Why are AMD prices inflated in many parts of the world?

[Mondozei]

This sub tends to have a US/NA-centric bias, which makes sense, because most people here are from these areas. Nevertheless, I have noticed that a lot of non-US buyers complained about high prices for AMD GPUs.

Ultimately, this thread is not really about AMD but about the GPU market. What makes the prices diverge? I believe some of our German posters have noted this price divergence. I've heard some Indians complain about it as well. If many parts of the world have consistently higher prices for one alternative, then it means one company will win by default, which means monopoly and higher prices for all of us in the end.

So I just wonder if anyone has any ideas/speculation as to why this price divergence exists.

 

[f2bnp]

In general, it has a lot to do with VATs, import costs and other stuff I can't really wrap my head around.
However, specifically for the case of the RX 470 and RX 480 cards... miners essentially. The situation seems to be pretty similar to the R9 290/290x three years ago. Supply for these cards is not insanely great and miners end up buying lots of them. I've seen people here showing off 12 of them for example.
Retailers then mark up the price a little bit, since they're already selling them really fast, why not make an extra buck out of this whole situation?

 

[SPBHM]

I would think Nvidia products are imported in larger quantities, whatever deal they get is better...

 

[Dribble]

In general, it has a lot to do with VATs, import costs and other stuff I can't really wrap my head around.
However, specifically for the case of the RX 470 and RX 480 cards... miners essentially. The situation seems to be pretty similar to the R9 290/290x three years ago. Supply for these cards is not insanely great and miners end up buying lots of them. I've seen people here showing off 12 of them for example.
Retailers then mark up the price a little bit, since they're already selling them really fast, why not make an extra buck out of this whole situation?

That makes no sense as the miners are mostly in NA, so it should be cheaper outside the US where demand is lower but it isn't!

 

[plopke]

I can buy everything most of the time for MSRP + VAT ± 10% as maximum price in Europe except AMD graphics cards , they just all over the place. And I noticed specially for graphics cards it is a list of many things.

1) Long supply chains with everyone grabbing a nice % of profits , unlike for example amazon.com/newegg for one big American market.
2) Always underestimating demand for European market for graphics cards and no control on which stores get supply.
3) stubborn retailers , who rather sit on stock than to cave in as the first one with lower prices.
4) Every few months European consumers studies shows that many Europeans do not look around and by that I mean in the European trading zone. This puts less competition pressure on retailers and less retailers pressing their international supplier to actually lower their prices for their region. For many people buying online is still awkward let alone buying online abroad.
Some stupid Belgium examples :
alternate.be is sometimes 50 euro more expensive for a graphics card than alternate.nl , if you contact alternate.nl you can get it for their price + 10 euro shipping.
5) no control on who buys the card , many times there is no "only one per customer" , which ends up in less people actually buying the brand.

 

[redzo]

I would think Nvidia products are imported in larger quantities, whatever deal they get is better...

This.
Probably due to both lower supply and less aib model variety on AMD's side.
There are so many different 1060s that it is hard to make up your mind.

 

[Yakk]

With the increasing demand worldwide AMD is experiencing they probably need to increase their production and inventories as well as expand their sales channels.

Since nvidia have much, much higher markups on their products to begin with these can probably be more easily be normalized worldwide.

 

[bononos]

There was some outcry over AMD inflated India's pricing and the article states:
"Sources say that the original astronomical price point was because AMD wasn't able to negotiate with distributors and OEMs for better pricing. Nvidia holds a near monopoly on GPU sales here, and AMD doesn't have control over this, they add."

 

[redzo]

There was some outcry over AMD inflated India's pricing and the article states:
"Sources say that the original astronomical price point was because AMD wasn't able to negotiate with distributors and OEMs for better pricing. Nvidia holds a near monopoly on GPU sales here, and AMD doesn't have control over this, they add."

Sad for them(AMD )if true. Market share bleeds. Bad price = Bad product. It's getting almost impossible to sell your product when facing something like this.

 

[bononos]

IIRC there was a poster from Poland complaining about pricing or something similar.

 

[Azix]

Its probably down to what people buy. If most of them are buying nvidia cards, retailers import more nvidia cards, you end up in a downward spiral of mediocrity. You guys should have bought more radeons. Its not even just the retailers, because if AMD sees that fewer radeons sell there, they might allocate less stock. Solution is probably a change in thinking of gamers there.

This.
Probably due to both lower supply and less aib model variety on AMD's side.
There are so many different 1060s that it is hard to make up your mind.

half of them are probably evga models. I remember they had a million 970s selling

There was some outcry over AMD inflated India's pricing and the article states:
"Sources say that the original astronomical price point was because AMD wasn't able to negotiate with distributors and OEMs for better pricing. Nvidia holds a near monopoly on GPU sales here, and AMD doesn't have control over this, they add."

Sad for them(AMD )if true. Market share bleeds. Bad price = Bad product. It's getting almost impossible to sell your product when facing something like this.

the same thing happened with pascal cards in india.

http://www.gigahertz.net.in/news/la...nsane-pricing-of-1080-graphics-card?showall=1

IIRC AMD took steps to reduce prices there after, not sure what nvidia did.

http://www.geekoxide.com/amd-slashes-price-rx480-india/

Your link makes it sound like they had to do some convincing of retailers or someone somewhere. The link suggests they couldn't get lower prices because nvidia holds most of the market there. Seems that is the main factor in bad prices.

Sources say that the original astronomical price point was because AMD wasn't able to negotiate with distributors and OEMs for better pricing. Nvidia holds a near monopoly on GPU sales here, and AMD doesn't have control over this, they add.

Seems key to not ending up with a monopoly and crap pricing on a desirable card is the population not favoring a monopoly.

 

[3DVagabond]

I would think Nvidia products are imported in larger quantities, whatever deal they get is better...

I don't know what makes people think nVidia is immune to this?

 

[MadOver]

What AMD is saying is that, if there's too much demand and low stock why selling for low?
They have a point, I'm guessing soon enough nvidia and AMD will start mass producing in good quantities and price wars will star and we will see really good deals for Xmas.