AMD Price Cuts

[Seba]

Some of those "popular games" would also run on a Pentium G3220 with integrated graphics. So that is no indication of a capable gaming PC (even an entry level one).

Want an entry-level gaming PC? Get a G3220 (or even a Celeron Haswell) + H81 motherboard + 1x4GB DDR3 1600 CL11 + GTX 750.

In an ATX or mATX case. Don't pay extra for Mini-ITX just to have a slightly smaller and much more cramped case.

 

[NostaSeronx]

The price cuts are for cleaning/clearing out stock, before and after, Carrizo(2-4 MB L2) and Carrizo-L(1-2 MB L2) launch.

 

[Yuriman]

At those prices I'd give them a hard look when building for relatives. 7600 looks pretty attractive, though needing dual channel RAM for reasonable performance is unfortunate. I'd rather have any of those than a Pentium + low end discrete card, frankly, as general performance will probably be better on a quad.

 

[cbn]

In an ATX or mATX case. Don't pay extra for Mini-ITX just to have a slightly smaller and much more cramped case.

For a living room PC, I think most of us would want Mini-ITX.

With that mentioned, I definitely would like to see more Micro ATX (or even ATX) slim cases with riser.

Having some of the nicer looking micro ATX cases (without riser) like the Silverstone Milo ML03B drop in price would be nice also.

 

[beginner99]

I really don't know what you are on about. Kaveri plays most games at modest settings and the most popular ones at near max. Good enough is good enough.

That's exactly what he meant. If good enough is good enough buy a console. For those you prefer > 30 fps and > 720p resolution on new titles you need a dGPU. And with 2k and 4k becoming more prevalent iGPU will remain underpowered as they already are for gaming.

 

[monstercameron]

That's exactly what he meant. If good enough is good enough buy a console. For those you prefer > 30 fps and > 720p resolution on new titles you need a dGPU. And with 2k and 4k becoming more prevalent iGPU will remain underpowered as they already are for gaming.

that is a flawed argument, why buy a console when you need a pc for other things that arent gaming related? how the heck does one use word or gimp or adobe premiere on a console?

 

[beginner99]

all high quality games that dont cost anything upfront! Money is hard to come by and If I can save $20, $30 etc then that is a compromise I am willing to take and I doubt I am in the minority. Then again that is just anecdotal and I have no solid data on the matter. Frozen, I completely understand you, you are debating perf/$ but apus were never perf/$ kings. IMHO they are just good enough cpu and gpu perf for the majority of pc users and gamers.

I think you don't understand. Willing to compromise so much on hardware which in the bigger picture of general living costs is at least in the western world not much at all just shows how important gaming is for you. And not that completely OK if you're not that into it. It's probably better.

And good that you mentioned games. If you don't want to limit yourself to free games the cost for better hardware becomes even more marginal. I rather save $100 in games and get 100% better performance for the games I value the most.

This is why every PC gamer should have a 5830K and dual GTX980s! #PCMasterRace yo!

No because at the high end performance/$ starts to drop rapidly. In the APU-case you can easily get 100% better performance (GPU) by spending as little as $100 more. But yes you are right. I could easily buy this setup now. But I rather go with a 4790K and a single 970 for a third of the cost and maybe 40% of the performance in games. So for a 100% performance increase you pay about $1000 or 10 times more in this range...

 

[AtenRa]

that is a flawed argument, why buy a console when you need a pc for other things that arent gaming related? how the heck does one use word or gimp or adobe premiere on a console?

Why even bother responding to threads like that ?? next time one of them promote any Intel dual core + GTX750 tell them the same, to get a console

 

[monstercameron]

Why even bother responding to threads like that ?? next time one of them promote any Intel dual core + GTX750 tell them the same, to get a console

This is kind of a test for me to see if my logic holds up. The more flawed the arguments against my point, the more concrete my point is. It is a bit pointless debating becuase changing your mind and/or changing anothers mind is very difficult.

Besides I'm bored and a bit dissapointed with the legend of korra game from platinum[makers of bayonetta ffs] which was playing fantastic on my apu htpc .

 

[Cerb]

that is a flawed argument, why buy a console when you need a pc for other things that arent gaming related? how the heck does one use word or gimp or adobe premiere on a console?

Even with that, how does buying a console help, if you want to play PC games? The latest MMO can likely run very well on an APU, compared to a Pentium or i3, but won't run on any console. It's a stupid argument all around. If you want to play PC games, you have a PC. If you want to play console games, you have a console. If you want to play both, you have both. Easy as that. There are enough games that are either not available on one platform, or not the same on different platforms, that it just doesn't work (sandbox and strategy games with mods, no matter how you treat graphics, are worlds apart on PC and console, even when made for both; and mouse+KB games, single-player or multi-player, are different experiences on PC v. console).

 

[DrMrLordX]

More price cuts? The price cuts in September were sort of a bust since so many retailers seemed to ignore them (except the 9590/9370 price cuts, which were in full force). It would be nice if this round of cuts is reflected in actual retail prices.

 

[Seba]

or a living room PC, I think most of us would want Mini-ITX.

That is fine, if you do not have a very limited buget.

But going with Mini-ITX and then having to opt for an APU because you do not have the budget for at least a GTX 750 (which is several times better than the best integrated graphics from an APU) makes no sense (for a gaming PC).

 

[Seba]

The latest MMO can likely run very well on an APU, compared to a Pentium or i3

For clarity, that should be:
"The latest MMO can likely run very well on an APU, compared to a Pentium or i3 with integrated graphics".

 

[DrMrLordX]

Hmm, looks like the price cuts are already trickling into the retail sector, or something or other. Mwave has the 7700k for ~$137.

 

[cbn]

But going with Mini-ITX and then having to opt for an APU because you do not have the budget for at least a GTX 750 (which is several times better than the best integrated graphics from an APU) makes no sense (for a gaming PC).

1.) We need some affordable Micro-ATX enclosures that can mount a 750 GTX (or other dual slot video card) while still maintaining a slim profile. A enclosure with riser could do this.

2.) (With #1 mentioned) In some cases I would not want the power of a 750 GTX for a living room PC because it would just add expense and is overkill for my needs. (re: $100 video card is a lot of money when you are trying to piece together something for $100 total using new sale priced parts plus a used hard drive.) For an example of a $100 new parts plus used hard drive build, see this thread--> http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2402196&highlight= (Note: I am not using the bundled PSU, but this one instead--> http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2328809 )

 

[Seba]

To impose a $100 limit to the total PC cost (and a gaming PC, not any PC) seems arbitrary to say the least. Even a previous-generation gaming console is more expensive than that.

I also do not see the need for Mini-ITX. Seems more like a fad.

 

[BSim500]

Some of those "popular games" would also run on a Pentium G3220 with integrated graphics. So that is no indication of a capable gaming PC (even an entry level one).

Precisely. If DOTA2 (60fps @ 720p on HD4600 iGPU) and even 2009 era games like LoL (40-60fps @ 1080p on HD4600) are the new "benchmark" for 2014 PC gaming simply to avoid quoting the many other 15-25fps vs 50-60fps benchmarks for more modern games (Watch Dogs, Crysis, Shadow of Mordor, Metro Redux, etc), then the "low bar" for 2014 gaming has just fallen through the floor...

 

[cbn]

Precisely. If DOTA2 (60fps @ 720p on HD4600 iGPU) and even 2009 era games like LoL (40-60fps @ 1080p on HD4600) are the new "benchmark" for 2014 PC gaming simply to avoid quoting the many other 15-25fps vs 50-60fps benchmarks for more modern games (Watch Dogs, Crysis, Shadow of Mordor, Metro Redux, etc), then the "low bar" for 2014 gaming has just fallen through the floor...

For general PC gaming, yes, that is a low standard.

But keep in mind some people are putting low powered ARM "consoles" (more accurately set-top boxes) in the living room and using that for gaming as well.

Those ARM boxes aren't the greatest for playing games, but they are low cost.

 

[Idontcare]

More price cuts? The price cuts in September were sort of a bust since so many retailers seemed to ignore them (except the 9590/9370 price cuts, which were in full force). It would be nice if this round of cuts is reflected in actual retail prices.

Price cuts aren't ignored. What the situation you describes tells you is that those etailers were sitting on a bunch of inventory purchased at pricepoints that were such that they couldn't justify lowering their own prices on existing inventory just because AMD lowered its prices on future inventory.

Normally a price adjustment comes with rebates to enable a write down on existing inventory to accommodate the new price without penalizing customers (the channel, not us consumers) who hold a lot of inventory. Maybe AMD didn't do that with the September round of price cuts and so etailers had no choice but to hold their prices high?

 

[beginner99]

Why even bother responding to threads like that ?? next time one of them promote any Intel dual core + GTX750 tell them the same, to get a console

I didn't proclaim an intel dual-core. I just have a problem with the pricing of the APUs. The iGPU is overpowered for anything 2D/office use and medicore at best for gaming. The main point is with a cheaper CPU (could be an Athlon) + dGPU you don't pay much more $50-$100 depending on GPU but will easily get double fps in most games (eg. non-cpu limited ones). And an average gamer spends way more than $100 on games. so why cripple the experience of all games if you could have gotten so much better experience for $100 more?

 

[AtenRa]

Price cuts aren't ignored. What the situation you describes tells you is that those etailers were sitting on a bunch of inventory purchased at pricepoints that were such that they couldn't justify lowering their own prices on existing inventory just because AMD lowered its prices on future inventory.

Normally a price adjustment comes with rebates to enable a write down on existing inventory to accommodate the new price without penalizing customers (the channel, not us consumers) who hold a lot of inventory. Maybe AMD didn't do that with the September round of price cuts and so etailers had no choice but to hold their prices high?

The chanel(retail and e-tail) doesnt get rebates for price cuts. Only the official distributors get rebates for price cuts from the manufacturer(AMD in this instance). The chanel gets rebates if and when they reach a goal or they get better prices for large volume orders etc.

At least thats how it works here.

 

[AtenRa]

I didn't proclaim an intel dual-core. I just have a problem with the pricing of the APUs. The iGPU is overpowered for anything 2D/office use and medicore at best for gaming. The main point is with a cheaper CPU (could be an Athlon) + dGPU you don't pay much more $50-$100 depending on GPU but will easily get double fps in most games (eg. non-cpu limited ones). And an average gamer spends way more than $100 on games. so why cripple the experience of all games if you could have gotten so much better experience for $100 more?

And speding a little more will get you more performance to play games at Medium settings, then speding a little more will get you more performance to play at higher IQ settings. And speding a little more will allow you to game at 1600p. But you can always spend a little more to game at 4K and so on.

There are so many free PC games now and new are introduced every month that you can spend hours playing every month without even buying a single game ever.

 

[Seba]

The jump in performance from APU integrated graphics to a lowly GTX 750 is massive. And you do not need expensive RAM. This kind of jump is not achievable for the same amount of money if you want to get it again with the same ratio (you have to pay much more for the next similar jump in performance).

 

[mrmt]

get rid of inventory for carrizo!?

Seems more of screwed up sales projections than inventory cleaning. There are much better and discrete ways to clean your inventory if sell-through is good.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Price cuts aren't ignored. What the situation you describes tells you is that those etailers were sitting on a bunch of inventory purchased at pricepoints that were such that they couldn't justify lowering their own prices on existing inventory just because AMD lowered its prices on future inventory.

Normally a price adjustment comes with rebates to enable a write down on existing inventory to accommodate the new price without penalizing customers (the channel, not us consumers) who hold a lot of inventory. Maybe AMD didn't do that with the September round of price cuts and so etailers had no choice but to hold their prices high?

Well the thing is, a lot of the new inventory (the E chips) came in at prices higher than what we were told would be MSRP, especially the 8370E and 8370. I have no idea what options (if any) were available to anyone in the channel when it came to adjusting to the new pricing scheme on everything else. The 9590 dropped like a rock, but the 8320 and 8350 which were supposed to get downward adjustments just sort of sat there (or, in the case of the 8320, went up in price). It's impossible for me to know exactly why that happened without knowing more about inventory levels, sales rates, and other factors.

From the consumer point-of-view, it's silly to announce these price cuts as being "effective immediately" or "real soon now" when it takes forever for them to be reflected in actual retail prices. The 8320 is still at inflated prices ($140 from NCIX is the cheapest I see right now, the Egg wants $150). Ridiculous! You can get the 8320E for less, and its turning out to be an ace of an overclocker, not to speak of the OEM 8310 which is $110 right now with a special coupon and "instant savings" from TigerDirect. Looks like that deal is good through the 24th.