AMD cards in the ~£200 price category...

[Nobull]

So, having read a few reviews of the 390 and 390X, including the one posted by Hexus this evening I'm more than a little unimpressed. Not just because it's a rebadge.

The most annoying thing is that their release seems to have completely skewed the market. The 290X cards that could be had for a little over £200 about a fortnight ago are now closer to £270. The 390X itself carries at least a £60 premium on top of that. For someone who is looking to drop £200 on a GPU (like me) these "new" releases have paradoxically made things a lot worse. It's not supposed to be this way! Things are supposed to get better after a new range is released. Obviously with AMD going for this crazy pricing structure there's no impetus for Nvidia to lower prices.

I have an ageing and venerable 6950 which I'm looking to retire in order to play Witcher 3 and GTA V in particular. 1080p only though, can't afford a new monitor now.

Really torn, I don't want to go green particularly but I've got a Zotac 970 AMP Extreme awaiting dispatch at Amazon which has 2-4 week wait (I thought that was a good thing anyway as it would let me see what the prices do), which at the time I "bought" was £230. I was hoping I might get a 290X (or 390X!) for less...or by some made twist of fate a Fury for circa £50-70 more (not looking likely either).

Any advice? I am tempted to wait it out until 14nm and HBM2 drop next year, but really want to play those games...do people think my 6950 might be able to make a reasonable fist of it? Should I search Ebay for a bargain on another card to tide me over until I make the step up from 1080p? Seriously confused right now and not in a good way.

Thanks Hexites!

[stevie lee]

sisters 6870 runs witcher 3 on medium settings with a PII X6 3.2ghz chip. 1680x1050 resolution though. she says its smooth looking. need to retest with raptrs fps overlay though. i'll have a look tomorrow if you want?
so if you don't care about quality settings that much, the game will play. just turn hairworks off.

edit: just tested my 750ti, and I get 22fps in ultra settings at 1680x1050.

so it will run on your current setup in your 'my system' at 1080p , i'd settle for medium settings for smooth gameplay, if you wanted to wait for next years cards.

the 4GB ram may cause issues though, I get 6-7GB usage when playing.

no clue about GTA5 performance.

[Nobull]

sisters 6870 runs witcher 3 on medium settings with a PII X6 3.2ghz chip. 1680x1050 resolution though. she says its smooth looking. need to retest with raptrs fps overlay though. i'll have a look tomorrow if you want?
so if you don't care about quality settings that much, the game will play. just turn hairworks off.

edit: just tested my 750ti, and I get 22fps in ultra settings at 1680x1050.

so it will run on your current setup in your 'my system' at 1080p , i'd settle for medium settings for smooth gameplay, if you wanted to wait for next years cards.

the 4GB ram may cause issues though, I get 6-7GB usage when playing.

no clue about GTA5 performance.

Cheers Stevie, some useful info there. I did upgrade to 8GB RAM a while ago but didn't change it in my Hexus profile. 22 FPS at 1680 does not sound particularly appealing, and I would expect your 750ti to perform at a similar level to my 6950, though that is pure guesswork. I know my current setup will play both games, but probably at low quality settings in order to get an acceptable FPS. I really do want to experience the Witcher 3 especially in a way that is going to be pleasant as I've been waiting on this game for years. I'm wondering whether I should try and pick up a 770/780 or similar off Ebay or the classifieds as a stopgap.

[DanceswithUnix]

The most annoying thing is that their release seems to have completely skewed the market. The 290X cards that could be had for a little over £200 about a fortnight ago are now closer to £270. The 390X itself carries at least a £60 premium on top of that. For someone who is looking to drop £200 on a GPU (like me) these "new" releases have paradoxically made things a lot worse. It's not supposed to be this way! Things are supposed to get better after a new range is released. Obviously with AMD going for this crazy pricing structure there's no impetus for Nvidia to lower prices.

There was a window of a few weeks when the price of 2xx cards dropped to bargain levels. It was never going to last, it happened before the 3xx series were launched and yes they seem to be back to the old prices again as it seems there is very little 2xx stock out in the channel.

This 285 still seems quite a good buy, though I have no idea what VTX are like. http://www.ebuyer.com/715613-vtx3d-r...-285-2gbd5-dhx

The bargain 290/290X cards seem to have dried up though.

Edit to add: Having seen the 390 prices starting at £250 http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Componen...rice+ascending
I have to assume there is *very* little 290 stock floating around for them to command the same price as a 390.

[Nobull]

Looking like the 970 is probably the best option then. Utter madness that AMD don't have any good propositions at this price point any more.

[DanceswithUnix]

Looking like the 970 is probably the best option then. Utter madness that AMD don't have any good propositions at this price point any more.

Comparing normal retail prices, I think the new AMD stuff needs to come down a shade but then the prices are new so that is fairly normal.

If you can get a 970 at that price, then yes that looks like the way to go. I wish you luck that they actually dispatch it, but you might want to keep an eye on prices for a plan B.

[Nobull]

Thanks, yeah, I suppose they might pull the order. Looking more and more likely. Hopefully when the Fury (non X) arrives that will create a downward pressure on the cards below it, provided it comes in at a sensible price and forces Nvidia to wield the axe.

[scaryjim]

... Hopefully when the Fury (non X) arrives that will create a downward pressure on the cards below it, provided it comes in at a sensible price and forces Nvidia to wield the axe.

Interestingly - based on the figures in the Hexus Fury X review - there's not really any card in the gap between the 980 / 390X and the 980 Ti / Fury X. Based on AMD's announcements so far the R9 Nano should perform almost identically to a 980 (interestingly, with a very similar TDP - 175W for the Nano vs 165W for the 980), so it will presumably drop in at a similar price: i.e. ~ £350. That's the card that's likely to shunt the prices downwards (given the 390X currently costs up to around £350). Unfortunately, it's not due to land until Q3, so we've got a bit of a wait for that.

The Fury will slot into that £150 gap between the 980 and the Fury X - it'll be quite a bit faster than a 980, and a little bit slower than the 980 Ti / Fury X. But given the price gap that's available to it, it could slot in at around £450 (I believe AMD announced it at $100 less than the Fury X, so that would make sense) without really impacting the market segments above or below it. I can't see anything hitting the £200 market unless/until AMD push out an X version of the R9 380. If they do that, things could get interesting

[gupsterg]

The most annoying thing is that their release seems to have completely skewed the market. The 290X cards that could be had for a little over £200 about a fortnight ago are now closer to £270.

I have a Sapphire 290 Tri-X 4GB available for sale, PM if you wish to discuss, purchased Jan 15 @ £226. I visit the Sapphire forum and on there recently a member asked if warranty was carried over to a new owner, response was yes as long as proof of purchase is with new owner. I have not registered card on Sapphire Support site.

Corker of a card benches as well as an Asus 290X I had for a week or 2, flogging as I managed to gain a Vapor-X 290X just before 390 / 390X launch.

[scaryjim]

I have a Sapphire 290 Tri-X 4GB available for sale, PM if you wish to discuss

*AHEM* there's a forum for that kind of thing, and the reason there's a special forum for it is because we discourage private sales in open forum. if you're selling tech, gupsterg, you're welcome to list it in the FS forum (as long as you obey all the list rules, of course ). But please don't offer items for sale in open forum.

For sale forum: http://forums.hexus.net/classifieds/
For sale rules: http://forums.hexus.net/classifieds/...s-read-me.html

[gupsterg]

NP, understood .

I do apologise for this rule breaking .

As currently on ebay I'll not post in FS section yet.

[Nobull]

I don't get why they are neglecting the £200 segment. Surely more money to be made overall from volume of sales there?

[iranu]

I'm in exactly the same boat. It's looking like I'll bite the bullet and drop £250 on a 970. Now and again a few of the higher end ones with good cooling come down to that price. AMD missed a trick, because getting the 390 more towards £220 would get them sales.

[DanceswithUnix]

AMD missed a trick, because getting the 390 more towards £220 would get them sales.

I expect the 8GB of ram makes that hard for the 390, but they could always cut it down a bit and call that a 380X.

[kalniel]

I don't get why they are neglecting the £200 segment. Surely more money to be made overall from volume of sales there?

We're a small island. The price points probably hit the jackpot in other countries and the translated cost to the UK comes out where we currently are.

[watercooled]

I've said it before, along with websites like Anandtech, no retail version of full Tonga is really strange and does leave quite a gap in the product stack. 'Full Tonga' is no rumour as it currently exists as a mobile part in some iMacs, they just haven't done a desktop version of it yet.