more of a 6000 series on 28nm with few tweaks here and there.

kepler will be the same, but will offer much better performance due to better shader design.

brand new architecture from Nvidia will be called Maxell and it comes out in 2013.
 
This^.

I'm having my own crisis-of-card as well. Coming from a single 5970, any two 2GB 6000 series cards would be an upgrade for me. At the same time, a single 7970 will at least give 2 6000 series cards a run for their money, and I could always just buy a 2nd one later on. Decisions, decisions. A potential game-changer is the price point of the 7950s, and whether they will be unlockable to 7970 BIOS like so many 6950s are. Obviously that'd be a better choice for future xfire from a wallet standpoint. All this aside, plenty of people here are going to be offloading their 6950s/70s to upgrade to 7000 series. No telling what will be the best option till the cards actually hit market. To make matters more interesting, I'm no AMD fanboy. Not going to be too happy if I invest heavily in a 7970 just for NVIDIA to drop something better come May or so.

if it were me i'd just get the 7970 now or wait till kepler to decide keeping your card for now. as a general rule of thumb i always try to get the newest baddest card I can afford and then go cfx/sli when i can
 
Why would you say they are price gouging?

Because a 6970 is $300. So AMD is trying to squeeze an extra $250 out of their fan base.

You can pick up a 580 for $480.

I'm all for charging whatever people will pay for your card. I hope AMD gets every dime as they need it. I also understand where people are coming from when complaining about the price.

The most I have ever spent on a card is two fiddy. So I think you are all crazy. :D
 
I think both the GTX580 and the 7970 are overpriced. The GTX580 is only around 20% faster than a GTX570 in most benchmarks but costs 60% more. Its even worse when compared to the 6970 which is nearly as fast in a lot of games but costs nearly $200 less!

I dont think the GTX580 should be a dime over $400 and the 7970 should be around $450.
 
I think both the GTX580 and the 7970 are overpriced. The GTX580 is only around 20% faster than a GTX570 in most benchmarks but costs 60% more. Its even worse when compared to the 6970 which is nearly as fast in a lot of games but costs nearly $200 less!

I dont think the GTX580 should be a dime over $400 and the 7970 should be around $450.

You can get a 560ti for under $200 and it will match a 6970 in certain games.

2 bens is the sweet spot. After that you just have money to burn.
 
I don't really see how one can call it price gouging when:

A. They aren't available in the channel yet, and

B. 550 dollars is the MSRP.

Gouging will occur when they are released in limited quantities, and the retailers mark the price substantially above the MSRP.

AMD knew exactly where this card would lie in performance relative to the GTX 580, and priced it accordingly.
 
@ MacLeod

I agree with you on the pricing of GTX 580 and 7970 pricing.
It should scale with performance rather than saying the bragging rights "I HAVE THE TOP CARD" at $500.
 
7970 is far from being a new architecture.

its more of a 6000 series on 28nm with few tweaks here and there.

kepler will be the same, but will offer much better performance due to better shader design.

brand new architecture from Nvidia will be called Maxell and it comes out in 2013.
This is totally wrong. The 7970 is an entirely different architecture. GCN versus VLIW4, it's not even remotely comparable. Kepler is also a new architecture. The 7000-series will be AMD's new architecture, the GTX 7xx series will be NVIDIA's.
 
You can get a 560ti for under $200 and it will match a 6970 in certain games.

2 bens is the sweet spot. After that you just have money to burn.

In some games it might but in most the 6970 runs off and leaves it. I think that pretty much all the cards are priced about right. It is weird that there is such a price gap between the 6950 and GTX560Ti despite there not being that big of a performance gap. Would be nice to see some 6970's and GTX570's get down in the sub $300 range.

Sucks for me cause Id like a little more oomph so I could get some higher framerates in Crysis and Metro with maxed settings (in the low 30's now) but there really isnt a card worth it. The GTX580 is the cheapest one that offers a decent enough performance boost over my 5870 but it aint worth it at $500.
 
Hold off and see what the 7950 runs for vs performance. The new architecture and 28nm with the cheaper price could still make it a great upgrade for you. If at that point it doesnt seem worth it you could get 2x 6xxxx series cards as others try to sell theirs off and prices come down on the older product lines.

When the 5 series launched the 5850 was the best I could do at the time with other expenses. I've been planning for an upgrade for a while so I have some extra to throw at a 7970 which I plan to keep for a while. The 6 series AMD cards didnt offer enough to get me to bite other than more memory so I decided to wait. I dont want to spend that much but I dont plan to upgrade till 9xxxx or beyond so I will get my money's worth.
 
On one hand I agree with some of the complaints and on the other I don't.

The argument I do agree with,

I think both the GTX580 and the 7970 are overpriced. The GTX580 is only around 20% faster than a GTX570 in most benchmarks but costs 60% more. Its even worse when compared to the 6970 which is nearly as fast in a lot of games but costs nearly $200 less!

I dont think the GTX580 should be a dime over $400 and the 7970 should be around $450.

The ones I don't.

Why would you say they are price gouging?

GTX 580 = $500
7970 = $550

and 7970>GTX 580, so that makes sense
Because a 6970 is $300. So AMD is trying to squeeze an extra $250 out of their fan base.

You can pick up a 580 for $480.

...............

AMD is releasing the fastest single GPU graphics card and priced it at $550 the same price as the 580 3GB. Considering that the 6970 at times struggled to compete with the standard 580 and 570, thus why it was priced at $300-$380, it seems competitive of AMD pricing it equal to a 580 3GB. From the benchmarks we have seen AMD just said, "We now have a better card than you, Nvidia, and priced it the same as yours", when it could have been an extra $20-$50.

Also Rizen is right. It is not a 6000 series on 28nm.
 
This is totally wrong. The 7970 is an entirely different architecture. GCN versus VLIW4, it's not even remotely comparable. Kepler is also a new architecture. The 7000-series will be AMD's new architecture, the GTX 7xx series will be NVIDIA's.

pay no attention to the dude you quoted, every time AMD comes out with a new card he says the same thing......
 
Because a 6970 is $300. So AMD is trying to squeeze an extra $250 out of their fan base.

I also understand where people are coming from when complaining about the price.

wow...

just wow

no offence, but the lack of logic in your post is incredible. then again, the omission of logic is mostly to cater to your pro-nvidia sentiments.
 
If they launched at $350 you'll find them in stores at $550 anyway due to supply and demand.
 
7970 is far from being a new architecture.

its more of a 6000 series on 28nm with few tweaks here and there.

kepler will be the same, but will offer much better performance due to better shader design.

brand new architecture from Nvidia will be called Maxell and it comes out in 2013.

Ignorant person is ignorant.

Anyway I don't really know why people are surprised the 7970 is priced the way it is....it's faster than the GTX 580 with no competition, did you expect it to be cheaper?
 
Ignorant person is ignorant.

Anyway I don't really know why people are surprised the 7970 is priced the way it is....it's faster than the GTX 580 with no competition, did you expect it to be cheaper?

It's DualOwn, he rags on any AMD card when it's released. Hoooray fanboys. :rolleyes:

As for the price, it seems priced fine to me, it's more expensive because it's faster. AMD needs the money and they have a card that they can price in that range due to it's performance so they did.
 
It's DualOwn, he rags on any AMD card when it's released. Hoooray fanboys. :rolleyes:

As for the price, it seems priced fine to me, it's more expensive because it's faster. AMD needs the money and they have a card that they can price in that range due to it's performance so they did.

exactly

it IS a less expensive card than the 580, but it's not priced as such because it doesn't need to be - that's the best way to think about it
 
pricing its really just matter of supply/demand. gtx 580 were stupidly expensive and ppl were buying them. but to be fair the 5870 released at 449 and was a huge upgrade over 4870 and i think that was much more reasonable pricing but nvidia kinda raised prices up with the gtx 580 and people didnt seem to care.
 
It's priced reasonably where it is at this point in time. AMD is going to run into trouble though when Kepler comes out and the successor to the GTX 580 smokes this card and is released for around the same price point or less.
 
It's priced reasonably where it is at this point in time. AMD is going to run into trouble though when Kepler comes out and the successor to the GTX 580 smokes this card and is released for around the same price point or less.

Well, that's when they lower the price to whatever the new price for the 580 3gb will be.... unless the 680 is released at an even higher price....
 
OP actually has a good point I hadn't considered. 6970 launched at $360 (around $400 after the dust settled). That card was/is about 50% faster than its predecessor, the 5870. The 7970 is around 40% faster than it's predecessor, but is selling for $550. Any way you mash it, we're getting less of a performance increase for more money than the last gen change.
 
It's DualOwn, he rags on any AMD card when it's released. Hoooray fanboys. :rolleyes:

As for the price, it seems priced fine to me, it's more expensive because it's faster. AMD needs the money and they have a card that they can price in that range due to it's performance so they did.

Wasn't so long ago it was the opposite (him ragging on any nVidia card) if I recall, he's no "fanboy".
 
You always pay more for the top end. Price to performance ratios skew poorly at the high end as well.
With the 580 ranging from $480-$500 for the base versions and even more for the OC versions, that still performs slower than the 7970, the $550 MSRP seems in line with current offerings.

In any case, it certainly has a much higher launch MSRP than the 4870, 5870, and 6970 did. So I can see why some people might be miffed.

The 4870, 5870, restored quite a bit of the faith ATI/AMD lost with the lateness of the 8xx and 1xxx series, and the lackluster performance of 2xxx/3xxx series. They crept the price back up some with the 6970, and it looks like they are going for price parity with Nv with the 7970. No way Nv will not price at or above that for their next card. Whether it outperforms the 7970 or not.
 
OP actually has a good point I hadn't considered. 6970 launched at $360 (around $400 after the dust settled). That card was/is about 50% faster than its predecessor, the 5870. The 7970 is around 40% faster than it's predecessor, but is selling for $550. Any way you mash it, we're getting less of a performance increase for more money than the last gen change.

That is way off.
 
Honestly, that's like saying Ferrari is price gouging even though a Corvette has almost the same performance. Folks, the card is very fast and price scales with performance. A $550 GPU (possibly ~$650 for a non-reference) is not for tight-budgeted gamers or complainers. If you have the cash (...you know who you are...) Buy 1....or 2.... shit, buy me one. If you don't have buckets of cash, buy up some 6970's that will probably be in the ~$250 range. At the end of the day, when new shit comes out everybody upgrades. Rich guy overpays for top-of-line tech, poor guy gets bargain on rich guys old stuff. Know your place. By the way, i'm a poor guy. (anti-flame disclaimer)
 
Why would you say they are price gouging?

GTX 580 = $500
7970 = $550

and 7970>GTX 580, so that makes sense

New cards are always faster than last gen, that doesn't mean you jack the price up every goddamn time. If your reasoning was correct then we should all be paying well over $2,000.00 for current gen cards because I paid about $200.00+ for a Hercules cards back in 1994 and it didn't even do 3D accelerated graphics.
 
Yes, it's price gouging. The price doesn't make sense in the least. Also, people are incorrectly comparing Nvidia to ATI. Nvidia is a known offender when it comes to ass raping customers over the price of their video cards. A terrible comparison and example to use.

We should compare AMD to AMD. Sadly, they have abandoned the "affordability" aspect of their high-end parts ( see the 6970 launch ) At the moment, it is unclear why they are doing this. But, some are speculating the insane pricing is a knee jerk reaction that could be tied to the utter and total failings of their Bulldozer products. When a company is doing bad, firing people, lost so to speak, they react out of desperation and end up doing terrible things. Like pricing 7970's in Crossfire at $1,100 dollars. Ask yourself this, how many of your friends own Intels $1,000 extreme cpu's? Yeah, my point exactly.

But, out of fairness, many of us are waiting to see how the 7950 is launched. How it's priced, will it be unlockable to a 7970, etc. So, until then, we will not be passing judgement.

/fingers crossed
 
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New cards are always faster than last gen, that doesn't mean you jack the price up every goddamn time. If your reasoning was correct then we should all be paying well over $2,000.00 for current gen cards because I paid about $200.00+ for a Hercules cards back in 1994 and it didn't even do 3D accelerated graphics.

The 7970 is not the only card that's being launched. Are you people incapable of thinking ahead? Do answers have to hit you in the face before you realize they're there?

Here's a breakdown of all the cards coming. There will be one for every single price bracket:

P.S: Thanks for the laugh Nvidia fanboys saying GCN is not a new architecture. :)
r1j35ee.jpg

r2ymvb2.jpg

r31yv3d.jpg
 
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Lol at the people that think gouging is actually possible on a luxury item.

This is not an item required for survival or livelihood. Therefore it will suffer the full effects of market forces. Think it costs too much, then wait for the market to correct AMDs MSRP error. If they indeed made an MSRP error that is. Time will show us whther they did or not. My guess is that the7970 will fly off the shelves at that price until Nv launches.
 
Lol at the people that think gouging is actually possible on a luxury item.

This is not an item required for survival or livelihood. Therefore it will suffer the full effects of market forces. Think it costs too much, then wait for the market to correct AMDs MSRP error. If they indeed made an MSRP error that is. Time will show us whther they did or not. My guess is that the7970 will fly off the shelves at that price until Nv launches.

It's not as if the 7970 is the only product they are launching. If you can't afford the 7970 there is the 7950 in both 3GB and 1.5GB flavors. If those cards are able to unlock it would make then a pretty damn good value. But as always, hysteria (led by sensationalistic fanboys) sets in before people stop to think ahead.
 
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