I'm not impressed by the Radeon 7 series.

[internetswag]

What I don't understand is that Radeon are increasing both price and performance of all cards. Now if the performance gains outweighed the price gains I could understand this, but it doesn't seem so.

According to this link the 7850 will cost $220. Obviously the 7850 will be an improvement over the 6850, but the current 6850 is selling for $150. That's a $70 price increase.

Where as the Radeon 6870 costs around $165-$180 (depending on brand). If the 7850 doesn't vastly outperform the Radeon 6870 I see no reason to buy one.

It's like the 5 -> 6 series rebranding all over again except this time they're replacing the 6870 with a 6850 and upping the price tag!

Is there something I am missing or is all they really improved on the high end cards?

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Only time will tell.... Didn't toms do an article on the 7XXX series?

 

[fb39ca4]

Well, the 6850 launched at around $200. The price will drop over time.

 

[benski]

There are still plenty of 6850's on store shelves they would be cutting their own necks if they released a better card at the same or near the same price. Cards are always overpriced when they first get released.

 

[Kari]

and it is sort of silly to compare cards that are going EOL with brand new ones (with prices based on rumors)... they want to get rid off the formers and there isn't alot of the latters to go around in the first place....

 

[vilenjan]

New gen card are never a great value when compared to outgoing gen of cards, this is not new. You could buy a 4870 less than a 5770 at one point, and 4890 was cheaper than a 5830 too. Heck 5850 dropped to almost 6850 prices too a months back.

With a newer gen card you paying for technology that hasn't been properly utilized yet, and longer relevant driver support.

Also a 7850 will have a lower wattage usage than a 6850, while being more powerful, and that important too.

 

[gidgiddonihah]

I'm waiting it out to make a GPU upgrade and see what nVidia is about.

I am waiting until the bank has enough dough . My GTX 460 is growing a little long in the tooth.

 

[jaguarskx]

What I don't understand is that Radeon are increasing both price and performance of all cards. Now if the performance gains outweighed the price gains I could understand this, but it doesn't seem so.

According to this link the 7850 will cost $220. Obviously the 7850 will be an improvement over the 6850, but the current 6850 is selling for $150. That's a $70 price increase.

Where as the Radeon 6870 costs around $165-$180 (depending on brand). If the 7850 doesn't vastly outperform the Radeon 6870 I see no reason to buy one.

It's like the 5 -> 6 series rebranding all over again except this time they're replacing the 6870 with a 6850 and upping the price tag!

Is there something I am missing or is all they really improved on the high end cards?

If you want a killer price on a Radeon HD 7xxx card, then just wait until the Radeon HD 8xxx card are released.

 

[gidgiddonihah]

SLi them...

My mobo doesn't support it . Or I would have picked up another one by now.

 

[internetswag]

Well, the 6850 launched at around $200. The price will drop over time.

Doesn't that potentially hurt launch sales? I highly doubt the 7970 will ever cost less than $500. And a $49 drop on a high end card isn't that much, especially if the 6850 dropped from $200 to $150, as you say it did.

If you want a killer price on a Radeon HD 7xxx card, then just wait until the Radeon HD 8xxx card are released.

The 6850 has been priced the same since before the 7 series was launched (not counting the 6850 release date obviously >.< )







If I were to buy a new graphics card or PC right now I would buy a 6 series card, which does make AMD richer, but it doesn't benefit the 7 series at all. Everyone saying 'wait for the 7 series before buying a new graphics card' is actually saying, 'wait for the 7 series to attain the same price : performance ratio as the 6 series. Which isn't going to happen anytime soon, ergo they might as well wait for Nvidia's launch ergo they might as well wait for Radeon 8 series to launch. See where I'm going with this?

 

[vitornob]

If I were to buy a new graphics card or PC right now I would buy a 6 series card, which does make AMD richer, but it doesn't benefit the 7 series at all. Everyone saying 'wait for the 7 series before buying a new graphics card' is actually saying, 'wait for the 7 series to attain the same price : performance ratio as the 6 series. Which isn't going to happen anytime soon, ergo they might as well wait for Nvidia's launch ergo they might as well wait for Radeon 8 series to launch. See where I'm going with this?

The wait for the 7 series isn't to actually buy a 7 series, or to buy a 6 series.
Is to be possible evaluate the performace/price ratio.
I'm sure the HD7850 is faster than HD6850, but also expensive.

Then we would need to set a minimum performace/features required (to cut off all the slower, not desired cards) and study the performace/price ratio of all the cards above this cut line.

The result could be a 6, or a 7 series, doesn't matter, since you already cut the cards you wouldn't buy.
I would say that if you want to buy a computer, and there's some new tech coming, let's say, next month. Doesn't hurt to wait a month to have more options to evaluate.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I think what you are seeing here is a result of the following:

1. DX 11 cards only make up 32% of the installed base, whereas DX10 cards account for 61%. Economy has peeps sitting longer on their old equipment.

2. NVidia cards are selling quite well at this point (following market share data from Steam servers)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 8.81%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 4.35%
ATI Radeon HD 6950 3.53%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 3.14%
ATI Radeon HD 6970 1.89%

3. So it's a wise move for AMD to tout their 7xxx series even before they are actually available so as to hopefully put a dent in nVidia's sales.

4. As was said above, pricing too close to current gen cards kills sales of the older ones and since there aren't many 7xxx cards to actually "sell", they have to keep an income stream going to pay bills. So a price drop when supply hits these shores is likely to have peeps "jumping on it".

5. The performance advantages of any "new thing" tend to be exaggerated in the absence of any real data.....after all, would you stop and read past a blogger's headline if the headline read "new cards no big deal" .... or "new cards match expectations". Actual performance measurements are now coming up short of previous expectations making the actual value now seems less than originally anticipated.

 

[simon12]

I am expecting (could be wrong) the $150 7770 to perform as well as a 6850 and be lower power making it better value. I suspect the 5970 will drop well under $500 if Nvidia top Kelper is significantly better than it at a similar price point.

 

[wolfram23]

What I don't understand is that Radeon are increasing both price and performance of all cards. Now if the performance gains outweighed the price gains I could understand this, but it doesn't seem so.

According to this link the 7850 will cost $220. Obviously the 7850 will be an improvement over the 6850, but the current 6850 is selling for $150. That's a $70 price increase.

Where as the Radeon 6870 costs around $165-$180 (depending on brand). If the 7850 doesn't vastly outperform the Radeon 6870 I see no reason to buy one.

It's like the 5 -> 6 series rebranding all over again except this time they're replacing the 6870 with a 6850 and upping the price tag!

Is there something I am missing or is all they really improved on the high end cards?

That literally means nothing. Besides going off basically rumors, the fact is that we don't know what to expect. I bought 5850s for $300 each. Then the 6850s came out and they were cheaper - and lower performance. Basically we just don't know what to expect until the cards get released.

 

[Tavo_Nova]

go grab another 6850 and crossfire then since they are still on the nice price and well before they stop production, or if you can afford and if it allows buy 3 more for quad crossfire, heck if you can use 10 go use 10 of them, since they are cheaper and still in production if not still in high numbers XD

 

[simon12]

You can't crossfire 4 (or 3) 6850s as they only have one port for crossfire cables

 

[jaguarskx]

The 6850 has been priced the same since before the 7 series was launched (not counting the 6850 release date obviously >.< )

The HD 6850's price will likely not go any lower than it currently is (if so, then not by much). The expected street price of the HD 7850 is $199 which is $40 more than the most expensive HD 6850 or $80 more than the least expensive HD 6850 currently being sold at Newegg. Therefore, there is no real need for a "fire sale" on the HD 6850s. The HD 6850s were priced at $199 when originally released.

 

[refillable]

7850 replaces 6870, 7870 replaces 6950, 7950 replaces 6970.

 

[internetswag]

7850 replaces 6870, 7870 replaces 6950, 7950 replaces 6970.

Then what does the 7970 replace?

 

[Kari]

Then what does the 7970 replace?

the empty spot between 6970 and 6990