R9 290 Price Rant

[B-Riz]

B-Riz

"Overall, mining should not be a consideration when buying a card for playing games."

While I mostly agree with this statement, it's a nice option for many of us to be able to pay off these cards with alt-mining while you're *not* playing games. This shouldn't be ignored.

I think the perfect upgrade for you would be to sell your 7950 which would net you a lofty sum at the moment and then take the proceeds to be put towards a non mining card such as a Geforce 780. It would probably only cost you a hundred bucks or so.

Good luck.

I could also buy a Mustang GT and MAYBE win some money street racing to offset the purchase of the car.

Funny thing, none of the reviews for the 290 / 290x talk about how many kh/s these cards get, they show benchmarks and whatnot with FPS numbers.

I never said I needed or wanted to upgrade, merely the R9 290 at $399 was a logical upgrade from a $349 7950.

 

[ragnar323]

Sorry pal, that is tough luck and I feel ya. Nvidia is always willing to accept your love (and money). I wont start a flame war here but I have always had great luck with nvidia.

 

[Venomous]

Problem is a lot of people aren't interested in the hoop jumping to convert their coins into real cash. If PayPal is involved with the and you make beyond $12k within a year, PayPal will report this to the IRS.

Mining does place some serious strain on a GPU.

Just because mining can provide the ability to make the cards overpriced msrp a break even situation, it doesn't make what's happening, ok.

 

[Venomous]

I could also buy a Mustang GT and MAYBE win some money street racing to offset the purchase of the car.

Funny thing, none of the reviews for the 290 / 290x talk about how many kh/s these cards get, they show benchmarks and whatnot with FPS numbers.

I never said I needed or wanted to upgrade, merely the R9 290 at $399 was a logical upgrade from a $349 7950.

Yeah bro, we could go on Street Outlaws and make our money back street racing since it's an "option". Lol

 

[KingFatty]

Instead of cars, I like the analogy of animals. You could buy a turkey as a pet, or buy a goose for a pet, that also lays golden eggs. Most people like turkeys, they are interesting to watch and also yield more meat when you eat them for dinner when they die. But a goose is also interesting as a pet, it swims and stuff, but man it lays golden eggs! Profit! Buy AMD, it costs enough to justify the purchase if you cash in on the golden eggs it keeps on laying FOREVER...

 

[Despoiler]

Pulled the trigger on a Gigabyte R9 290 Windforce 3x this morning. $598 shipped. I would have waited until prices came down if my 7970Ghz hadn't died. I think this is the first time I've bought a video card and been less than super excited about the purchase.

 

[Venomous]

Pulled the trigger on a Gigabyte R9 290 Windforce 3x this morning. $598 shipped. I would have waited until prices came down if my 7970Ghz hadn't died. I think this is the first time I've bought a video card and been less than super excited about the purchase.

Well I guess you can start laying those golden eggs to make up that markup.

Btw, you may want to google that gigabyte model as it's had some cooling issues.

 

[thilanliyan]

Instead of cars, I like the analogy of animals. You could buy a turkey as a pet, or buy a goose for a pet, that also lays golden eggs. Most people like turkeys, they are interesting to watch and also yield more meat when you eat them for dinner when they die. But a goose is also interesting as a pet, it swims and stuff, but man it lays golden eggs! Profit! Buy AMD, it costs enough to justify the purchase if you cash in on the golden eggs it keeps on laying FOREVER...

Lol, been golden for me for sure.

 

[Accord99]

Overall, mining should not be a consideration when buying a card for playing games.

Maybe, but it's no different than people buying a house who have to deal with speculators, flippers and investors. You may buy a house for a home and video card to game, but others are buying it for future income.

AMD cards are now priced at their performance in games and how much potential income they can generate.

 

[Despoiler]

Well I guess you can start laying those golden eggs to make up that markup.

Btw, you may want to google that gigabyte model as it's had some cooling issues.

The F3 BIOS fixes the issues people were seeing. Also, the people having the problem didn't indicate if they had the switch set to silent or performance. On the Gigabyte the clock is always 1040. The switch is for the fan profile. Performance is what you want to keep the card cool. Either way I will be sure to let you know what my experience is. I really had no choice but to get this card or spend $700 on an MSI 290X. Nothing is in stock.... =(

 

[Venomous]

The F3 BIOS fixes the issues people were seeing. Also, the people having the problem didn't indicate if they had the switch set to silent or performance. On the Gigabyte the clock is always 1040. The switch is for the fan profile. Performance is what you want to keep the card cool. Either way I will be sure to let you know what my experience is. I really had no choice but to get this card or spend $700 on an MSI 290X. Nothing is in stock.... =(

Yeah that really blows. No way in hell I'm spending $700 on an AMD card.

 

[Headfoot]

I got one from Amazon, not a marketplace seller, but Amazon the company. They had it for sale but not "in stock" for MSRP. There was no estimated delivery date but I only waited just over a week after ordering it. I think they list them for sale when they have a shipment incoming but de-list it when the shipment is all claimed. You just have to refresh occasionally and get lucky.

I will have to try this then, I've got 2 builds going that are in a weird limbo waiting for a good used 780 deal or an actual MSRP 290. Thanks for the tip

 

[Artorias]

I would like to smoke whatever Newegg is having. Jesus this is a 280x and they are charging $569? Getting crazy.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814127759


Anyways I found a local retailer in Toronto selling an ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II for $365. Should I take the plunge even though that's inflated as well? Im not sure when these prices are going bellow that amount.

 

[_UP_]

I would like to smoke whatever Newegg is having. Jesus this is a 280x and they are charging $569? Getting crazy.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814127759


Anyways I found a local retailer in Toronto selling an ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II for $365. Should I take the plunge even though that's inflated as well? Im not sure when these prices are going bellow that amount.

PM'd

 

[StrangerGuy]

Two words = Free market.

 

[broken_pixel]

[redacted] the cryptocurrency markets are heading down, AMD GPU prices will follow.

It was nice, paid off all my GPU investment & still have a bag of crypto for a rainy day.

Profanity isn't allowed in the technical forums.
-- stahlhart

 

[TeknoBug]

Hard to say, Just a few days ago the highest R9 280X I saw listed was $479, today they're $569. Completely pathetic price for such a video card since I bought mine back in October for $300 (the older 7970 GHz edition sold for $280 long before that). At $500+ you may just as well buy a GTX780.

This probably makes Nvidia grin ear to ear because prices of their cards hasn't moved much at all.

I'm disgusted, just... disgusted.

 

[Rinaun]

Yeah, I'm seeing some huge stagnation on GPU prices within the last year. I feel bad for those who have to upgrade because of part failure. I don't like the fact that both companies are reaming their customers during this refresh cycle.

 

[arredondo]

Eh, what's "disgusting" is people's misunderstanding of how supply and demand affects the opportunity to get what one wants. Stop with the entitlement attitude, you guys.

Right now, many will choose not have a shiny new mid-high end AMD card because the price is much higher than the original MSRP. Consider the effect of what you are complaining about if this is addressed in the way that you want... if the cards were sold at MSRP, you STILL would likely not have a card because they would instantly be sold out!

You would simply be changing one type of complaint for another, and in both cases you would likely not have a card. At least with high prices, you have a choice, if willing to pay for it.

The only thing to complain about is production (supply), which is too low to meet the buyer's demands. Hopefully that will balance itself somehow in the future, but until it does all this whining about prices does not help anything, especially your own particular situation whatever it may be.

 

[KingFatty]

Just pretend that Amazon and Newegg etc. refused to raise prices.

The problem would be that the cards would be way more valuable than the price being charged.

Put simply, everyone would instantly purchase all those underpriced video cards, and then resell them on ebay for a profit. As a gamer, you would still pay the same price, but your money would go to ebay instead of the vendor. That high price is because the card is valuable.

It's just nonsensical to expect a vendor to sell something at a too-low price.

In the same way you don't get angry when people outbid you on ebay, it's like that at the vendors. The problem is the value of the item being sold has increased since it's release. The problem is some people want the card to have a lower value, because they don't use it for mining. But that's just missing the point.

Silver lining is that bitcoin and other coin prices are plummeting, so this might spook some miners who will now sell their cards on ebay craigslist etc.

But last I checked, prices for used cards are not much different than prices on Newegg/Amazon, so this could take a bit of time where the coin prices have to stay low.

 

[IEC]

Yeah, I'm seeing some huge stagnation on GPU prices within the last year. I feel bad for those who have to upgrade because of part failure. I don't like the fact that both companies are reaming their customers during this refresh cycle.

AMD isn't doing any of the reaming. The prices of the chips and PCBs have not changed. The AIB partners (Sapphire, MSI, etc.) aren't selling for higher either - it's only the retailers and e-tailers who are pricing their cards high that are profiting.

If you're going to hate on somebody, hate on Newegg, Tiger Direct, etc. They are the ones "gouging".

Amazon (don't count third-party merchants) and some other large e-tailers have been selling stock near or at MSRP all throughout the past two months. They sell out quickly when they are in stock but they also allow backorders. I've bought six 290s in the past two months and I didn't pay more than $20 premium for them. I have one on backorder now - paid $464 for a Sapphire Tri-X 290. Estimated backorder time was 8 days at the time I placed the order.

 

[Johnmcl7]

If that was the case, you wouldn't be finding these cards in the masses across Europe and places like Australia and New Zealand. The cards are in stock there without the mining tax to boot. It's quite irritating to be honest.

This is not the case in the UK, stock is starting to slowly come in but there's certainly not masses of the cards in Europe - 290's are very rare and the 290x's available are mostly the ones with reference coolers. The 290's available with custom coolers are generally being sold with a huge markup although some 290x's are creeping in now with custom coolers at normal prices. The standard prices here are considerably higher than the in the US, in some cases still higher than with current price gouging.

John

 

[3DVagabond]

AMD isn't doing any of the reaming. The prices of the chips and PCBs have not changed. The AIB partners (Sapphire, MSI, etc.) aren't selling for higher either - it's only the retailers and e-tailers who are pricing their cards high that are profiting.

If you're going to hate on somebody, hate on Newegg, Tiger Direct, etc. They are the ones "gouging".

Amazon (don't count third-party merchants) and some other large e-tailers have been selling stock near or at MSRP all throughout the past two months. They sell out quickly when they are in stock but they also allow backorders. I've bought six 290s in the past two months and I didn't pay more than $20 premium for them. I have one on backorder now - paid $464 for a Sapphire Tri-X 290. Estimated backorder time was 8 days at the time I placed the order.

You are correct.

I don't know if it's caused by cynicism, distrust, or over entitlement but it's making people not see basic facts. If they are at or near MSRP they will sell out immediately. You can either try and get lucky or preorder if you want better pricing. If you want instant gratification you will have to pay extra and that's what's keeping them in stock. In stock and low price are counter to each other right now. That's the market at the moment. Larger supply would fix that, but it's not a simple as telling TSMC to up your allocation by 20%-30%, or whatever for the next few months. Or your RAM suppliers, or anyone else. Although the fab'ing for the GPU would be the toughest logistical problem.

 

[hungtran]

AMD is hurt by this. It gives gamers the impression that AMD cards are not a good value anymore. And at the same time, AMD is not earning any of the markup on the cards. They originally priced the cards at those MSRPs and sacrificed margins to compete against Nvidia. The fact is at the markups, the cards are not selling out, so AMD is losing potential sales. If the cards are selling out priced at MSRP and sold on Ebay for higher than MSRP but lower than e-tailer's prices, that means the e-tailers are not selling at market clearing prices.

 

[IEC]

AMD is hurt by this. It gives gamers the impression that AMD cards are not a good value anymore. And at the same time, AMD is not earning any of the markup on the cards. They originally priced the cards at those MSRPs and sacrificed margins to compete against Nvidia. The fact is at the markups, the cards are not selling out, so AMD is losing potential sales. If the cards are selling out priced at MSRP and sold on Ebay for higher than MSRP but lower than e-tailer's prices, that means the e-tailers are not selling at market clearing prices.

They can't lose by selling out of their highest end SKUs. Because they're selling out as fast as they can make them, they aren't losing any potential sales either. AMD would never earn the markup in any event, as they sell chips and PCBs to AIB partners, who then in turn sell to distributors and resellers.