Pricing on now released & available 7850 / 7850 cards
 

Just wanted to start a discussion thread on this.

Looking at the pricing on ncix so far .... 7850's are between $249-279 & 7870's $349-379. So far not to impressed by the pricing. though ... IF the leaked tom's hardware images on a certain hardopps site indicate anything legitamite of nvidia 680,7xxx series cards will come down some.

Definately makes it hard to upgrade in my current situation with a aging 5850 & limited income. :doh: :blarg:

Anyone else think the intial pricing so far seems still a lil high?

Yeah, definately high.

Us early adopters were willing to pay a price for the superior performance at once, but the late adopters will get the better deal, for sure.

The way I see it, Nvidia will release their cards at the same price points as AMD. I can see the Nvidia cards performing maybe 10-15% more than their equivalent AMD cards. If AMD is smart, they'll realize that they've taken as much advantage of the high price point as they can, and drop the price of their cards a little so that the price/performance is at par with Nvidia.

That being said, if Nvidia releases their high end cards first, it'll be a couple of months before their mainstream cards (650??) will be out on the market. AMD will probably keep the 7850/7870 at the current price point until Nvidia's competing cards are released.

I could realistically see the 7970/7950 dropping about $50-$75 in price.

It's a tough call. The AMD cards have a lot going for them. Chiefly in power consumption. If that's a big deal for you, I think AMD might be the way to go for you. Recently, Nvidia has had the performance crown, but AMD has been beating them in performance/Watt. Wait a couple of months and wait and see what happens with the prices. If your 5850 is serving you well now, there's no new games coming out soon that will take advantage of the new tech.

They got greedy and priced too high. Instead of being aggressive and taking more market share. Lets see how much that hurts them.

-ST

AMD went with the low-price strategy when they introduced the 5000-series, but with limited availability it didn't really help it gain any permanent market share. That's the thing about the discrete graphics card market, the majority of purchasers are brand-agnostic. From a company's perspective, you might as well soak up as much profit as you can because giving the customer a good deal today does not ensure a return buyer tomorrow.

Overall profits probably look the same, but there's much less risk when releasing a low-volume, high-price part than there is with a low-price, high volume part. The risk is ameliorated in two areas: 1) if your production has issues, you don't end up with a low-price + low-volume situation, and 2) you can always drop prices to increase volume without triggering a major customer backlash (early adopters know they're taking a risk, plus while prospective customers can still change their minds).

AMD's prices aren't out of line if you compare them to the price/performance of the competing Nvidia cards (the 7750 being a glaring exception). They're just out of line with AMD's prior low-price strategy.

The 7770 wasn't priced right either, and P vs P wasn't in line with what it should be. I can bear with their flagship being priced that high, but I think their prior strategy would have worked better. Not that I know anything about these kind of things..I just don't feel they are bringing enough value.

-ST

I don't know about you guys. But I remembered I paid over $300 for my HD 5850. I got it just over 2 years ago. So, the price for the HD 7870 isn't that bad. I am sure they will drop in price. but not for a bit.

In contrast I got my HD4870 in the fall of 2008 for $299 when AMD was blazing a trail with high quality cards at reasonable prices. (Yes I keep hardware longer than most enthusiasts primarily due to budget constraints.)

I could use an upgrade but am not happy with their current pricing model.

Isn't the 7870 supposed to be the replacement for the 6970? I thought they were supposed to be a lil cheaper then the previous gen. I paid 350 for my 6970.

So what advantage would there be to switching to a 7870? Lower power consumption and heat?

Pretty much.....and a lighter wallet. :D

I wanted a pair of 7870's to replace my 6870's but i'm not liking the pricing. I might just hold off and run them a little longer until AMD comes to their senses and drops the price.