AMD Radeon R7 265 Review: Curaçao Slides In At $150

[logainofhades]

All cards HD 7xxx and newer from AMD are GCN, afaik.

 

[irish_adam]

"As for AMD, I'm not sure what your beef is. AMD is a company, I'm telling it like it is. Its company that paper launches a $110 card (the 260), and then a month later it barely shows up on the market, and at a significantly higher price to boot."Retailer's fault.You're placing the blame at the wrong end of the supply chain.

I don't remember blaming anyone. Read the article:"But at the end of the day, we're left wondering why AMD is setting prices if it can't control what you pay for its hardware?"That's not blame, it's showing that AMD's MSRP all too often has little bearing in the real world lately.As far as fault, it doesn't really matter whose fault it is. I don't care if it's AMD's fault, the vendors, or the AIBs.I'm going to tell people about it, though.

hmm kinda does sound a bit like blame or at least unfair criticism, what are they supposed to do not give an MSRP? just randomly guess what the supply and demand will be of the card? just not tell you the card will launch?I'm not saying that you shouldnt have mentioned it as i think you should of but i'm sorry but it came across as a pop at AMD. Which fuels the ignorant comments you get here with people bitching about AMD when in fact they have little choice or control of the matter

 

[smeezekitty]

People that make comments like that don't understand the concept of supply and demand.

 

[somebodyspecial]

If it was supply and demand they wouldn't all BE IN STOCK everywhere. Even 290/290x are in stock now everywhere. AMD has hiked prices behind closed doors. They tell us one thing, then set another so they garner favor in reviews for being "bang for buck" but in reality it's more like price parity with NV. But that wouldn't get a great review right? So they set MSRP below what they can actually ship at.NV had a great quarter (look at the stock price $17.70 now), and had rising GPU sales revenue. So if AMD actually isn't doing this themselves, they should start calling OEMS and telling them you're killing card sales by charging NV prices for our cards that are "supposed" to be far below NV (which clearly from all accounts is helping Nvidia sell cards). For any fool who thinks AMD (or any company) has no power over pricing, remember all they have to do is threaten a board maker with missing their next GPU for even 3 months (making that AIB maker late) and they'll immediately get in line. Intel does the same, if they don't like what you're doing, they threaten a motherboard maker with getting the next chipset late. That really hurts a M/B makers bottom line big time. AMD must be getting at least SOME of the cost ABOVE MSRP, or they'd be calling these guys. It's that simple. These aren't people buying a few extra ps4/xbox1 and hawking them on EBAY or something, it's all the OEM's together which would seem to indicate AMD is involved in some way.It may just be that AMD couldn't deliver 290/290x without AIB makers needing to totally retool their heatsink/fans (no retail card did what it was supposed to - that UP TO crap) so they owe them major leeway on MSRP overcharging to make up for their fan/heatsink changes which probably cost them at least a small chunk of change. Or more nefarious, AMD is just upping pricing behind closed doors because, well, they aren't making any money on them as the last quarter just showed. Only selling 10mil console chips saved the gpu division from losses at AMD or at best a break even (sold ~8mil in the consoles and another 2mil roughly in transit/boxing up in consoles etc landing on shelves now and over the last month). 10mil x ~$12/jaguar=120mil about what the gpu division pulled in (much less after many things come out of it, but this is basically what they made before all that). So GPU's at best broke even. Clearly high prices is slowing card sales or something right? IN stock everywhere says that now too. Consoles are available everywhere too so I'm sure next Q we won't see another ~8million between ps4/xbox1. I'd guess we'll see that drop to 6mil or less, and down from there all year. IF it's far less than 6mil this quarter total for these two, then you'll be lucky to see them hit 10mil for the year.

 

[smeezekitty]

Keeping them in stock is kind of the point of raising prices.
Raise prices until supply and demand are just about matched

 

[InvalidError]

For any fool who thinks AMD (or any company) has no power over pricing, remember all they have to do is threaten a board maker with missing their next GPU for even 3 months (making that AIB maker late) and they'll immediately get in line.

Except the bulk of the markup over AMD's MSRP probably comes from distributors and retailers so threatening OEMs would be mostly pointless.

If AMD is sold-out on their GPUs right out of the fabs because AIB partners are buying them as fast as AMD can get chips baked, AMD is not going to complain about how much higher the prices further downstream end up being since they are generating the most revenue they can possibly get already if they are providing chips on a fixed contract price to AIBPs. If AIBPs are shipping their boards to distributors as fast as they can assemble them and distributors are still continuously on back-orders, they are not going to care what the retailer's markup is going to be. If the retailers are having a hard time keeping products in-stock, they will raise prices until supply catches up with demand or demand drops below supply.

If the retail prices were too high, retailers, distributors, AIBPs and AMD would end up with an over-stock of products and parts. Right now though, offer is limited by AMD and their AIBPs' production capacity and current prices are where the supply-demand equilibrium currently sits at.

 

[JDFan]

Another thing to keep in mind with this new 265 GPU is they are most likely using up their supply of partially defective chips (ie. they probably have some sort of failure rate in the chips that disabling the Four Caraçao/Pitcairn's Compute Units results in working chips that are useable rather than trashing those partially defective chips they disable the CUs that have a defect and get the chip for the 265 that wouldn't work in a 270 due to the defect (just like the triple core CPU chips that are partially defective quad core chips)

It is completely plausible that they have a build up of partially defective chips and this is the main reason they came up with this new card since the increased pricing they are seeing at retail for the 270s and above has created a price point that this new card is perfect to fill and also means they can deplete the supply of partially defective chips and make a profit from them rather than tossing them. so they can kill the proverbial 2 birds ( use up a supply of otherwise unuseable chips and fill a hole in the market caused by the increased retail price of there currently available product codes )

 

[vertexx]

For any fool who thinks AMD (or any company) has no power over pricing, remember all they have to do is threaten a board maker with missing their next GPU for even 3 months (making that AIB maker late) and they'll immediately get in line.

Except the bulk of the markup over AMD's MSRP probably comes from distributors and retailers so threatening OEMs would be mostly pointless.

If AMD is sold-out on their GPUs right out of the fabs because AIB partners are buying them as fast as AMD can get chips baked, AMD is not going to complain about how much higher the prices further downstream end up being since they are generating the most revenue they can possibly get already if they are providing chips on a fixed contract price to AIBPs. If AIBPs are shipping their boards to distributors as fast as they can assemble them and distributors are still continuously on back-orders, they are not going to care what the retailer's markup is going to be. If the retailers are having a hard time keeping products in-stock, they will raise prices until supply catches up with demand or demand drops below supply.

If the retail prices were too high, retailers, distributors, AIBPs and AMD would end up with an over-stock of products and parts. Right now though, offer is limited by AMD and their AIBPs' production capacity and current prices are where the supply-demand equilibrium currently sits at.

They were out of stock with the MSRP - they could not keep up with sales. That's why the prices went up. Now that the prices are higher, demand has fallen, and cards are in stock. Economics 101.

 

[vertexx]

If it was supply and demand they wouldn't all BE IN STOCK everywhere.

Umm... They had to raise prices in order to keep them in stock. At MSRP, they WERE out of stock. That's the reason they had to raise prices. Economics 101.

 

[logainofhades]

The amount of failure to understand simply supply and demand is staggering. Apparently schools don't teach simple economics anymore.

 

[Novuake]

The amount of failure to understand simply supply and demand is staggering. Apparently schools don't teach simple economics anymore.

School is about teaching everything except common sense. Unfortunately common sense should be a prerequisite but isn't.
If only the educational departments of the world had played more RPG as kids.

 

[mrmohammad_amin]

hi all u guysi want to build my new gaming pc and my budget is about 800$ as whole and for grapghic card its about 130$ that it means i can buy AMD R7 260x,but i wanna know your opinion guys,should i change my mind and go for this card,R7 265 i meant?is it better than 260x in gaming performance?thank you

 

[alextheblue]

Yes I realize there are a few available at $120 already but most of those up until just this week were with MIRs (which I don't consider since many times they lose the paperwork etc. and your out the $ for 3-6 months anyway !) OR like the one you linked have only 1GB of VRAM rather than the 2GB of most of the cards so are not suited for 1080P resolutions with AA\AF etc. - Which is why I hadn't ordered yet ( along with the 128 bit memory bus which means reducing some settings in games at 1080P resolutions - notice the benches in this article on games that actually give the memory bus a workout and you'll see how the 265 pulls ahead of the 260x on those titles when the bus width starts to become a factor (ie. this is where the memory bandwith of 179.2 GBs on the 265 pulls ahead of the 104.0 GBs of the 260x) - also notice the spikes on the Frame time variance chart where the 260x runs into delays (ie. stuttering) also due to the lack of bandwidth at times.

Hmm sorry I was thinking about Goodriot. He blew his PSU and graphics card and only had $200 to replace both. So that was a good combo at the time, get a strong PSU and then you have room to replace the GPU with something more powerful later without needing to refresh both. For anyone who has a good PSU already? Yeah spend the extra beans on a 265, absolutely! It's a good deal at 150 beans or so.

Although I will say that I believe 1GB is more than adequate for the lowly 260X. I'd say it's not quite apples to apples, as you already have to scale back to get a decent framerate. I think Cleeve has discussed it before, but basically the card isn't capable of playing at such high settings to begin with. So in this case I'd wager 1GB is a good match given the tame performance of the 260X in the first place - part of which is due to the limited memory bandwidth as you pointed out. Once you move up to something with a ton more memory bandwidth, 2GB is rapidly becoming the minimum.

 

[alextheblue]

hi all u guysi want to build my new gaming pc and my budget is about 800$ as whole and for grapghic card its about 130$ that it means i can buy AMD R7 260x,but i wanna know your opinion guys,should i change my mind and go for this card,R7 265 i meant?is it better than 260x in gaming performance?thank you

You need to post a list of all the components you're buying if you want more advice. If you've got an $800 budget for a gaming PC and you're only spending $130 on graphics, you may want to make some adjustments. Cases are much a matter of preference so I tend to give a good amount pricing leeway on those, but you definitely should have more room in your budget for a faster GPU. A 265 at a minimum.

Actually this probably isn't the best place for this, but I couldn't help but post after seeing that you were planning on gimping the graphics end of a new gaming build.

 

[mrmohammad_amin]

hi all u guysi want to build my new gaming pc and my budget is about 800$ as whole and for grapghic card its about 130$ that it means i can buy AMD R7 260x,but i wanna know your opinion guys,should i change my mind and go for this card,R7 265 i meant?is it better than 260x in gaming performance?thank you

You need to post a list of all the components you're buying if you want more advice. If you've got an $800 budget for a gaming PC and you're only spending $130 on graphics, you may want to make some adjustments. Cases are much a matter of preference so I tend to give a good amount pricing leeway on those, but you definitely should have more room in your budget for a faster GPU. A 265 at a minimum.Actually this probably isn't the best place for this, but I couldn't help but post after seeing that you were planning on gimping the graphics end of a new gaming build.

my components are here that i planned for it:cpu core i3 4130MB asrock h87 fatality performanceram 8gb (2x4gb) 1600 patriotgraphic card : r7 260x and another stuff like PSU,case and etc that are not important...

 

[Truckinupga]

For an eye opening reveal to whats happening to the AMD card prices everyone should really have a look at this YouTube video from PC Perspective. 15 minutes of your time and this video will explain everything, Plus make you angry as well.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gllU08ZCygs

 

[cleeve]

hi all u guysi want to build my new gaming pc and my budget is about 800$ as whole and for grapghic card its about 130$ that it means i can buy AMD R7 260x,but i wanna know your opinion guys,should i change my mind and go for this card,R7 265 i meant?is it better than 260x in gaming performance?thank you

Assuming the R7 265 shows up for $150, it's a killer deal. Spend the extra $20, well worth it.

 

[mrmohammad_amin]

hi all u guysi want to build my new gaming pc and my budget is about 800$ as whole and for grapghic card its about 130$ that it means i can buy AMD R7 260x,but i wanna know your opinion guys,should i change my mind and go for this card,R7 265 i meant?is it better than 260x in gaming performance?thank you

You need to post a list of all the components you're buying if you want more advice. If you've got an $800 budget for a gaming PC and you're only spending $130 on graphics, you may want to make some adjustments. Cases are much a matter of preference so I tend to give a good amount pricing leeway on those, but you definitely should have more room in your budget for a faster GPU. A 265 at a minimum.

Actually this probably isn't the best place for this, but I couldn't help but post after seeing that you were planning on gimping the graphics end of a new gaming build.

my components are here that i planned for it:cpu core i3 4130MB asrock h87 fatality performanceram 8gb (2x4gb) 1600 patriotgraphic card : r7 260x and another stuff like PSU,case and etc that are not important...

 

[buzznut]

And the first question I have is how does it do litecoin mining? Ultimately that will affect its price more than anything right now. For AMD cards I suggest you add mining tests to your benchmarks as this can have a significant bearing on pricing and availability. R9 270 was a well kept secret, but as miners got desperate with the lack of available high end cards its efficiency became desirable. Now no one can find 270's and if they do they are way overpriced. Kind of hard to ignore the 800 pound gorilla in the room...

 

[smeezekitty]

And the first question I have is how does it do litecoin mining? Ultimately that will affect its price more than anything right now. For AMD cards I suggest you add mining tests to your benchmarks as this can have a significant bearing on pricing and availability. R9 270 was a well kept secret, but as miners got desperate with the lack of available high end cards its efficiency became desirable. Now no one can find 270's and if they do they are way overpriced. Kind of hard to ignore the 800 pound gorilla in the room...

I disagree. There is no reason to encourage those greedy jerks.

 

[logainofhades]

I wish bitcoin, litecoin and all the other variants would die off.

 

[InvalidError]

I disagree. There is no reason to encourage those greedy jerks.

Whether or not THG does publish Bitcoin and Litecoin benchmarks makes no difference: you still end up in a situation where coin miners will still seek the most cost-effective mining setup that fits within their budget and coin mining sites have their own exhaustive benchmarks anyway.

What having mining benchmarks on THG would do is highlight why some GPUs' pricing makes no sense based on gaming benchmarks: if retail prices are being driven by mining, you may see a GPU that only performs only 10% better than another in gaming end up priced 50% higher at retail because it actually performs over 60% better at mining. Non-miners won't bother digging those details but may still be interested to know if the data is presented to them.

 

[vertexx]

And the first question I have is how does it do litecoin mining? Ultimately that will affect its price more than anything right now. For AMD cards I suggest you add mining tests to your benchmarks as this can have a significant bearing on pricing and availability. R9 270 was a well kept secret, but as miners got desperate with the lack of available high end cards its efficiency became desirable. Now no one can find 270's and if they do they are way overpriced. Kind of hard to ignore the 800 pound gorilla in the room...

I disagree. There is no reason to encourage those greedy jerks.

To the first question, it will be a decent entry-level script miner (Litecoin and other script variants). It should pull ~350kH/sec, which is ~$37/month at current LTC difficulty and market price. You have to subtract power cost to get your net.

To the 2nd and subsequent comments, am I the only gamer who mines on the side? I'm not mining to make $$ - I'm mining to pay for the GPUs. I just don't get the hostility. If you're savvy enough to mine with your card, it'll pay for itself in a few months. If not, then buy Nvidia. To me, I'm still willing to pay for the inflated AMD prices because I can get it paid for over time. That has actually allowed me to buy more and more powerful GPUs for gaming PCs in my household than I would have otherwise.

Cheers!

 

[smeezekitty]

To the 2nd and subsequent comments, am I the only gamer who mines on the side? I'm not mining to make $$ - I'm mining to pay for the GPUs. I just don't get the hostility. If you're savvy enough to mine with your card, it'll pay for itself in a few months. If not, then buy Nvidia. To me, I'm still willing to pay for the inflated AMD prices because I can get it paid for over time. That has actually allowed me to buy more and more powerful GPUs for gaming PCs in my household than I would have otherwise.

I have nothing against sideline miners infact I do it myself because
my computer is negligible on the electric bill. Its the people that buy 3-5-10-20 GPUS just to mine with
that tick me off

 

[InvalidError]

Its the people that buy 3-5-10-20 GPUS just to mine with that tick me off

But AMD needs more people buying 5-10-20 high-ish-end cards to get their anemic cash flow rolling smoothly again - assuming AMD can raise their contract prices to get a fair share of retail markups.