If a single Barts XT GPU performs on par with a 5870 and sells for $250, no thanks. Better than the pricing of a 5870, but that's not much progress as far as price/performance goes. Could just pick up that 5850 for $208AR and OC the snot out of it instead.
I agree. Without a nice bump up in price/perf, what's the point? AMD is going to lose my sale if it plays pricing games. If they are smart, they will keep kicking NV while its down, because NV won't be down forever. Taking NV market share means fewer people in NV's CUDA/PhysX system. AMD doesn't have the greatest history of exploiting its advantages to the fullest, though.
🙁
I think $203 is arguably fair for Barts XT pricing if it has ~5870 performance levels. Why $203?
1) At the 4870 perf level, it cost $300 when 4870 launched and $160 when 5770 launched--almost half off (-47%
😉.
2) At the 5870 perf level, it cost $380 when 5870 launched. If we keep the same ratio and assume Barts XT performs at 5870 levels, then Barts XT would cost $203.
Granted there was a process change going from 55nm to 40nm and that's not true this time, but it's also true that TSMC's 40nm process has matured since Cypress's launch and thus made 40nm cheaper to work with. Plus, $379 was way above the $300 launch price of 4870 to begin with.
A counterarg to this is that launch prices don't count, street prices do. And the street price of 5870s remains stuck at ~$350, despite GTX470s at $270-280 and 5850s nearing $210. So the counterarg would be that Barts XT should cost whatever the street price for 5870s is on Oct. 25, 2010 (assuming that Barts XT has ~5870 performance), which may be as much as $350:
1) At the 4870 perf level, 5770 launched for $160, which was $10 MORE (6.7% more) than the then-current street price of $150 for 4870s. But 5770s came with DX11 which weakens the argument a bit, as the cards were different DX generations. So let's say that the $10 (6.7%) increase was the "DX11 tax."
2) At the 5870 perf level, 6870 has no "DX11 tax" over the 5870. So it should launch for about the same price that 5870s go for on the street on October 25, 2010.
Given all of the above, I think we can expect Barts XT--if it really has 5870 performance--to sell for anywhere from $203 to whatever the street price is for 5870s on Oct. 25--which will be $275. Why $275? I don't know, it's a mostly a wild-arsed guess.
🙂 But given that GTX460 SLI shouldn't cost that much more than $275 at that point (and have no need for a dongle for multi-monitor), and GTX470 prices have sometimes dipped to that level in the past on sales, and given the prices of 5850s have already approached $210 TODAY, let alone on Oct. 25, I think $275 for a 5870 on Oct. 25 isn't too insane.
AMD, don't screw this up. Price Barts XT at $203 (or less if it has less than 5870 performance)!
🙂