[FZ] Radeon R290X cards on allocation - Demand higher than expected

[wand3r3r]

Not much of a surprise, anyways Fudzilla has an article summarizing what most of us know.

Demand higher than expected
Since the Hawaii launch, the Radeon R9 290X has been a hot topic – literally. The card runs at 95 degrees Celsius, performs on par or better similar or better than competing cards from Nvidia and at the same time it costs less. Many people chose the Radeon R9 290X over Nvidia GTX 780 and Geforce GTX 780 TI cards, but for the most part, the new Hawaii cards are hard to get.

Our contacts are telling us that these cards are selling out quickly and that AMD cannot make enough of them to meet demand. Just recently we started to see custom cooled cards from Sapphire and XFX and we are sure that many others will follow. In addition, cheaper R9 290 custom cards are on the way.


The problem is hard to fix as the $549 card is more attractive than the top Nvidia card, which is priced significantly higher and starts at $679. Oveclocked cards with custom cooling sell for $700 or more.
Our sources are telling us that cards are selling better than AMD and partners originally expected. Independent sources who like to remain anonymous for obvious reasons do claim that the hot Radeon R9 290X was the best selling high-end graphics card that they saw in many years.
Once you get the price and performance right, the market reacts positively and when the response is too positive, this is what happens.

The final bolded sentence caught my eye. In the end it's still not much of a surprise, AMD got lucky due to the mining craze. If it weren't for miners the reference card would probably teach them a lesson on it. I wish we had numbers to compare to every high end card in each generation.

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/33675-radeon-r290x-cards-on-allocation

 

[Spidre]

There's a lot of sensationalism in that article, but it's clear the demand is higher than the supply for the 290 series. It could be from more than just the mining craze though. AMD might not have anticipated the demand and may have not binned as many chips as usual before launching.

 

[wand3r3r]

I think it's mostly true/truthful, but they left out mining which is the primary cause of everything AMD being sold out (and certain retailers gouging, but even in the AT hot deals there have been cards a lot closer to retail than the past few weeks and some retailers haven't gouged at all, but it's not a global phenomena - the gouging). The bolded sentence has to be taken with a grain of salt since we can never see the numbers. I'll take their secret source over a forum of err... fans anyway, not that I put too much faith in it.

 

[KompuKare]

Hope this doesn't give them the idea that releasing a new high end card without bothering to design a decent cooler is actually a good idea though...

 

[IEC]

Hope this doesn't give them the idea that releasing a new high end card without bothering to design a decent cooler is actually a good idea though...

Reference cooler was fine for gaming if you set it at 47% fan which wasn't bad at all. I only upgraded to a Gelid on my reference 290 for mining...

 

[sushiwarrior]

Hope this doesn't give them the idea that releasing a new high end card without bothering to design a decent cooler is actually a good idea though...

If I had to hazard a guess, the primary issue was the heat put out by the silicon, rather than the cooler. It uses more watts than GK110, hence even with equal coolers the 110 would run cooler.

And AMD has always been about barebones cooling to reduce the BoM, but I agree they went a bit too far this time. I guess they could have packed more heatsink under the shroud...

 

[amenx]

Aside from the mining appeal of the cards, a vital piece of info that is missing is numbers. How many units have AMD been producing? 10,000? 100,000? If they didnt make that many units to start with (ie, far fewer then Nvidias 780/Ti ??), then it would put a different spin on things.

Didnt they have a similar situation with the 5870 when it was hard to get for a few months after release? I suspect with their financial situation, they may be a little paranoiac with regards to inventory, so they under-produce, especially with high ticket items like the 290/x.

 

[PliotronX]

 

[Pandamonia]

IT will die when people realise that is has no intrinsic value at all. its a huge ponze scheme

 

[Smoblikat]

IT will die when people realise that is has no intrinsic value at all. its a huge ponze scheme

Ummmm, paper currency has no intrinsic value at all......and thats still around.

ON TOPIC: I really think AMD hit the sweet spot with the 290X, good price/performance. Throw a waterblock on it and you are all set.

 

[wand3r3r]

Aside from the mining appeal of the cards, a vital piece of info that is missing is numbers. How many units have AMD been producing? 10,000? 100,000? If they didnt make that many units to start with (ie, far fewer then Nvidias 780/Ti ??), then it would put a different spin on things.

Didnt they have a similar situation with the 5870 when it was hard to get for a few months after release? I suspect with their financial situation, they may be a little paranoiac with regards to inventory, so they under-produce, especially with high ticket items like the 290/x.

I know, it's annoying to have an article without a single number. We need the numbers.

coins

I don't mind if they stick around for a while, however they should flood the market with cards and just ramp up production to meet demand.

I won't be surprised if they don't simply because if the coin craze dies down shortly, there will be a literal flood of 3 generations of AMD cards hitting ebay.

 

[24601]

http://alienbabeltech.com/abt/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=32104&start=10#p102009

Hey look, I'm an investigative journalist now.

Money plix :O

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I read an article from wired where some silicon valley execs are expecting the value of a single bitcoin to read $10,000. One guy even said they could go up to $100,000 a piece.

I'm holding on to mine for dear life haha.

 

[Pandamonia]

Ummmm, paper currency has no intrinsic value at all......and thats still around.

ON TOPIC: I really think AMD hit the sweet spot with the 290X, good price/performance. Throw a waterblock on it and you are all set.

Paper money is backed by a central bank and a huge economy.

Bitcoin is backed by no one and as soon as it starts being use for terrorism the US will shut it down.

 

[3DVagabond]

Aside from the mining appeal of the cards, a vital piece of info that is missing is numbers. How many units have AMD been producing? 10,000? 100,000? If they didnt make that many units to start with (ie, far fewer then Nvidias 780/Ti ??), then it would put a different spin on things.

Didnt they have a similar situation with the 5870 when it was hard to get for a few months after release? I suspect with their financial situation, they may be a little paranoiac with regards to inventory, so they under-produce, especially with high ticket items like the 290/x.

There is no reason to disregard the mining craze. It would be the reason for both the shortage and the price increase.

As far as the rest, since AMD sells less than nVidia then it would only make sense they would allocate for less. Nothing to do with being cautious or financially strapped. Just really basic math.

Yes, the 5870 went out of stock. They basically priced it too low for the market. They could be accused of doing that again, but I really think it's the coin craze that's the main issue.

 

[Gloomy]

Paper money is backed by a central bank and a huge economy.

Bitcoin is backed by no one and as soon as it starts being use for terrorism the US will shut it down.

lmao, as soon as it starts being used for large scale illicit purposes, it's more likely the US government will be behind it

 

[Imouto]

http://alienbabeltech.com/abt/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=32104&start=10#p102009

Hey look, I'm an investigative journalist now.

Money plix :O

Quite fun if it wasn't totally wrong.

 

[Silverforce11]

Ummmm, paper currency has no intrinsic value at all......and thats still around.

ON TOPIC: I really think AMD hit the sweet spot with the 290X, good price/performance. Throw a waterblock on it and you are all set.

No way, the R290X is an overpriced card in comparison to the R290. Negligible difference clock for clock and save yourself $150.

Really at MSRP of $400, R290 is one of the best high end value in a long time. Normally high end and value don't even go together.

 

[XiandreX]

No way, the R290X is an overpriced card in comparison to the R290. Negligible difference clock for clock and save yourself $150.

Really at MSRP of $400, R290 is one of the best high end value in a long time. Normally high end and value don't even go together.

The Saphire R9-290 Tri X is one hell of a card. Overclocks well, runs very cool and is not very expensive. I know its not ideal for CF but for a single card solution its darn near perfect.

 

[sandorski]

This past Quarter should be a good one for AMD.

 

[ShintaiDK]

They forgot to say its US only. Also I doubt its the 290X. Since both the 280X and 290 is better value for mining. And the obvious, the higher bin the less amount.

Sensasionalism at best.

 

[PPB]

They forgot to say its US only. Also I doubt its the 290X. Since both the 280X and 290 is better value for mining. And the obvious, the higher bin the less amount.

Sensasionalism at best.

You have already been told that in other EU countries the trend is the same. Just because YOUR particular place of living isnt the case, that doesnt make the rest of europe the same, even less asia.

The sensacionalism/fud is on your part, drop it already.

 

[Silverforce11]

It's the same in Oceania, SE Asia.. they get sold out really fast when stock comes in. There's a huge backlog on the sapphire Tri-X in our "newegg".