I don't really see it that way, on the motherboard front. Or even if you had to purchase DDR3 as well. You can always use the old AMD clunker as a spare system or ebay it. If AMD's bulldozer chips were about a third less expensive than what intel is offering their chips for then maybe they would stand a small chance.

It's what AMD really needs to do imo, quit trying to pretend they are equal to what intel is offering and try to find a market position they can comfortably occupy, and improve things from there.

The current strategy is just

That's what AMD is signalling they are doing. To find a niche with their APUs and not compete with Intel any longer. At least that is what i am getting from reading what Read has said.

This is interesting regarding the 660 Ti's memory configuration from a Galaxy rep post at HardOCP forum
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=103 ... tcount=154

interesting

No, GTX 550 Ti was not tested on launch drivers - the drivers for Fermi has already long matured when TR included it in their review; yet GTX 550 Ti still performed even worse than GTS 450 pretty much across the entire review, when it came to stuttering (99th percentile frame times, and time spent beyond 50ms).

Maybe i should have put up an easy performance positioning chart like this:

• GTX 680 = HD 7970 GHz
• GTX 680 > HD 7970
• GTX 670 > HD 7950
• GTX 660 Ti > HD 7870

Notice that the 660 is not positioned in any way shape or form against the 7950 except it goes blow for blow with it in performance. AMD dropped the pricing of the 7950 on a couple of SKUs to make $300 seem high - yet only the most expensive 3GB 660 Tis are priced as high as the average 7950s.

In each Kepler launch - until the GTX 660 Ti arrived - Nvidia undercut AMD's pricing. This time, Nvidia priced the GTX 660 Ti at HD 7870 *average* pricing; they did not undercut it, rather they offered BL 2, an AAA title in a bundle.
---If you don't count the game as sixty dollars then the 660 Ti came in expensive at $300; if you do, it is $240.
However, after the game launches, market pricing takes effect and we will see the prices adjust.

But look right now. AMD 7950s and 7870s are more expensive than before the launch. The reviews are out and people won't wait - they are going to buy a 660 ti or a 7870/7950 and the next couple of weeks is when the partners get their highest margin and etailers take advantage of people who won't wait (just like with PC games).

i dont think nvidia could be able to supply the 660ti if it launched at $250. If it was this price it would make every other 28nm card overpriced and unattractive. Remember the 660ti is the same silicon as the 680 and 670. AMD has lowered their prices making the 7950/7970 a better value than the 670 and 680. if your only concerned with price vs performance amd has cheaper options.

Its only now that nvidia has comfortable stocks built up. If the 660ti was 250 it would really effect everything and be too disruptive not only for AMD but for nvidias own high end. The cards performance is very very good. when you start seeing prices drop, then you know nvidia is going after more sales. watch for this. If they dont drop prices, then their cards are selling as well as they want already.

I am sure the price will come down in the next few months. It will be between the 250 and 300 mark. But this is after supplies are plentiful and still then i doubt it will be a straight up 250 dollar card anytime this year.

Obviously I meant launch drivers for the GTX 550, not for Fermi as an architecture, since the GTX 550 was the only member of the family to use its memory controller differently!

Regardless of anybody's "concerns" about the memory configuration, GTX550 has been a huge success in the market place -- consumers simply don't care and I'm quite sure the situation will play out almost identically for GTX660 Ti

nvidia would love to price the card at $250, but, they can only get so many GK104 wafers processed at TSMC at present. If anybody wants apportion blame for high prices this round they should place it squarely on TSMC and their pitifully small 28nm production capacity at present.