AMD reduces prices, new game bundle inbound

[AnandThenMan]

AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series Price Cuts, New Game Bundle Inbound

In another quick shift in the hyper-competitive performance video card market, AMD sends word this afternoon that they are enacting some price cuts that will be taking effect later this week. This latest round of price cuts comes hot on the heels of last week’s launch of the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, which saw NVIDIA introduce their first 28nm performance video card at $299.

....

Alongside those price cuts the 7800 series will be receiving a new game bundle promotion in a few weeks. The AMD Gaming Evolved title Sleeping Dogs will be AMD’s latest bundle, replacing the outgoing DiRT Showdown bundle. This will sit opposite NVIDIA's existing Borderlands 2 promotion, which went live last week.

Price drops are always welcome, let's hope Nvidia responds.

 

[Termie]

About time - AMD is the price/performance leader once again.

So, was it worth it financially for AMD, in terms of higher margins versus lost sales, to overprice ever card in the 7000 series by $50-$150? An interesting business case study, no doubt.

 

[SolMiester]

Big question is, will NV drop as well?

 

[SirPauly]

Competition is wonderful and nice to see much stronger 28nm price/performance. Bundle is good news, too.

 

[AnandThenMan]

So, was it worth it financially for AMD, in terms of higher margins versus lost sales, to overprice ever card in the 7000 series by $50-$150? An interesting business case study, no doubt.

I don't find it much of an interesting study at all, we've seen the same scenario a thousand times. Nvidia didn't have 28nm competition for months so AMD took advantage, now that there is competition the market self adjusts.

 

[Siberian]

Big question is, will NV drop as well?

It would be nice. But it seems like they are selling them as fast as they can make them.

 

[ocre]

this is really great. I am soooo glad to see the 28nm cards getting really appealing.

Its a strong move. I dont think Nvidia will respond right away. I bet AMD feels the same way. This is great for them and they really should start moving tons of cards, flying out the door.

just like that, it happened.......

AMD has a very very strong line up and unbelievable prices.

Very NICE!!!!!

 

[Vesku]

AMD didn't have an unlimited supply of 28nm, either. If they had launched at current prices they'd probably have been as hard to buy as the GTX 680 was at launch.

Now, Nvidia has still grumbling about supply constraints. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2012/08/13/nvidia-28nm-shortages/1

Good news on the game bundles though, Borderlands 2 on one hand and Sleeping Dogs on the other. Not too shabby

 

[Jovec]

Big question is, will NV drop as well?

NO, they have the luxury of their brand which allows them to keep their price/performance to a worse ratio than AMD. Or to put it another way, Nvidia cards will continue to demand a noticeable price premium.

 

[AnandThenMan]

NO, they have the luxury of their brand which allows them to keep their price/performance to a worse ratio than AMD. Or to put it another way, Nvidia cards will continue to demand a noticeable price premium.

Going by history, Nvidia will drop prices when they see their sales numbers slipping. People are brand loyal but they are more loyal to their wallets. BTW quarter over quarter Nvidia saw discrete drop 10.4%, so they might want to give their sales a kick in the pants for back to school.

 

[blackened23]

Sleeping dogs is actually a great game and has all of the graphical options that any PC gamer would want.....not a bad choice on their part.

I suggest everyone pick this up (the game!), its one of the best looking games to have been released as of late.

 

[BD231]

That was quick, 660Ti is crap @ $300.

 

[Phynaz]

Big question is, will NV drop as well?

I hope so. 660ti will not be worth the price premium, and I really wanted one.

 

[AnandThenMan]

I think the 660 will drop in price in the next 2-3 weeks, just a hunch.

 

[Siberian]

I hope so. 660ti will not be worth the price premium, and I really wanted one.

It performs as well as a 7950 and is cheaper. It also comes with Borederlands 2 on Newegg. Can't beat that.

 

[RussianSensation]

About time - AMD is the price/performance leader once again.

And single-GPU performance lead too.

Newegg has after-market Visiontek HD7970 GE for $430 with Lifetime Warranty on Newegg. That's $70 less than the cheapest reference GTX680. In general HD7970 GE is undercutting 680s substantially.

Cards such as the Gigabyte Windforce 3x 7970 are putting pricing pressure on the 670s.

OCed 7950s are the appealing enthusiast choice over $20 more than 660Tis. HD7870 will undercut 660Ti by $50 and offer just 10% less performance in many games.

HD7750/7770/7850 2GB still have no viable competition without using way more power.

Good thing to see fierce price competition finally this generation. This will only bode well for the consumer. Borderlands 2 and Sleeping Dogs are both good games. Great to see the return of game bundles with GPUs.

Side-Note: Maybe people will also stop posting Steam Sales Numbers to represent market share?

http://www.techpowerup.com/170575/G...Over-Last-Quarter-and-5.5-Over-Last-Year.html

- Nvidia gained in the notebook discrete segment (6%),
- AMD saw gains in the discrete desktop category (2.5%)
- Nvidia's desktop discrete shipments dropped 10.4% from last quarter

 

[RussianSensation]

It performs as well as a 7950 and is cheaper. It also comes with Borederlands 2 on Newegg. Can't beat that.

Only at stock speeds. However, Newegg has MSI TF3 7950 and Gigabyte Windforce for $330 that come with 880mhz-900mhz clocks. After-market GTX660Tis with factory pre-overclocks are already slower than an 880mhz MSI TF3 7950 as it is.

The real value in the after-market 7950 lies in the fact that it can OC to match a 1300mhz GTX670 for almost $70-100 less. The people on our forum buy 2500k/3570K and overclock them. 7950 is that exact same scenario on the GPU side, no different from the excellent GTX460.

An OCed 660Ti though can't even touch a GTX670 most of the time.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-benchmark-review,3279-11.html

That's simple mathematics at work. HD7950 is almost a full-fledged 7970 and GTX670 is barely a cut-down 680. Thus, HD7950 OC ~ GTX670 OC >>>>> GTX660Ti OCed.

The 660Ti also has risks of its own. Questionable if the 2GB of VRAM (or 1.5GB effective) will become an issue, can't handle DirectCompute code in games (Dirt Showdown, Sleeping Dogs, Sniper Elite V2), OCing benchmarks show that it cannot mask 24 ROP / 192-bit bus for MSAA and texture mods in games like Skyrim.

While an OCed 7950 goes head-to-head against an OCed 660Ti in Frostbite 2.0 BF3, 660Ti falls way short in the games where 7950 does well. That means the 660Ti isn't as well-rounded overall.

$20 more and after-market 7950 has the potential in it to pass HD7970 GE and GTX680 stock, GTX660Ti does not. And now you'll get Sleeping Dogs.

For non-overclockers, the 660Ti is also just 9-10% or so faster than the HD7870 at 1080P but costs $50 more. That's not great either.

It's easy to see that HD7850 for $209/HD7870 for $250 provide better value and HD7950 for $320-330 is faster since that means 880-900mhz 7950s, with additional 30-40% overclocking headroom.

 

[balane]

Wow, really great games to offer. Just my two cents. Much more enticing to me than some of the previous titles they offered.

 

[Bryf50]

Newegg has after-market Visiontek HD7970 GE for $430 with Lifetime Warranty on Newegg. That's $70 less than the cheapest reference GTX680. In general HD7970 GE is undercutting 680s substantially.

I've been looking into the sapphire Vapor-X but thats a hell of a price. Any idea if the hardware is beefed up like the Vapor-X is?

 

[exar333]

Great news on the price cuts, but this really only potentially affects the 660Ti IMHO. NV's offerings less than this are all previous-gen products, and it's anyone's guess if they will respond with reduced prices. If we do see the 660Ti drop $25-50, it becomes a much more attractive buy than it is today. Interested to see what develops here.

 

[Jaydip]

This is stupid from Amd's part.Why they feel threatened by 660ti?Instead they should discontinue the vanilla 7950 and ask the aibs to produce the heavily oced 7950 around 350$. Problem solved.With steps like these amd shatter their premium image to the end buyer.

 

[Phynaz]

It performs as well as a 7950 and is cheaper. It also comes with Borederlands 2 on Newegg. Can't beat that.

And for $50 less I can get a 7870 that trades blows with it in the games I play, uses less power, and comes with Sleeping Dogs.

So yes, I can beat that.

 

[3DVagabond]

I think the 660 will drop in price in the next 2-3 weeks, just a hunch.

assuming they have enough of them to compete on price. We saw what happened when they did that with the 680, they ran out.

http://www.techpowerup.com/170575/G...Over-Last-Quarter-and-5.5-Over-Last-Year.html

- Nvidia gained in the notebook discrete segment (6%),
- AMD saw gains in the discrete desktop category (2.5%)
- Nvidia's desktop discrete shipments dropped 10.4% from last quarter

No! No! They are selling them by the truckloads. More $400+ cards than AMD's entire lineup! They are so awesome that it makes no difference if they have cards to sell or not. /sarc

I would be shocked though if they don't show substantial profits overall.

 

[RussianSensation]

I've been looking into the sapphire Vapor-X but thats a hell of a price. Any idea if the hardware is beefed up like the Vapor-X is?

No. The Vapor-X is still much better. It can be found cheaper than $470. For $443 with $15 OFF using TECH101, it's good value on the high end although I still think MSI TF3 7950 is a better value. Tweaktown has the scoop:
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/48...3gb_overclocked_video_card_review/index1.html

65*C under load @ 1205mhz GPU Core, yet quieter noise levels than a 1265mhz GTX680 Lightning

Same cooler from the TOXIC:

That Visiontek 7970GE seems similar to this VTX card:

Review at TPU.

......

Sapphire is firing on all cylinders. Newegg just added HD7950 Vapor-X with 950mhz clocks. Price is way too high right now. If this card drops to $330, that's going to start a serious price war with the 660Ti 3GB versions.

 

[SirPauly]

I have a point: Wouldn't this reduced pricing gained much more traction when AMD announced the bios 7950 update before the official GTX 660 TI reviews? It may of changed many conclusions considering the GTX 660 ti is a competitor and how important reviews are.