Doesn't work that way, once the aftermarket coolers come out, and 1070, then ti versions, FE will trickle down in price. Most new release Nvidia cards fetch a premium.
You are assuming the custom cards actually come in much cheaper. Everyone seems to somehow expect faster, cheaper, cooler and better OC'ing cards to be £50-75 cheaper than the FE? I really see no economical reason why they would be, unless Nvidia and AIB's are happy to see FE sales fall off a cliff, which they will if that happens.
Cards like the EVGA Classified 1080 will also make the debate about the FE prices go away.
The only thing the Classified will have in common with the FE is the actual 1080 chip and possibly the memory, everything else will be non standard.
Based on how much other Classified cards have cost like the 980 Ti and therefore the likely selling price of the 1080 version, this will put massive pressure on the FE price as the Classified could be the cheaper card.
WHY would the Classified be cheaper though? Why is everyone taking an MSRP to be gospel or like it's written in law. It's SUGGESTED! The Classified is not going to be cheaper than the FE, not a chance in hell. I'll take any bet at any odds on that.
If they make a good margin and sell loads they will have no problem undercutting the FE by quite a bit.
AIB partners are in competition with NVidia, they are not going to prop up the price of the FE so NVidia can make a pile at their expense.
They will sell by the boat load regardless. Look at how many people are all over the FE. AIB's have nothing to worry about, they know people will buy a faster, cooler, quieter better OC'ing card no matter what the price. If anything, the crazy price people are falling over themselves to pay for the FE only serves to reinforce the idea that they might be able to charge even more, leaving the $599 for blower models that are actually worse than the FE. If you were in charge of these companies, it would make perfect business sense to be thinking along those lines.
If the market will sustain constant price rises then Nvidia would be insane to not keep raising them. They're a business, not a charity. I don't like high prices of anything as much as the next person, but things are only as expensive as the market dictates.
The market doesn't dictate this, Nvidia do, because they ARE the market, they have no real competition and as Beany Bot says they are basically prodding said market to see how it responds... and from their perspective it's responding very well. So naturally this will give them pause for thought about raising prices further the next time around.
No amount of moaning and whinging in these threads is going to make the slightest bit of difference, they will sell well regardless.
I don't think anyone, certainly not myself, expects to dent 1080 sales here LOL! Really not the point. At the same time, to dismissively wave your hands and say "if you can't afford it, jog on" is ignoring the bigger issue as mentioned, and the knock on effect this WILL have on future GPU pricing. So unless you are too rich to be bothered by such trivialities, or you don't have any intention of buying a GPU in the future, you WILL be affected by this (or rather your wallet will be) whether you realise it or not. But yeah, this is all pointless talk, it won't change anything of course... Nvidia are a tidal wave of epic proportion which cannot and will not be stopped, but that doesn't mean we have to sit here, suck it up and be quiet about it.
. That's the main reason I think people are annoyed - they really want the shiny.
