General Discussions

[black_zion]

Well this is bad news for everybody...Welcome back to the age of insane graphics card prices...

https://www.pcgamesn.com/amd-7nm-vega-computex-2018-launch

AMD’s CEO Lisa Su already crushed any glimmer of hope for a 7nm Vega card intended for gamers this year. The latest news straight from AMD confirms that, while multiple 7nm products are in various stages of validation and assembly, only server-side Radeon Instinct and EPYC servers will be getting the 7nm treatment this year.

AMD is already sampling the Radeon Instinct 7nm Vega card, and expects it to release before the end of 2018 - alongside the first Zen 2 7nm EPYC products. As for 7nm Radeon RX gaming GPUs, it’s looking hopeful that AMD is still on track for a 2019 launch.

[ajlueke]

Well, NVidia isn't putting anything new out either, so it is status quo until 2019.

[black_zion]

Except the GTX 1100 series launching next month with retail availability in August...

[ajlueke]

According to Jensen Huang at Comptex, we won't see the 1100 series until "a very long time from now", effectively debunking the Tom's Hardware July rumor.

[black_zion]

Wasn't a rumor, nVidia had planned to launch them in July with retail availability in August, but with Lisa Su not interested in releasing anything Radeon, Jen-Hsun Huang has no reason to release new cards, but instead keep prices sky high like nVidia always does when they're not challenged, the 1080Ti is $75, 1080 is $550, Vega64 is still way overpriced at $600...Remember how many times nVidia simply released the GeForce 8800 because AMD couldn't compete?

[ajlueke]

Just like Intel did during the 5 year span AMD was stuck on Bulldozer.  Didn't work out so well for Intel long term as now AMD has effectively caught up.  Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it I suppose.

[black_zion]

Worked out quite well for Intel as they have a massive chunk of the market including the much coveted OEM market, as well as near 100% of the mobile market. As for catching up, AMD put a massive dent in the gap towards Intel, but still has a long way to go, as we saw in the TomsHardware review, Intel is still faster per clock.

[ajlueke]

After 5.5 years of Bulldozer, which was arguably far less competitive with i7 than Vega is the Geforce, Intel should have been untouchable.  But they stagnated, as publicly traded companies are wont to do.  AMD didn't even release a high end desktop chip for 4.5 years!  Yet here they are, right back in the mix.  Maybe Intel simply couldn't design a chip with and AMD chip to rip off first?  Nehalem: An Overview - Intel Core i7 (Nehalem): Architecture By AMD?

Wonder if that is why they decided to cut out the middle man and hire both Jim Keller and Raja Koduri?

"but instead keep prices sky high like nVidia always does when they're not challenged".  Sounds like a good reason to buy AMD.  It is the primary reason I went over to the red team.  If you want AMD to be more competitive, and don't like NVidia's business practices, let your dollars do the talking.  Maybe if AMD gets enough revenue, they can start making separate dies for gaming/workstation/machine learning applications the way NVidia does.  Or we can all buy NVidia "because it's more fps for the money" and then complain when AMD doesn't force them to make anything new.

[hardcoregames_]

until video card prices come back down to earth, i am sticking with my hd 7870

[ajlueke]

Vega 64 models are essentially back to MSRP at this point.  Not sure about the 500 series.

[black_zion]

No they're not, they're still $100 above MSRP ($599 vs $499), and the RX 580 is still $90 above MSRP as well ($319 vs $229) over a year after release, technically two years for the RX 500 series since they are simple rebrands of the RX 400 series, and with nothing new from AMD this year there's nothing to press prices down.

[hardcoregames_]

I made a few newegg search results that I bookmarked for review, and prices are still out of line with historical norms

so I will continue to sit on the sidelines

[ajlueke]

The RX 580 and a few others seem to be a tad on the high side yet.  RX Vega however, is as cheap as it has ever been (other than that blip in November).  So as far as the "historic norm", Vega is currently below it's average historic selling price.

https://pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/video-card/#gpu.chipset.radeon-rx-vega-64

[ajlueke]

Beyond the reference edition, I don't believe any Vega cards had an MSRP of $499.  The ASUS Strix Vega 64, launched with an MSRP of $599.  The exact price it currently sells for.

[black_zion]

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/62136/nvidia-launching-next-gen-geforce-gtx-1180-july-30/index.html

[hardcoregames_]

That will leave a flood of older trashed mining cards flooding ebay, makes be all the more cynical