January 9 Launch Date for AMD Radeon HD 7900

[ALXAndy]

You only base this on experience and it seems you were right.

Every single launch of gpu's disagree's with your viewpoint, and I see no £500 7970 cards for sale anywhere, so you haven't been proven right at all.

Again, quite simple, the 4870 beat the 260gtx, yet launched basically £120 cheaper, not 5% cheaper, that was closer to 50% than 5% cheaper.

The 5870 was 60% faster than a 285gtx, yet it launched at, £300, while the 285gtx was £350.

Please explain from your 30 years of experience when the new gen has factored in performance and been that much more expensive than the previous gen. IE new gen is 70% faster and so cost 70% more.

So when the 5870 launched the 285 was still £350? Odd, because when the 5870 launched the 285 hadn't been made for about four months.

You are missing one thing, timelines and dates.

I bought a GTX 280 XXX in July, a couple of months before production ended. I paid £180.

Oh. And the 2 series were pretty much a waste of time, and a rip off if you had a 8800GTX or better. 9 series were just rebrands to keep the prices high. Am I wrong about that too?

 

[NZXT30]

So when the 5870 launched the 285 was still £350? Odd, because when the 5870 launched the 285 hadn't been made for about four months.

You are missing one thing, timelines and dates.

I bought a GTX 280 XXX in July, a couple of months before production ended. I paid £180.

Oh. And the 2 series were pretty much a waste of time, and a rip off if you had a 8800GTX or better. 9 series were just rebrands to keep the prices high. Am I wrong about that too?

no you are not I bought my 285 in may for £205. its typical of drunkenmaster to pull dates and prices etc. out of his arse but dont try to reason with him it's like talking to a brick wall.

 

[ALXAndy]

no you are not I bought my 285 in may for £205. its typical of drunkenmaster to pull dates and prices etc. out of his arse but dont try to reason with him it's like talking to a brick wall.

Seems that way !

Nvidia cards always cost more at launch than their AMD counterpart. Hardly surprising really, given that at the end of the day AMD are a budget part company.

I did have a think about it earlier and from memory when the 5770 launched I paid £135 or so each. Well, one was a replacement for my 280 but yes, £135.

And at that time you could pick up a 4890 for the same price, and the 4890 was faster.

So yeah, won't be changing my mindset any time soon ; buying the very latest brand new cards is crazy. But then hey, if I had money to burn

 

[Freddie1980]

AMD chips have also been getting bigger. The 4870 was based on a 256mm2 chip, the 5870 was 334mm2 and the new chip closer to 400mm2 with TSMC rumoured to have increased the price of wafers. You also need to factor in currency changes- been Irish graphics cards were A LOT cheaper over the last few years as the Euro increased in value.

True the 6870 which was more or less a 5870 replacement was only 255mm square which is even smaller then the 4870.

 

[Jakus]

No it doesn't, the slides specifically say all the connectors are on one slot so the second slot is all exhaust not half.

That's good news I was duped by an obviously faked picture then

Let's hope the also reduce the length, although not so important.

 

[rolypolyman]

LOL at all this talk about pricing. UK retailers will charge what they think they can get away with. Is it just me or isn't it always the case that 'they will be in limited numbers' and therefore 'more expensive'. Fact, they know with a certainty that there are 'so many' customers just waiting to snap up the latest and greatest and proudly proclaim to have the fastest graphics card and pay a premium for the priviledge to do so. Once the 'mug' sales are over the prices will settle down. RRP means very little, greed is not one of the deadly sins for nothing. Looks like I will be holding on to my money for a while yet. Amd may surprise us all though!

 

[inSilica]

ok ... if this is accurate, I'm happy about the size ...

http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-southern-islands-tahiti--hd-7900-pictured/14183.html

850 PSU? if so then that would be nice too

Max I'm willing to spend on a single GPU will be 400£ though ... otherwise will stick to my 5770 until the price comes down a little

 

[elrasho]

So the 7970 is supposed to be release tomorrow but yet there are no reviews?

 

[drunkenmaster]

AMD has been steadily increasing their prices with every generation as they have gained back some of the ground they lost from the fantastic nvidia 8xxx series. The ati 4870 was cheap and full of promises of equally cheap future gpus to easily fool stupid fanboys like drunkenmaster. The 5870 was around 350( it was 300 for like a week only ) so I expect the 7970 around 400-450.

Yet again you're ignoring the fact that the 5870 launched at £300, the 6970 launched at £270, so the simple "fact" you stated that the prices have been steadily increasing is completely and utterly false, they went up ONCE.

They went up ONCE when the die size increased from 255mm2, to 334mm2, or 30% bigger, and the dollar was at $2/£1 when the 4870 launched, the exchange rate was closer to $1.50/£1 when the 5870 launched. Combine those two facts and AMD didn't randomly massively increase the price, both the size of the die did and the world economy crashing and making everything more expensive.

Do you expect to pay the same price for a small pizza as a large pizza, or a tiny car vs a huge car, or a 4gb pack of memory over a 8gb pack, then why do you think a 334mm2 core would cost the same as a 255mm2 one? Because you wanted it to?

The VERY REASON the 4870 dropped in price compared to previous generations were AMD was able to make such a stupidly small core, you had NO PROBLEM taking full advantage of AMD charging the same margin on the 4870 as the 2900xt, the die sized dropped and so did the price. When the die size increased and AMD KEPT THE SAME MARGIN, you suddenly think paying more you're being ripped off.

 

[drunkenmaster]

So when the 5870 launched the 285 was still £350? Odd, because when the 5870 launched the 285 hadn't been made for about four months.

You are missing one thing, timelines and dates.

I bought a GTX 280 XXX in July, a couple of months before production ended. I paid £180.

Oh. And the 2 series were pretty much a waste of time, and a rip off if you had a 8800GTX or better. 9 series were just rebrands to keep the prices high. Am I wrong about that too?

no you are not I bought my 285 in may for £205. its typical of drunkenmaster to pull dates and prices etc. out of his arse but dont try to reason with him it's like talking to a brick wall.

No, as per usual YOU are pulling things our of your arse and Alxandy, please state where I said the 285gtx was ALWAYS £350 or that it wasn't much cheaper before then? The 285gtx wasn't in production 4 months before the 5870 was released...... potentially close to the truth, it was likely much closer, the part was only EOL'd(unofficially) around Sept/Oct, which is when the 5870 launched though.

THe simple fact is that production and stock on shelves lag behind by several months. there WAS stock on shelves LONG after the 5870 launched, you could get 285gtx's in stores(for stupid prices) well after xmas, well after the 5870 launched.

That's right, I didn't, its WELL KNOWN that Nvidia pushed prices back up to keep stock in retail, at £200 they would have sold the last of there stock within weeks and had nothing on shelves till the 480gtx launched, some 6 months later, put them up to £350 and no one buys them, its really that simple, but they appear to have them on shelves. Everyone with ANY memory remembers this and saw it for a fact happen worldwide.

The problem is, earlier pricing is irrelevant, everyones argument is, AMD will price it against Nvidia, not Nvidia 6 months ago, or Nvidia 3 weeks ago, but Nvidia pricing, blanket statements that if its x% faster than Nvidia, then it will cost x% more also. This was categorically NOT the case for the 3870, the 4870, the 5870, the 6970 or any other card I can think of for years.

As for the rest of your post, sorry, you making a point, completely irrelevant to the thread, anything I've said and nothing to do with anything remotely related should somehow prove your point?

Also you're wrong, the 9 series was a rebrand, to call the 280/285gtx pointless cards is ridiculous though, they were MASSIVELY faster than the 8800gtx, I have no idea how anyone could call the 260-285gtx range "pointless".

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2549/15

pointless, admittedly that is best case scenario of almost 80% faster, it probably averaged 65-70%, pointless......... no I won't admit its pointless as the 2 series most certainly wasn't pointless.

 

[straxusii]

In recent years all new gen GPU's that have involved a die shrink have been ~70% faster than the previous gen and have been roughly the same launch price as the last die shrink flagship GPU.

AMD/ATI accept they dropped the ball with 5870 and could/should have charged more but we are only talking up to the £350 mark, maybe up to £400.

I'm not saying 7970 won't be £500 at launch but I would be very suprised as a) it would be an about turn for AMD card pricing strategy and perhaps more importantly b) the world is in the grip of a recession.

 

[MichaelM]

So the 7970 is supposed to be release tomorrow but yet there are no reviews?

From what i've seen its supposed to be the NDA that is up tomorrow and we can't expect any reviews until that has passed. It's most likely a paper or low stock launch anyway.
If it is tomorrow then the lack of any smilies indicating stock has arrived at OcUK HQ would confirm a paper launch and/or the NDA is not up tomorrow.

Either way, don't expect official reviews to turn up when it suits us.

 

[BS Dave]

I'm not saying 7970 won't be £500 at launch but I would be very suprised as a) it would be an about turn for AMD card pricing strategy and perhaps more importantly b) the world is in the grip of a recession.

To price their new cards out of the reach of most of the market would be to follow the Nvidia strategy that has allowed AMD to make up so much market share in the past few years.

 

[Karateyid]

extra 130 in my kitty thanks to an unexpected bonus at work .... Will prob end up waiting till end of jan though... as my GF will lynch me if i blow £500+ on a gfx card at xmas :S

 

[COYS]

I'l be gutted if these are £500. Already sold myGTX570 and using an ATI 6450 as a temporary measure

 

[Freddie1980]

I wonder if Gibbo has had a delivery of new video cards today?

 

[Jakus]

The leaked slides looked good but it looked to me they used favourable settings...obviously.

Bet their not as good as expected, but hope they do well for ATI

 

[flopper]

The leaked slides looked good but it looked to me they used favourable settings...obviously.

Bet their not as good as expected, but hope they do well for ATI

7970 the world fastest single card out tomorow isnt good enough?
6990 world fastest card is ouyt already.
Nvidia is slacking behind.

 

[Alex291190]

Hi Guys

I assume the performance jump from a 5770 to a 7970 would be pretty big? .. Been saving some money for ages for a new card, its whether to get it instantly or wait until January to purchase

 

[arc@css]

Hi Guys

I assume the performance jump from a 5770 to a 7970 would be pretty big?

The jump would be massive, I'd guesstimate nearly four times the power.