AMD Radeon R9 290X with Hawaii GPU pictured, has 512-bit 4GB Memory

Martini1991 · 10 Oct 2013 at 15:38

MjFrosty said:
Matson the 290X is based on an entirely new architecture where as the lower tier models are re-branded 7 series. They shouldn't be compared at all. Slightly confusing in model names I'd agree.

They're not a new architecture.
It's more a modified GCN, it's just we're on 28nm, so they're big chips.

But yeah, this is me out at those prices.

Martini1991 · 10 Oct 2013 at 15:38

FoxEye said:
You'd also have to be a complete idiot to buy a 7870 (270X) for £170. Terrible price.

270X is a 7870 LE isn't it?

FoxEye · 10 Oct 2013 at 15:40

Martini1991 said:
270X is a 7870 LE isn't it?

No, it's not.

It's Pitcairn. It's a 7870.

Marine-RX179 · 10 Oct 2013 at 15:41

FoxEye said:
You'd also have to be a complete idiot to buy a 7870 (270X) for £170. Terrible price.

So conclusion? 280X is the only card's that offer great bang for bucks from AMD this gen, and 290 and 290x cards like all top-end cards always have a high price premium and not so great in terms of bang for bucks (except that they have two cards up there this time, with one as premium card, and the other as premium premium card

).

FoxEye said:
No, it's not.

It's Pitcairn. It's a 7870.

That's a horrible rebrand, considering 7870 being around that price range since couple of months after launch.

FoxEye · 10 Oct 2013 at 15:46

Marine-RX179 said:
So conclusion? 280X is the only card's that offer great bang for bucks from AMD this gen, and 290 and 290x cards like all top-end cards always have a high price premium and not so great in terms of bang for bucks (except that they have two cards up there this time, with one as premium card, and the other as premium premium card ).

Yup. My next card will be a 7950 or 670 from the MM

I hope! Someone upgrade please?

sin · 10 Oct 2013 at 15:46

I see Nvidia price drop on 780

Nvidia as had time to milk 780 so more milk for less

Silent_Scone · 10 Oct 2013 at 15:47

I honestly cannot see why anyone would be surprised by the flagship card pricing coming in at 780GTX prices. It was always going to happen.

sin · 10 Oct 2013 at 15:52

Because Amd have had 7970/7950 lower then 680/670 for so long

Marine-RX179 · 10 Oct 2013 at 15:57

MjFrosty said:
I honestly cannot see why anyone would be surprised by the flagship card pricing coming in at 780GTX prices. It was always going to happen.

Yea but I guess many people are like me thinking that the 290X can charge £600 for being the fastest card for all we care, so long as the 290 is at sub at around £350~

Seriously, I remember the price premium use to be "premium for being the fastest card", now they want to charge premium on the 2nd fastest card as well. At this rate, give a few more years, we'd be paying premium for 3rd and 4th cards down as well

LtMatt · 10 Oct 2013 at 16:00

One thing to consider the titan/780 is a bigger die. More expensive to produce, worse yields. The 290 being 33% (or was it 30%?) smaller and having better yields should mean that in theory AMD can win any price war. They can go lower than Nvidia, if they choose to. That's how i see it with my undoubtedly limited knowledge. Please correct me if im wrong.

EDIT

Of course Nvidia will still sell at a higher price. But if they were to tackle AMD's cards with a price war, AMD can go lower. Yay or Nay?

Suarez7 · 10 Oct 2013 at 16:02

LtMatt said:
One thing to consider the titan/780 is a bigger die. More expensive to produce, worse yields. The 290 being 33% (or was it 30%?) smaller and having better yields should mean that in theory AMD can win any price war. They can go lower than Nvidia, if they choose to. That's how i see it with my undoubtedly limited knowledge. Please correct me if im wrong.

This is correct, although I think nvidia did exaggerate the production costs and added an even bigger premium than usual.

RavenXXX2 · 10 Oct 2013 at 16:02

Didn't AMD try to compete with Nvidia at the 690 and titan price points with the 7990? how did that go again?

PudWud · 10 Oct 2013 at 16:03

So is the R9 280x to replace the 7970? And if so, do people think that's a good price for it?

RavenXXX2 · 10 Oct 2013 at 16:04

PudWud said:
So is the R9 280x to replace the 7970? And if so, do people think that's a good price for it?

At 240 yes it is, cards at 260+ not so much.

Rusty0611 · 10 Oct 2013 at 16:06

LtMatt said:
One thing to consider the titan/780 is a bigger die. More expensive to produce, worse yields. The 290 being 33% (or was it 30%?) smaller and having better yields should mean that in theory AMD can win any price war. They can go lower than Nvidia, if they choose to. That's how i see it with my undoubtedly limited knowledge. Please correct me if im wrong.

EDIT

Of course Nvidia will still sell at a higher price. But if they were to tackle AMD's cards with a price war, AMD can go lower. Yay or Nay?

Difficult to say for sure without the yield data but the theory is sound.

Suarez7 · 10 Oct 2013 at 16:06

RavenXXX2 said:
Didn't AMD try to compete with Nvidia at the 690 and titan price points with the 7990? how did that go again?

Well considering the 7990 outperforms both and costs less I'd say well for the consumer. Although why AMD had to considerably lower the pricing on it we'd have to see sales figures on them all to judge how it went.

humbug · 10 Oct 2013 at 16:06

LtMatt said:
One thing to consider the titan/780 is a bigger die. More expensive to produce, worse yields. The 290 being 33% (or was it 30%?) smaller and having better yields should mean that in theory AMD can win any price war. They can go lower than Nvidia, if they choose to. That's how i see it with my undoubtedly limited knowledge. Please correct me if im wrong.

EDIT

Of course Nvidia will still sell at a higher price. But if they were to tackle AMD's cards with a price war, AMD can go lower. Yay or Nay?

True, GK110 is 30% bigger than Hawaii, out of that much bigger DIE Nvidia have to get the Titan and GTX 780, Possibly a Titan Ultra and a GTX 770TI leter on, on top of that AMD have better yields overall anyway.

AMD could lower the price to a point where Nvidia are running 0 profit or even a loss and still be more expensive.

Suarez7 · 10 Oct 2013 at 16:08

humbug said:
AMD could lower the price to a point where Nvidia are running 0 profit or even a loss and still be more expensive.

Oh humbug, please.

Kaapstad · 10 Oct 2013 at 16:10

LtMatt said:
One thing to consider the titan/780 is a bigger die. More expensive to produce, worse yields. The 290 being 33% (or was it 30%?) smaller and having better yields should mean that in theory AMD can win any price war. They can go lower than Nvidia, if they choose to. That's how i see it with my undoubtedly limited knowledge. Please correct me if im wrong.

EDIT

Of course Nvidia will still sell at a higher price. But if they were to tackle AMD's cards with a price war, AMD can go lower. Yay or Nay?

On the transistor count the difference is nothing like 33%

The GTX 780 and 290X have about the same number of active transistors.

Mei · 10 Oct 2013 at 16:11

AMD launch is like dickinson's real deal hehe
they could just start at the real price but where's the fun in that!