How can I say no! MSI R9 290 for $220

[kawi6rr]

I wasn't officially in the market to buy a new card my R9 280x has been great. I picked it up a year ago for $314 but this just seems to good to pass up.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127774

Is there a better deal out there at the moment?

 

[wand3r3r]

Why would you link to an IP? (I'm not clicking that)

$220 for a custom cooled r9 290 is a great deal.

 

[kawi6rr]

It's the link to NewEggs details on that particular card so when you click on it it goes to NewEgg.

 

[positivedoppler]

Why would you link to an IP? (I'm not clicking that)

$220 for a custom cooled r9 290 is a great deal.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127774

 

[boozzer]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127774

one of the worst custom cooled 290s pay a bit more for a peace of mind people.

 

[notty22]

one of the worst custom cooled 290s pay a bit more for a peace of mind people.

The gaming series, twin freezer 5 are great coolers. What is that info based on your citing ?

 

[boozzer]

The gaming series, twin freezer 5 are great coolers. What is that info based on your citing ?

mostly from user reviews across alot of websites. I did alot of reading before buying my 290.

 

[notty22]

I also have payed 'a little more' to get the particular cooler/model of the gpu I have settled on. Case, the gtx 460's I bought cost me extra at the time. The ops deal sounds pretty good. A month ago(about) the Vapor X 290 was 460.00. So a decent model is now 1/2 as expensive. Crazy.

 

[Rvenger]

That card is actually $210 AR with the Visa Checkout 10% code. You can use that code since it doesn't come with the 3 free games. Killer Deal!!!


OP link is legit, Newegg must be having issues with their URL. I fixed it for him anyways.

 

[tviceman]

WOOOOW. AMD prices have plummeted since 980/970 arrived. People in the market for a new sweet-spot card right now, and have the CPU & PSU capable of adequately powering these beasts are getting incredible perf/$ deals. I kind of feel sorry for AMD. Can they be making any money off this card at that price? I know the old GTX 260's used to get pretty cheap and had a large die, but that was several nodes ago when wafer prices were way less expensive (not to mention vram size/price differences and PCB configurations).

 

[thilanliyan]

Wow, that's a crazy deal, considering I paid $400 for a reference 290 around launch.

 

[AtenRa]

Yea at that price it makes the GTX970 even at $330 overpriced.

edit: Hell i just realized R9 285 MSRP was $249

 

[moonbogg]

I remember when people were paying like $700 for those cards. That was so crazy, and yeah, that is a good deal on that 290. If I was in the market I would have some good choices right now.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Is there a better deal out there at the moment?

Looking, I'd say the $150 280 for a standalone card due to its overclocking headroom. But for a build, since you're looking at ~40% more performance for ~10% more total price, that 290 looks pretty good.

 

[Cerb]

Looking, I'd say the $150 280 for a standalone card due to its overclocking headroom. But for a build, since you're looking at ~40% more performance for ~10% more total price, that 290 looks pretty good.

But, all that bandwidth, and all those vector lanes...frame time graphs for the 290 and up and 770 and up are pretty sweet. Even when Geforces beat the crap out of them, the frame times stay good, where they start getting much more variable as you go lower in performance.

At $210, you could almost water cool one for less than a 970 (you surely could, comparing to the $380+ 970s).

 

[RussianSensation]

WOOOOW. AMD prices have plummeted since 980/970 arrived. People in the market for a new sweet-spot card right now, and have the CPU & PSU capable of adequately powering these beasts are getting incredible perf/$ deals. I kind of feel sorry for AMD. Can they be making any money off this card at that price? I know the old GTX 260's used to get pretty cheap and had a large die, but that was several nodes ago when wafer prices were way less expensive (not to mention vram size/price differences and PCB configurations).

1. Wow, at these prices I could upgrade to 3x 290s on the cheap after resale of 7970s. For $110 extra you could get 2 of these vs. an MSI Gaming 970! Incredible for high rez gaming.

Our prices in Canada are a joke in comparison -- add 13% on top for taxes too:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/adva...R9+290&sid=tqmbhf8327ogda8g3fuagi7si0&x=0&y=0

2. I think AMD may have too much inventory from mining days. Remember when NV delayed launching GTX660/660Ti and KitGuru reported 120,000 unsold GTX560Ti/570 cards? Maybe if AMD is planning to have 300 series in Q1 2015, a historically weak quarter for GPUs, it's better to empty excess supply in Q4 than have million of unsold 290 cards.

3. In 1-2 weeks post 970/980 launch, 780Ti dropped $300-350 from $650-700. Since R9 290's MSRP was $399, $220-230 is pretty similar in % terms to how much NV lowered prices on the 780Ti. AMD's gross margin is about half of NV's.

4. If I were a Titan owner, I would make a mental note to never spend $1000 on any single GPU card, considering less than 2 years after it launched, you can buy 4 cards with near Titan performance. Holly cow depreciation.

5. I bought my MSI HD4890 for $175 after rebate, when GTX285 was going for $325. AMD offering incredible price/performance goes all the way back to 2008's 4850/4870. You can generally buy 2 of AMD's 2nd best single-GPU cards for the price of 1 flagship NV card. This has been true every generation since 4850 when sales occur.

6. MS has a very aggressive XB1 bundles at $350 but these are US-specific. In most parts of the world, we never see such aggressive price competition as you guys do. Consider yourselves ucky!

7. It's not only AMD low-balling but NV overpricing their cards that creates such a large disparity at times. Most people don't actually believe 980 is a flagship product. It's basically a GTX460/GTX 560Ti priced at $550. The real price should be more like $399-429. Once R9 390X and GM200 launch in 2015, 980 won't be $550 I bet. NV will probably release a refresh of 980 for $399 similar to 680--> 770.

 

[kawi6rr]

I bought my MSI HD4890 for $175 after rebate, when GTX285 was going for $325. AMD offering incredible price/performance goes all the way back to 2008's 4850/4870. You can generally buy 2 of AMD's 2nd best single-GPU cards for the price of 1 flagship NV card. This has been true every generation since 4850 when sales occur.

I just built a new computer last year but the one I built in 2008 I purchased the 4850 for that build because of the pricing on it. Before that 2008 build I had an nVidia card, the only issue I have with nVidia is their pricing that's why the last 3 builds I've had AMD cards in them. I put 7790 in my sons computer 6 months back and he games pretty well on it, got that card for cheap too.

 

[RussianSensation]

I just built a new computer last year but the one I built in 2008 I purchased the 4850 for that build because of the pricing on it. Before that 2008 build I had an nVidia card, the only issue I have with nVidia is their pricing that's why the last 3 builds I've had AMD cards in them. I put 7790 in my sons computer 6 months back and he games pretty well on it, got that card for cheap too.

That's why for me as a gamer in recent years the NV business model they pitch to me makes no sense. Why would I pay $100-300 more for slightly more performance when I can put aside that money and just upgrade quicker and get wayyyy more performance from next gen cards? I have said it for years if one upgrades every 2-3 years, the NV path costs thousand(s) more over 10 years and every time their best card is on average 18-20% faster which makes no difference for future games. By the time you need the extra power, cards come out 60-100% faster.

 

[AtenRa]

I just built a new computer last year but the one I built in 2008 I purchased the 4850 for that build because of the pricing on it. Before that 2008 build I had an nVidia card, the only issue I have with nVidia is their pricing that's why the last 3 builds I've had AMD cards in them. I put 7790 in my sons computer 6 months back and he games pretty well on it, got that card for cheap too.

That was the case from 38xx all the way to 69xx, 79xx series came at higher prices at launch.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I think AMD may have too much inventory from mining days.

AMDs financials doesnt show mining was the big hit that was claimed.

It seems 290 is being dumped. (Maybe before a 285X launch.) And its quite obvious that its an uncontrolled situation. AIBs prices are over the place and 285 is still mainly at 249$ with only 1 AIB at 219$ (199 with rebate).

Also AMD and inventory is something that havent worked well for quite some years. They desperately need better logistics.

 

[RussianSensation]

There have been many times when AMD has excess inventory. Not sure why you are denying that. They lost a lot of $ on excess Trinity / APUs. I haven't look at AMD's financials recently but I am not sure why you are so quick to deny that AMD could have overproduced too much inventory due to artificial demand during mining. Now they need to clear all that away. If not true, then it's a smart way to lock in gamers for 2-3 years before their next upgrade. The fact that 290 is cheaper than 280X is more support there is excess AIB inventory of Hawaii. We also can't assume it's AMD that's taking the full hit on margins. It's probably shared with AIBs in some form. Either way the 290 in the US is completely unbeatable. Many gamers don't want to spend above $299 and R9 offering 90-95% of 970's performance for $220-250 is an awesome value. That's like having $100-120 extra for steam games during Halloween and Winter sale.

 

[ShintaiDK]

There have been many times when AMD has excess inventory. Not sure why you are denying that.

I didnt deny it, not sure where you got that notion from. But claiming its due to mining is just a really bad excuse. Its a chronic problem with the company for years.

 

[kawi6rr]

That's why for me as a gamer in recent years the NV business model they pitch to me makes no sense. Why would I pay $100-300 more for slightly more performance when I can put aside that money and just upgrade quicker and get wayyyy more performance from next gen cards? I have said it for years if one upgrades every 2-3 years, the NV path costs thousand(s) more over 10 years and every time their best card is on average 18-20% faster which makes no difference for future games. By the time you need the extra power, cards come out 60-100% faster.

I couldn't agree more! I used that 2008/4850 computer until last year and had no issues with the small amount of gaming I do. In fact that build even played Mechwarrior Online pretty well for its age but I felt it was old enough and that's the longest I've kept a single computer ever so I needed an upgrade. Fact aside that cheap 4850 did everything I needed for years so I didn't feel I needed an upgrade for that period of time.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Is there a better deal out there at the moment?

Nope.

 

[tviceman]

Once R9 390X and GM200 launch in 2015, 980 won't be $550 I bet. NV will probably release a refresh of 980 for $399 similar to 680--> 770.

The 390x vs. GM200 should be interesting. I think 390x will be on 20nm, while GM200 will still be on 28nm. AMD will obviously have the process advantage, but will also carry with it the burden of higher costs and more defects per wafer. I think GM200 will end up faster by a small amount, but 390x is obviously going to be a much smaller die.