I think AMD will come out ok. They are still making a ton of profit off the 7970 at $350 and they released the card quite some time ago now. I think it was a very successful product for them; one of their best designs of the past 5 years for sure.

A lot of people will be all over the 7970 at $350. AMD will do quite well on them for sure. They could probably sell them for $100 and still turn a profit; these computer parts are not expensive to make. It's the R&D that costs money.

This game is not about doing "OK" ... it is about making money. My point stands: AMD is too slow to respond.

Now you say that a lot of people will be all over the 7970 at $350
-- true. That is *assuming* that Nvidia does absolutely nothing.

The situation has reversed overnight. Now the HD 79x0 is good bang for buck and the GTX 6x0s appear overpriced.
--- Doing nothing will allow AMD to gain market and mind-share. Nvidia can (1) bring out the overclocked models of the GTX 6x0s in an attempt to hold their own pricing high; and/or (2) drop pricing on their current models to match the AMD price drop.


i say we see a response from Nvidia within 2 weeks; less if they are on top of their game

I've been seeing the GTX 670s going for around $350 as well so nVidia is obviously responding. I sense a price war looming which is great for us gamers.

There you go. Nvidia is much quicker to respond to the market and has shown a better overall strategic grasp of it in flux than AMD apparently does.

i also expect Kepler, part deux; the overclocked versions. Nvidia will want to hold onto their margins as well as get rid of old stock. At the same time, they no doubt want to retain the performance crown and bring out their midrange.

I don't feel bad for these companies at all. They have been selling us midrange cards for high end prices for over 6 months now. They can afford to engage in a price war. I think that the GTX 680 and the 7970 can realistically come down to $200 apiece which is the proper cost of a midrange card. I realize that that's not gonna happen but really I think they could afford to do it.

Well, yeah


The actual costs of manufacturing these cards - excepting the GTX 690 - is considerably less than for similarly priced cards of the last generation. They are making big margins. And AMD was very unwise to allow their CEO to talk about "predator/aggressor" because of the way it turned out. Their fell short in the foresight department and totally underestimated Nvidia (again)

I think that the simple fact that AMD actually took the high end crown from nVidia made them a true "predator" this round. I was actually surprised to see you downplaying the 7970 launch. It was an incredible product when it came out.

Give AMD some time. Perhaps they will even have an answer for Big Kepler.

They haven't actually taken the high end crown. AMD has just succeeded in matching Kepler performance at a cost of higher power draw and higher binning. Their "response" is parity.

The (original) HD 7970 is underwhelming compared to 40nm and it is premium priced to boot. On the OTHER hand, if the GHz edition had launched (instead) with decent drivers last year, it would not have been downplayed by me.

GHz edition would have been a fully matured Tahiti that Nvidia would have had to develop a completely different strategy to combat. As it turned out, AMD gives Nvidia little challenge on the high end and they continually "respond" to a situation instead of taking control. AMD's strategy is weak (but fixable; i am just not going to share how with them).

They had the high end crown for some time before Kepler came out.

2-1/2 months with HD 7970 until the GTX 680 came out. Nvidia has held it for over 3 months since then