Will R9 2XX prices drop in the near future?

[Snookslayer]

With the anticipated release of AMD's new R9 300 series graphic cards expected in the near future (I've read March or April 2015) does anyone expect a dramatic decrease in R9 2XX prices when the new cards are released?

Anyone holding off buying an R9 200 series card in anticipation of that?

What's happened in the past when a new series was released? Was there are quick/dramatic decline in the old series prices, or not as much as one might think?

 

[Anonymouselite5]

Well I'm guessing prices will drop slightly. It's said that the r9 290x will just be rebranded into the r9 380x. In the past the price for remaining 7970's didn't drop when the r9 280x was released so I'm not expecting a giant drop in price.

I just recently brought an r9 290 for 350 dollars 😉 I mean most of the prices of them have already dropped due to Nvdia's GTX 970 (500 dollar price tag).
I probably should have waited for the r9 390x though.

 

[Math Geek]

generally, price drops are determined by competition from the other cards. the card's price and performance will determine what happens to the other cards on the market. the 970 caused amd gpu's to drop to match but the other nvidia gpu's it replaced did not drop much.

i would expect something similar with the new 3** series. depending on how they are priced and how they perform, nvidia cards may be adjusted but doubtful the other amd cards will see much movement.

 

[Snookslayer]

Two days ago I marked down all of NewEgg's R9 290X cards/prices just to see how the prices fluctuate over the next month so. I didn't expect very much change for at least a few weeks or a month, but here are 3/1/2015 prices vs 3/3/2015 prices:

XFX R9-290X ENFC Radeon R9 290X 4GB... was $359.99, now... $329.99

XFX Double Dissipation R9-290X-EDFD Radeon R9 290X 4GB... was $379.99, now... $349.99 (not including $30.00 rebate on both prices)

SAPPHIRE TRI-X OC 100361-2SR Radeon R9 290X 4GB... was $389.99, now... $359.99 (not including $20.00 rebate on both prices)

MSI R9 290X LIGHTNING 4GB... was $399.99, now... $379.99

etc.... a few other cards I noticed a $10.00 to $20.00 decrease. Some cards had no price change, and none increased.

That's insane. Two days.?.?. Wow, I had no idea GPU prices were that volatile. Now I'm really interested to see where prices go after the R9 300 release.

 

[Math Geek]

prices are crazy as you have seen. they go up and down so fast it is hard to keep up. throw in sales and rebates and you rally have to look close the day you're buying to find what the prices are. this is why i never settle on a specific gpu but rather look close at a target price to see what is the best buy that day. limiting yurself to a specific gpu will usually prevent you from finding the best card for the money and can lead to overpaying and missing a better deal.

 

[renz496]

you guys still want AMD to drop price for a card that already have low price?

 

[Math Geek]

he's just noting the huge price swings from day to day. nvidia cards also see such price swings for any given day as well.

and who would not want prices to drop? if you could have a 970 for $200 instead of $300+ would you rather have the higher price? it's a common enough question when new stuff comes out. pretty normal to expect older gen stuff to drop in price at least for a little while. this is what the op asked about.

 

[renz496]

no doubt it will be good for consumer. but does it really good for AMD? i hear people talking about how troublesome it will be if AMD won't be able to compete properly with nvidia but the same people also hoping for AMD to keep lowering the price 😛 but don't mind me. just my rant

 

[Math Geek]

lol, not a rant, just expressing your thoughts 😀

competition is good of course. look at what intel can charge when amd stopped being competitive in the higher end cpu market. this is how you know the apu's are actually a decent cpu since cheaper intel cpu's are staying cheap. they know raising the price will drive business to the amd chips like the x4 860 and a10 apu's. even the fx 6300/6350 would gain sales if the i3 went up much in price.

nvidia would do the same if amd stopped competing with gpu's as well. this is why folks are so ansy about the new amd 3** series. it has to be something good since nvidia has done so well with their new stuff. performance is not the issue as much as efficiency. amd can match whatever nvidia has but not on power usage. the new gpu's should hopefully bring down the power usage some and hopefully do it with some performance increases as well.

 

[Snookslayer]

"limiting yurself to a specific gpu will usually prevent you from finding the best card for the money and can lead to overpaying and missing a better deal."

You're right. I've been flipping back and forth on GTX 970, 980, R9 290, R9 290X, etc. based on price differences which apparently change DAILY. Regardless of which card I settle on, I know I'm going to end up overpaying $20-$40 for an ASUS (which always seems to be more expensive than competitors).

I've read reviews on cheaper brands like Powercolor, XFX, Saphire, and some people swear by them, while others say "it only lasted six months." I have no idea what to believe. So I'm going with the only thing I do know... I've only bought one video card in my life: the ASUS 6870 it's still going strong after 4+ years of heavy gaming. So they'll continue to get my business until I'm disappointed. Brand loyalty = spending too much, but it also equals piece of mind (even if it's just all in my head).

In any case, I also copied down the prices of the GTX 970, 980, and a few others, so I'll update this thread over the next few weeks if I see any more huge changes in prices. Could be interesting.

 

[Math Geek]

i have used pretty much every brand out there at one time or another except for power cooler. i build pc's at the rate of about 10-15 a week so i buy a lot and normally i buy based on price unless the customer wants something specific. i do buy in bulk when a sale is real good since i'm sure i will use it eventually.

the only brand i will stay away from is HiS. they screwed me over the holiday sales on some rebates and have lost my business forever. 3 different rebates totaling over $100 were denied for very stupid reasons and they refused to speak to me for 2 months after denying them. then when the window was over, all of a sudden i got an email seeking to help but "oh we so sorry, it too late now....".

so far only a couple cards have come back to me as faulty from the buyers over the years. this tells me that they are all good quality and last fine. had there been issues they would have been brought back to me for fixing since i support what i sell. i'm sure many of the "died in 6 months" people have to do with heavy overclocking on a cheap card, or poor air flow causing overheating issues. sure problems happen with any brand but i have yet to see any reason to avoid or prefer one brand over another for normal use.

i do like the evga superclocked cards as the cooler is very good and the factory oc is usually very good as is. the asus strix cards are also very good as well. great cooling and usually decent factory oc. this allows for great performance out of the box for my customers and prevents any custom oc issues for less than knowledgeable people i sell to. but when the price is right the xfx DD cards and saphire windforce cards are just as solid in my experience.

 

[Snookslayer]

I appreciate your thoughts on the various brands. I've Googled numerous brands and watched countless Youtube vids in recent months just to get a feel for the consensus of one brand vs another. I'm weary of PowerColor just because they're so dang cheap compared to everyone else. They might have the greatest quality products available, but when the prices are that much cheaper it just makes ya nervous. Especially to noobs like me.

I'll keep in mind your experience with HiS. The rebate thing was a real pain the last time I built (4 years ago) for all the various parts.

Agreed that ya have to take some of the Newegg reviews with a grain of salt, especially the "died in 6 months" reviews. I'm starting to warm up to Saphire based on everything I've read lately including posts like yours. Also glad to hear you respect the EVGA brand. Their cards just look like quality construction to me and they seem to get solid reviews. Then again, what the hell do I know - bought my last ASUS partly because I thought the heat pipes looked cool. : )

 

[TheDarkOne198]

I for one am hoping that the Sapphire Dual-X R9 285 cards will drop some more,maybe to the $150-170 range some day soon,I would love to be able to pick up a second one cheaper to pair with the one I have,lol. Aside from that,I am waiting until the supposed 400 series comes out next year,with the second gen HBM memory and invest in that instead. I would be happy for quite a while with a second 285 in my system and focus the upgrading of my system more towards Zen over the 7850K I currently have. Even the single 285 I have will be right off enough for a while,so I am wanting more CPU power and will get a Zen FX chip most likely,since it would be pointless to get a current FX if I can wait and get the new ones next year.