I thought the mining problem for Hawaii was the fact that mining drove the costs for a new cards up to crazy levels where Nvidia was cheaper for gaming? Seems like that isn't a problem for the 480. I bought one for $199 and the AIB ones seem mostly within a reasonable distance from MSRP.
That was the first wave of the issue. Miners scooped up all they good paying whatever retailers wanted which put all of AMD's cards over MSRP, even the 280X was going for over $400 at my Microcenter.
The after effect of the bubble bursting was a flood of used cards in the market. Used cards were going for $200-300 versus new cards going for $400-500. Someone, not sure who, cut the price on new cards (Probably to stop the cannibalizing) which led to used cards dropping further. Buying a used 290X <$250 at one point was easy. THen the bototm completely fell out and you could get a brand new 290X for <$250. Hell, I kicked myself for missing the $250 290X Lightnings.
That will also hurt Nvidia sales and help AMD in the almighty Steam surveys. Plus quite frankly given how its advantage is in Directx 12 all those 480s would basically be switching to gaming right when they started to shine. Sounds like a good deal to us gamers.
It didn't do squat for 290/290X. It was definitely a good deal for gamers (which is why there was a lot of salt at 390/390X MSRP when they launched), but AMD needs to sort of keep itself business going.
I don't see how they are buying Nvidia (specifically the 1060 competitor) when neither are on Newegg right now. Pascal is a mining dog unless you are handy with Linux and yet still the 1060 is sold out. It isn't all miners.
I've already seen a handful of buyers just get a GTX 1060 or even a GTX 1070. Few days ago GTX 1070's were in stock for $400 with some coupon or deal and lots of people jumped on it.
A sale lost is a sale lost, especially when you are sort of trying to win back customers.
Yup same thing is happening again. Miners pick up all the cards, they've inflated the prices of the rx 480 and while sales are made how many go to gamers?
The 1060 we know a majority of gamers are buying. We have people on this forum alone with 4+ rx 480s.
Same thing happened with the 290/x released. Prices were inflated due to Miners so people picked up gtx 780s.
3 generations straight of bungled card launches from amd. Only difference is this generation this forum wants to ignore the many ways the 480 under delivered.
The only thing that makes the 480 attractive is we know full well Nvidia products have a limited lifespan. If I get amd this generation it's only because of the mining capabilities and future performance. Definitely not impressive.
I'm not even that impressed with the AIBs to be honest. For all the hate Pascal got and it's limited OC, it's still spanking 480 in that retrospect. But that's a different subject all together.
The 480 wasn't as disappointing to me this time around because A) GloFlo and B) I stopped listening to the hype machine that seems to explode around here. 90% GTX 1080 in DX12? Come on now. It's always the same hype-posters rattling of lists and personal expectations that seem to some how always miss the target.
480 is a decent card. I'll get one when I find one I like, if not, no skin off my nose.
Hopefully Vega has a better showing.