Are you buying a HD 7970 on Monday the 9th?

[3DVagabond]

I didn't think I would need sarcasm tags, but it looks like some people still need them.

At least a smiley, maybe. There are actually a lot of people who believe that simply because it's a smaller process that it's automatically cheaper to manufacture. Good to see you aren't one of them. :thumbsup:

 

[xp0c]

I'd like to see Asus or MSI come out with there own cooling on launch day, but if not I will order whatever is out on the 12th (pay day), if they are available. If they are hard to get, it will be easier to wait and see how the 7950 performs, or if it can be unlocked to a full blown 7970.

 

[Don Karnage]

I'd like to see Asus or MSI come out with there own cooling on launch day, but if not I will order whatever is out on the 12th (pay day), if they are available. If they are hard to get, it will be easier to wait and see how the 7950 performs, or if it can be unlocked to a full blown 7970.

Asus will be 3 slot cooling if it does and i sure as heck don't want that

 

[Quantos]

Oh, no definitely not. I'll be waiting for the 7950 reviews, and I'll also wait to see how custom 7970 are.

 

[Porter_]

yep i'll be buying on day one. currently running SLI 460's and i'm ready to go back to a single card.

 

[superjim]

I consider myself a hardcore gamer but not an "enthusiast" level gamer that this thing is targeted too. I'll wait for Pitcairn reviews, specifically the 7870.

 

[xp0c]

Asus will be 3 slot cooling if it does and i sure as heck don't want that

True, I don't want that either.
MSI twin frozr, or the MSI lightening then. lol

 

[Wuzup101]

My current cards are fast enough for what I need (I only run at 1920x1200). Based on the overclocking, I might consider swapping both my 6950s for a (single) 7970 in the future, but not at launch. I would need more information. My current cards should keep me running most games at high settings with plenty playable frame rates at least until the 8 series launches (and/or NV launches something perhaps driving down prices).

 

[smackababy]

I will be buying once as soon as a good waterblock comes out for them. =(

 

[Piano Man]

Not a chance, but I'll be jelly of those of you who are

 

[MKOdoric]

Yes, definitely. I think it's time to retire my 4870 512MB.

 

[taltamir]

Over at Overclock. Let me find the link

http://www.overclock.net/t/1192539/fud-amd-hd-7950-wont-show-up-on-january-9th

Speculation is that amd doesn't want to make the same mistake it did with the 6950

that isn't the source, that is a forum post where a guy links to a FUD article (the actual source).

 

[Kloreep]

I consider myself a hardcore gamer but not an "enthusiast" level gamer that this thing is targeted too. I'll wait for Pitcairn reviews, specifically the 7870.

Also waiting for Pitcairn. Or at least the 7950.

 

[ckelly]

I've got a placeholder ATI workstation card in my newly-assembled system. I'll be ordering day one for sure. MSI or Asus.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

Nah my Space Heaters still doing the job. Had to buy my wife a 1500W hair dryer when I sneaked these cards in. I mean getting new ones I have to start look for 3000W hair dryers and some serious shoe shopping

 

[Soccerman06]

Only if theres a non reference cooler available at launch.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

If I were Nvidia I would drop the 580s to 300. Not like theyre going to get sold anyway and just collecting dust. Sell 300 of them is a bigger profit than selling 50 or so at the current price

 

[Quantos]

If I were Nvidia I would drop the 580s to 300. Not like theyre going to get sold anyway and just collecting dust. Sell 300 of them is a bigger profit than selling 50 or so at the current price

I'd say it depends what the production cost is. Surely at some point you've got to sell the damn things, but the best is to maximize profit without even having a stock of hard seller cards that are impossible to sell without losing money on each unit. If they don't drop the price right now, that could happen at some point. If, on the other hand, they slowly drop the price so that it's always at least a decent value, then they keep selling cards and don't end up ever with a huge stack of cards that are impossible to sell.

$300 right now would not only be too low relative to the card's performance, it would also be way too low a profit margin, if any at all. Let's say the 7970 sells at ~$575. Considering the stock performance and OC margin, the 7970 has a quite good performance boost on the 580, but it's definitely not requiring the 580 to be dropped to 300$. Something like $450 actual selling price would be more than enough for it to be good value.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

Couple of months ago my rig still felt like a E-Peen rig. New CPU's new GPU's got released and it feels like its shrinking into a Small Peen one

 

[taltamir]

$300 right now would not only be too low relative to the card's performance, it would also be way too low a profit margin, if any at all. Let's say the 7970 sells at ~$575. Considering the stock performance and OC margin, the 7970 has a quite good performance boost on the 580, but it's definitely not requiring the 580 to be dropped to 300$. Something like $450 actual selling price would be more than enough for it to be good value.

I believe his argument is that selling existing stock at a loss (and halting production) is better then not selling any at all.

nVidia needs to get their own 28nm chips out ASAP

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

I'd say it depends what the production cost is. Surely at some point you've got to sell the damn things, but the best is to maximize profit without even having a stock of hard seller cards that are impossible to sell without losing money on each unit. If they don't drop the price right now, that could happen at some point. If, on the other hand, they slowly drop the price so that it's always at least a decent value, then they keep selling cards and don't end up ever with a huge stack of cards that are impossible to sell.

$300 right now would not only be too low relative to the card's performance, it would also be way too low a profit margin, if any at all. Let's say the 7970 sells at ~$575. Considering the stock performance and OC margin, the 7970 has a quite good performance boost on the 580, but it's definitely not requiring the 580 to be dropped to 300$. Something like $450 actual selling price would be more than enough for it to be good value.

Think the fact like Xmas and such is over now that they are reluctant to give away any specials. Amd is also in a position to put some squeeze on them make them rush their product and so on by dropping the 6950 prices or 6970. But I think they are afraid Nvidia dropping the 580 and the price gap between the 580 and 6970 might be the actuall performance difference. They filled every slot almost if you look. 300 now 450 maybe another release to cover between 350 to 450. Nvidia might do theyre usual thing by dropping a 128bit bus on a 560 or so like they usually do or put a crapload of gddr3 ram on one

 

[Quantos]

Sure they cannot be left with unsold 580s that are impossible to sell without a loss. I just don't see why they would have to drop the price in one go, though. That's just not necessary, even considering AMD has new cards to fill the gaps.

The 7950 is really the card we're talking about here, because it's the one most likely to equate 580 performance. The 580 is a bad sell at $500 compared to the 7970. That means that if the 7950 performs just like the 580, AMD aren't going to release the card at $500, that simply wouldn't work. Say they'd release the 7950 at $450 then. There's no reason why Nvidia would drop the price further than $450 then, if it performs the same as the 7950. Even if the 7950 is a bit better than the 580, Nvidia can cut the price by a further 10/20 or 30 bucks no problem. There's no danger of undermining their own cards either, as the 570 is much lower, below $400.

Then what happens is that the 7870 becomes the joker (let's ignore the 7890 for now as I don't believe there's even a rumoured date for it). Depending on how it performs compared to both the 580 and 570, it could undermine them a lot. At rumoured pricing of $300, there's a lot of potential for it to be a much better value. Then again, the cards currently priced around that point also are much better value already.

 

[3DVagabond]

Sure they cannot be left with unsold 580s that are impossible to sell without a loss. I just don't see why they would have to drop the price in one go, though. That's just not necessary, even considering AMD has new cards to fill the gaps.

The 7950 is really the card we're talking about here, because it's the one most likely to equate 580 performance. The 580 is a bad sell at $500 compared to the 7970. That means that if the 7950 performs just like the 580, AMD aren't going to release the card at $500, that simply wouldn't work. Say they'd release the 7950 at $450 then. There's no reason why Nvidia would drop the price further than $450 then, if it performs the same as the 7950. Even if the 7950 is a bit better than the 580, Nvidia can cut the price by a further 10/20 or 30 bucks no problem. There's no danger of undermining their own cards either, as the 570 is much lower, below $400.

Then what happens is that the 7870 becomes the joker (let's ignore the 7890 for now as I don't believe there's even a rumoured date for it). Depending on how it performs compared to both the 580 and 570, it could undermine them a lot. At rumoured pricing of $300, there's a lot of potential for it to be a much better value. Then again, the cards currently priced around that point also are much better value already.

I think the 7950 is going to be ~10% faster overall than the 580. I can't see it being more than about 15% slower than the 7970. The 7870 should fall in close to 580 performance.

 

[Madcatatlas]

Not sure, i have 2x460s now and im not experiancing bad performance. The problem i have is with sudden shutdowns of the graphics car drivers and exiting games i play... its just not fun and i havent heard any fix is in the works from Nvidia. So "maybe" is my answer. a single 7970 which performs at about 50% better than a 580 would be interesting.

 

[Lepton87]

I never understood the big fuss about unlocking Radeon 6950 cards. It's a paltry 3-5% gain in performance, it's so small it's imperceptible. I used to have 6990+2 ref 6950@1536SP and now I changed those two radeons for MSI TWIN FROZR + SAPPHIRE and I never even bothered to try to unlock those cards, the gain is so small it's not worth bothering. I changed those cards because I had two extra radeons from Bitcoin rig and it was much easier to sell ref unlocked radeons.