Bitcoin mining is ruining 280x prices for us

[3DVagabond]

I dont remember the 280x ever being $300, I thought it started retailing at around 330 and up.

They were $300 when released.

The Radeon R9 280X we have with us today is an interesting proposition for $299.

 

[nwo]

I bought 2x 280X earlier this month for $285 each. I wouldn't recommend spending over $300 (MSRP)

Yep, they were definitely going for $300 or less about a month ago.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Is SLI or Crossfire even worth it these days? Do the stuttering, and other problems that has plagued it for years still apply? Could I not SLI some 760's or crossfire some r270's and get some great performance.

IMHO, SLI and Xfire make the most sense if you're either driving a single > 1080p, or multiple >= 1080p displays.

Before the recent price jumps, you could find 7950s for as low as $150 brand new on sale, 7970s for as low as $180 brand new on sale. That should give you an idea of how inflated prices are and where prices will go if cryptocoin prices fall back to where they were 2 months ago.

^ This. I bought two PowerColor 7870s during BF week for ~$101 AR each. When the LTC bubble happened, I decided that my old 5830 + 7770 were just fine and made $100 a card after flipping them on eBay the very next week.

 

[Morbus]

Not sure what the LOL is for. Spending $300 for a GPU with only 2GB of VRAM is not wise if one intends to keep it for longer than 15 months. The best decision is to get a 770 2GB and sell it within a 15 months window.

Dude, my last VGA was a 4 year old HD4890 with 1GB or VRAM and TODAY it plays nearly everything I throw at it. Certainly it won't play Crysis 3 (Dx11 only) or Battlefield 4 or a couple of other newer games out there, but that's hardly because of the lack of VRAM. It all comes down to the chip and the architecture.

By the time 2GB VRAM becomes a requirement for any game, the performance elsewhere will be so slow you'll need to upgrade anyway. Besides, VRAM usage is really easy to get around: you just drop the texture detail. Not so much with every other single setting. Which is to say: if you your card has a week point, let it be your VRAM. It has worked for me since forever.

This is pretty easy to see in the 4GB versions of the 770. Because the card only has a 256bit bus, it will never be able to efficiently handle that much VRAM. 3GB is already a stretch, and that's why the red side has 384bit buses...

Now, I won't deny that it's not BETTER to have more VRAM, of course it is, but to sacrifice elsewhere because of it, it's not.

After that it will follow the fate of all the other cards whose resale value/performance got penalized by lack of VRAM

8800GTS 320MB
8800GT 256MB
5870 1GB
GTX570 1.28GB / GTX580 1.5GB

Well, true, but depending on how long you keep your card (and if you're worried about longevity, chances are you'll want to keep it for more than two years) the differences of price will be peanuts. You might get 30$ more for a 280X than a 770 in two years. Dat profit...

 

[JumBie]

Before the recent price jumps, you could find 7950s for as low as $150 brand new on sale, 7970s for as low as $180 brand new on sale. That should give you an idea of how inflated prices are and where prices will go if cryptocoin prices fall back to where they were 2 months ago.

Wow...well I guess I sold my 7970 too soon, sold it for $300 flat. Probably could have made more. But damn, I should have purchased a r280x right when they were released. The inflated price doesn't make it worth it right now. If I take advantage of that discount from the games on newegg for a 770 then I might go for it. But 2gb might run out quick on Arma 3 even at 1080p.

 

[Demoralized]

Sold my R9 280x for $450. A little low compared to others but I made $100 so I can't complain.

 

[f1sherman]

Agreed... $300+ for a GPU with 2GB RAM is not really optimal.
Then again 4GB 770 are cheaper than 280X

And 280X is more expensive than 290 MSRP - HILLARIOUS hahaha sorry but it's funny to see US prices being same as EU causing near-rebellion.
I hope AMD is making some money of this mining craze.

 

[blackened23]

Agreed... $300+ for a GPU with 2GB RAM is not really optimal.
Then again 4GB 770 are cheaper than 280X

And 280X is more expensive than 290 MSRP - HILLARIOUS hahaha sorry but it's funny to see US prices being same as EU causing near-rebellion.
I hope AMD is making some money of this mining craze.

Seems like the etailers are making bank from the miners more than AMD. Amazon, newegg, and NCIX all have the 280X at inflated prices - 400$ minimum nearly across the board at all 3. It isn't just newegg. Everyone. So yeah it's not even a contest right now in the 770s favor, and the 4GB version is still cheaper with 3 free games. Or you can use masterpass if you call newegg up and have them remove the games, that should net around 40$ off.

 

[f1sherman]

Seems like the etailers are making bank from the miners more than AMD. Amazon, newegg, and NCIX all have the 280X is laughably inflated prices. 400$ minimum nearly across the board at all 3.

That would not surprise me at all. AMD being fast to react and ambidextrous as a whale...

 

[JumBie]

Whats going to be the worst is having people offloading all the 280's that have been computing 24/7 into the market after this craze starts dying, if it ever does.

 

[blackened23]

Is SLI or Crossfire even worth it these days? Do the stuttering, and other problems that has plagued it for years still apply? Could I not SLI some 760's or crossfire some r270's and get some great performance.

Eh. Xfire? I'd say that's a no-go. Crossfire still has bugs and issues that have existed several years for all 280X/79xx and below cards. Namely, crossfire with DX9 titles still have microstutter, and crossfire + eyefinity still has microstutter. Ubisoft titles also do not have crossfire profiles with few exceptions. AMD tends to cover AAA titles well, but non AAA titles - a lot of them don't work well with xfire. I would not put much faith in AMD's software team being that this has been a problem with the 280X and below cards for some time. And still not fixed. Years later. Conversely, SLI is very good. Kepler GPUs all have frame pacing working for everything - DX9, surround, etc, and they're good with profiles for all titles. Not just AAA titles. So if you go SLI you'll be good to go.

That said, the 760 isn't a particularly good bargain. I think a 770 would be just fine for 1080p to be honest - i'm not sure you'd need the additional horsepower of 760sli/780 unless you plan to upgrade your resolution or use lightboost. If you do choose to go for a 500$ solution, you might as well just get a 780 IMO, i'd probably opt for that over 760 SLI but that's just me. It will be slower in some titles, but not all of them (depending on SLI scaling.)

The entire mining thing is just unfortunate. Prior to that, 7950s were easily found less than 200$ and 7970s were on sale for 270$ at times. At those prices, they were an incredible value - unfortunately those days are just long gone. Unless mining implodes again. Another thing I don't get - the 7950 doesn't have a replacement. It went EOL and the 280X is a 7970, while the 270X is a 7870. No 7950 replacement found. Not sure why.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

I think it will be released as a 280 if the need arises. Right now they do not see a need for a 7950 replacement due to nvidia not having a direct competitor at that price point (~250) for mining and gaming.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Whats going to be the worst is having people offloading all the 280's that have been computing 24/7 into the market after this craze starts dying, if it ever does.

Depends on how people take care of their cards. I pushed a bunch of 7970s, 6970s, 6950s and 5830s decently. Still use some of them in spare rigs and such, work perfectly fine (with the exception of Sapphire fans needing regreasing after running at 70% 24/7)

 

[wand3r3r]

You guys need to watch retailers, more so than etailers if you actually want to buy. Actually there are etailers with cards in stock often near MSRP, but retailers aren't gouging as badly.

 

[IEC]

You guys need to watch retailers, more so than etailers if you actually want to buy. Actually there are etailers with cards in stock often near MSRP, but retailers aren't gouging as badly.

Yeah, Fry's had some Radeons in stock yesterday at below MSRP both online and B&M... online didn't last long at all.

 

[nwo]

Yeah, Fry's had some Radeons in stock yesterday at below MSRP both online and B&M... online didn't last long at all.

Newegg had an open box Asus 280x for ~$300 after masterpass discount. They went out of stock within a few hours.

Gives me hope that they will soon go down to MSRP especially now that the (LTC) difficulty is going up again.

 

[Regs]

Seems like the etailers are making bank from the miners more than AMD. Amazon, newegg, and NCIX all have the 280X at inflated prices - 400$ minimum nearly across the board at all 3. It isn't just newegg. Everyone. So yeah it's not even a contest right now in the 770s favor, and the 4GB version is still cheaper with 3 free games. Or you can use masterpass if you call newegg up and have them remove the games, that should net around 40$ off.

Exactly. AMD is not shipping them anymore 280 or 290 because they simply don't have them to supply. They're missing out on sales. E-Retailers can't keep them on the shelves even on 30%-40% mark ups so they're having a ball. If AMD knew that this craze was going to be this big, they would of planned for more stock, but they just missed out on a huge profit making bubble.

 

[Ventanni]

Eh. Xfire? I'd say that's a no-go. Crossfire still has bugs and issues that have existed several years for all 280X/79xx and below cards. Namely, crossfire with DX9 titles still have microstutter, and crossfire + eyefinity still has microstutter. Ubisoft titles also do not have crossfire profiles with few exceptions. AMD tends to cover AAA titles well, but non AAA titles - a lot of them don't work well with xfire. I would not put much faith in AMD's software team being that this has been a problem with the 280X and below cards for some time. And still not fixed. Years later. Conversely, SLI is very good. Kepler GPUs all have frame pacing working for everything - DX9, surround, etc, and they're good with profiles for all titles. Not just AAA titles. So if you go SLI you'll be good to go.

That said, the 760 isn't a particularly good bargain. I think a 770 would be just fine for 1080p to be honest - i'm not sure you'd need the additional horsepower of 760sli/780 unless you plan to upgrade your resolution or use lightboost. If you do choose to go for a 500$ solution, you might as well just get a 780 IMO, i'd probably opt for that over 760 SLI but that's just me. It will be slower in some titles, but not all of them (depending on SLI scaling.)

The entire mining thing is just unfortunate. Prior to that, 7950s were easily found less than 200$ and 7970s were on sale for 270$ at times. At those prices, they were an incredible value - unfortunately those days are just long gone. Unless mining implodes again. Another thing I don't get - the 7950 doesn't have a replacement. It went EOL and the 280X is a 7970, while the 270X is a 7870. No 7950 replacement found. Not sure why.

I agree about the 7950. I could have sworn I remember seeing it at the $189 range there for a few weeks too, as I was tempted to pick one up.

I actually see the mining situation to be good for AMD in the long run though. While it is unfortunate for us gamers who just want a decent gaming card (280x @ $299 is one steal of a deal imho), it does reinforce the legitimacy of the GCN architecture. Hopefully other programmers will eye its capabilities and create demand for future AMD products.

Boo hiss at the current 280x prices though!

 

[JDG1980]

Another thing I don't get - the 7950 doesn't have a replacement. It went EOL and the 280X is a 7970, while the 270X is a 7870. No 7950 replacement found. Not sure why.

I suspect that this is due to improved yields on TSMC's 28nm process (which is now fully mature). 7970/280X is a full Tahiti; 7950 is a Tahiti with some of the SPs disabled. In the early days, this would have been helpful in ensuring that not-quite-perfect silicon could still be used instead of being wasted. More recently, though, they were probably shipping silicon that could have been a full 7970, but was artificially cut down for marketing purposes.

Some evidence for this can be found in the fact that the R9 270 is no longer a cut-down Pitcairn as the 7850 was, but a fully enabled Pitcairn that is merely clocked lower than the 7870/270X. Presumably this is due to the improved yield, and presumably the same would also be true of a hypothetical R9 280 (non-X) if AMD ever decided to make one. But as long as they're selling Tahiti GPUs as fast as they can make them due to the mining craze, why would they cut their margins like that?

 

[nwo]

But as long as they're selling Tahiti GPUs as fast as they can make them due to the mining craze, why would they cut their margins like that?

There is simply no reason or need for it at this time. But if nvidia starts offering a $250 (MSRP) GPU that is only slightly slower than the 280x, AMD will have to release a 280. There is certainly room for it since AMD offers both 270 non x and 290 non x but not 280 non x at this time. But it will probably take months for that to occur, if it ever does.

 

[blackened23]

Eh? The 760 is uncontested at it's current pricepoint, and it actually sells extremely well. It is a perennial top 20 at amazon.com with tons of 760s occupying it. In fact, this card has been the #1 best seller at amazon for some two months running:

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-SuperCloc...ywords=gtx+760

That list is updated hourly by the way, and that 760 has been there (as far as I can tell) for 2 months or so. The 760 is a great deal faster than the 270X (200$), and AMD has nothing at the 250$ mark. So anyone with a 250-260$ budget defaults to the GTX 760, basically, as there is nothing on the AMD side to get. I disagree with you that there is no reason for it. Clearly there is. AMD has nothing to compete with the GTX 760 at its pricepoint right now. So i'm not sure how you could possibly state that there is no need for a 250$ pricepoint card. AMD could stand to get a good chunk of sales in the 250$ price bracket, but they don't have anything as of yet. Then again, a 7950 rebadge would probably just be price hiked because of mining. Yet in an ideal market, the point remains - a 250$ 7950 rebadge would be excellent. And it is needed.

 

[Insomniator]

Even with the inflated prices I don't see a good reason to sell my $180 7950 for ~$300. The 770 still costs more than that... has less vram and I'm not sure how much faster than a 7950 it is, both overclocked.

Am I wrong?

 

[blackened23]

You're not wrong. There's absolutely no reason to go from a 7950 to 770 especially if you're overclocking. I think the original Tahiti is an excellent OC'er.

 

[n0x1ous]

270 non x is great bang for buck miner! Will pay for itself in less than a month

 

[nwo]

270 non x is great bang for buck miner! Will pay for itself in less than a month

I don't know about it paying itself off in less than a month, but it sure is a great bang for the buck miner. It can easily get 450 or higher, which would take around a month and a half of or up to two months of LTC mining at current prices/difficulty.

My personal favorite is still my XFX 7850 1GB Core edition, which I grabbed for less than $90 after MIR & masterpass promo. Hashing away at 360kH/s.