Last I heard they would be available 'the last week of November' which would be next Monday. Can anyone confirm or deny?

Have they been delayed?

I think Gibbo said in the other thread that they will be available near end of December / January..

Sales are good so they are milking the cr*ap cards first before enthusiasts get their proper ones.

Make said:

I think Gibbo said in the other thread that they will be available near end of December / January..

Sales are good so they are milking the cr*ap cards first before enthusiasts get their proper ones.

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Aw, sorry to hear that but cheers for the info.

Although, since I recently got BF4 and my old card seems totally fine with it so far (even pre-Mantle) I had the disturbing thought that maybe I don't even need an upgrade yet at all. hmm.

Let's face it, the first out with one are gonna make a KILLING if they price it right

In light of this I'd say 2-3 weeks tops...

Rezident said:

Although, since I recently got BF4 and my old card seems totally fine with it so far (even pre-Mantle) I had the disturbing thought that maybe I don't even need an upgrade yet at all. hmm.

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Yeah i was planning to upgrade my gfx card but i was sat looking 120 fps in the jet last night and 80ish on the ground on ultra settings. I still might though as it would be nice to see 144fps on my 144hz screen to see if it makes any difference.

JediFragger said:

Let's face it, the first out with one are gonna make a KILLING if they price it right

In light of this I'd say 2-3 weeks tops...

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I've just spoken with HIS.

AMD are still only shipping full built reference cards and so far no plans to change until end of December / early January.

So we won't see a custom cooled card on shelf's at stockist until at least mid-end January at this rate.

Absolutely ZERO chance this year!

I believe that they are going to be on the selves before CES (7th Jan)

Gibbo said:

I've just spoken with HIS.

AMD are still only shipping full built reference cards and so far no plans to change until end of December / early January.

So we won't see a custom cooled card on shelf's at stockist until at least mid-end January at this rate.

Absolutely ZERO chance this year!

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God darn it!! AMD WHAT THE HACK ARE THEY THINKING!?

We don't want cards with the crappy reference cooler don't they GET IT!?

Do they want to push their potential customers toward Nvidia buying a GTX780 instead THAT MUCH!?

Marine-RX179 said:

God darn it!! AMD WHAT THE HACK ARE THEY THINKING!?

We don't want cards with the crappy reference cooler don't they GET IT!?

Do they want to push their potential customers toward Nvidia buying a GTX780 instead THAT MUCH!?

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I think they understand that no-one would buy these ref cards (except for system builders) if they'd release the custom ones.

How many 7970's sold with the ref cooler after the custom ones were out?

nothing stopping them sending Ref boards to Sapphire, HIS etc and letting them change the cooling etc tho no? tbh at this rate im just going to buy a 780ti and be done with it for the next 2 years or so.

SiDeards73 said:

nothing stopping them sending Ref boards to Sapphire, HIS etc and letting them change the cooling etc tho no? tbh at this rate im just going to buy a 780ti and be done with it for the next 2 years or so.

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AMD would be peed off, plus they are gonna either have to eat the extra cost of an already-assembled ref card or charge a much higher price than normal.

SiDeards73 said:

nothing stopping them sending Ref boards to Sapphire, HIS etc and letting them change the cooling etc tho no? tbh at this rate im just going to buy a 780ti and be done with it for the next 2 years or so.

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2 years on 3gb VRAM?

Make said:

I think they understand that no-one would buy these ref cards (except for system builders) if they'd release the custom ones.

How many 7970's sold with the ref cooler after the custom ones were out?

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The problem is they are not the sole provider of gaming graphic. As great bang for bucks as the 290Pro may be, if people have to get a 3rd party cooler and fit it themselves the cost would be close to hitting GTX780's price territory. If AMD can take another £30-£40 off the current price and giving us some extra budget for the 3rd party cooler without touching GTX780's price territory, then those reference cooler card might shift better.

Orangey said:

AMD would be peed off, plus they are gonna either have to eat the extra cost of an already-assembled ref card or charge a much higher price than normal.

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Now I honestly wished that AMD put extra £15-£20 on the price tag and given us a target 78C cooler instead of 95C cooler.

I'd be surprised if the 290 sales aren't starting to dwindle now as lots of people will be waiting for the custom cooled cards.

teppic said:

I'd be surprised if the 290 sales aren't starting to dwindle now as lots of people will be waiting for the custom cooled cards.

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They are increasing.

Gibbo said:

They are increasing.

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Both 290 and 290x? I'd have thought most people who'd want a reference card would have got it by now.

Once the 290s have a decent cooler I'll probably get two

A good cooler alllows circa 15% overclock on the 290/x according to Tom and his hardware store.

Can't the AIB's just throw a cooler on a reference board?

I see OCUK have a couple of 290x card with custom coolers already installed, is there a plan to do the same on the 290 Pro cards?

Are they trying to use up the reference cooler stock or something?

Other than the minority trying to defend it, it's pretty obvious the cooler is deafening and does a poor job at stopping the card from throttling.

There must be some reason for delaying it so much.