All of your reasons, i already gave in my article. i completely understand what AMD is doing.


Unfortunately, now Kepler doesn't even need to be impressive and it can be expensive.

i am also one of the few tech writers who successfully predicted the GTX 580; that Nvidia would rework (hot running and poor yielding) GF100. Well, i never said HD 7970 will be hot-running but the yield analogy and likely reworking (and possibly enabling disabled parts) will be similar to what Nvidia did.

What i am also saying is that this kind of radical change in strategy needs to be backed up by AMD's ability to counter Kepler successfully. No matter how you look at it, HD 7970 is underwhelming for a new architecture on a much smaller process. Its future will depend on AMD delivering a quick respin and improving performance significantly.

Whelp. Lets hope we're right about a respin then. I think that's the only reason they released the card early. It's an excellent card. It's just not incredible if you were expecting the 28mm to smack the 40mm around.

Don't worry about what "experts" on the internet are saying. Everyone know's Charlie is a shill.

Char-lie is ridiculous. He supposedly knew the specs of the HD 7970 long before i learned them, was not under NDA with AMD and he still said absolutely nothing about the card that proved to be true. My preview is there for all to see and all of the predictions (so far) are correct.

Yes, AMD released HD 7970 as a stop gap card because their yields suck if they try to STOCK clock it higher; THG said there weren't enough cards to send even to the top tech sites for CrossFire testing. OBVIOUSLY Overclocking is AWESOME - which means their next target better be 1100Mhz
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd ... ck-guide/1

impressive results - when overclocked.

Now as to CPU scaling
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd ... e-review/1

Thats what i see. I see a stop gap card on a new architecture with a lot of potential. If they can keep the wattage down and get to 1100mhz, it would be killer. Truth be told, i dont think we will see that for awhile. I kinda expect them to step it up a bump or so. 1020mhz wouldve been enough. at that speed it wouldve been a lot more impressive.

Looking at the drastic GCN switch, the fact they have sell able cards coming down the pipe so soon, and the obvious potential when the clocks come up, its not bad at all. AMD is in the business of "make it work" right now. And they did that. I like their strategy, all except the price. Its not a good enough start at 28nm for the cash. But i am sure they have only a limited quantity even still. There is not a lot of them and they will price them high because of that.

it will take nvidia to fix the prices. We can all blame AMD if they dont, lol!!!!

69 in stock - Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 Video Card (21197-00-40G)

http://www.excaliberpc.com/611611/sapph ... 0-3gb.html

$637.28 if you need one now (plus shipping)

Things a beast when overclocked. Plus! I can always drop it on my foot when I get bored!

Price gouging to the extreme. The biggest disappointment about this card is that it's priced competitively with 40nm products. The chip is no bigger than Cayman, and despite that an extra gig of vram should only cost an additional $20, the card is essentially $200 higher than cayman. I really hope Nvidia can get Kepler out this quarter. It's unusual that Nvidia will play the role of being the ones putting downward pricing pressure on products, but even if high end Kepler launches at $600, the performance will probably be well justified vs. the current price of the hd7970, and the second tier top Kepler part should be able to outperform the hd7970 and cost a little less ($500).

I'm thinking we will see 3 GPU's from the high end Kepler part, costing $599, $499, and $399. Then we'll see 2 or 3 GPU's from Kepler's second highest end part, starting at $299 and going down from there. I blame the upward pricing trends on TSMC.

You can't use the Yeston HD 7970s and ExcaliburPC pricing as any kind of reliable guide yet. i am expecting that lowering the core to 925MHz got some decent yield and pricing will probably settle in around $550 - unless Nvidia does something radical with their GTX 580 pricing (doubtful).



AMD does have the single fastest GPU videocard and they have taken a page out of Nvidia's pricing strategy - to price it high and make great margins while they can. That is in-line with their new CEO's comments about AMD taking the "predator" position. Blame him; not TSMC yields which might add $10-20 to the price of a high end Tahiti GPU

However, if you were buying today - two of these HD 6970s for $660 is a better deal than 1 HD 7970 for $660

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... NEFL122611

And there is a $30 MiR on the HD 6970s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... NEFL122611

It carries over last generation status quo pricing with virtually no redefining of performance/value that new arches and a significant new node brings to the table. I really doubt nVidia will price-drop because it seems nVidia may be pretty competitive with their Fermi line 'till Kepler and already have impressive margins.

With AMD changing to more of a predator and aggressor, was hoping this was aimed at their competition -- not their customers, hehe!:) But with this new pricing rise, which is dramatic from AMD, this doesn't bode well for Kepler pricing since nVidia is a predator and aggressor to me. Looks to me, gamers may have to pay premiums for performance.

i guess we are all reaching the same conclusion here. This launch is a major turning point for *gamers*

This is what i attempted to say in my preview and in my posts. It is a very important launch as AMD is now following in ATi's footsteps in their War with Nvidia. i do expect to see $800 Ultras again and perhaps this is also a sign that the worldwide recession (or the world) is ending.

Unfortunately, if you follow this line of logic over at AMD's fansites, expect to get flamed by their viral marketers. What they don't understand is that i am not blaming AMD. i like their products and i never said HD 7070 is a failure - it will take strategy and great execution for its follow-up and i hope they planned for Nvidia's response.

i'm just pointing out future history - written in advance..



And i just realized that this is ABT forum's strength. Where the analysts gather to freely discuss.


Here's something on the HD 7950. No pricing yet
http://www.techpowerup.com/157495/Radeo ... eaked.html

What do you think? i haven't asked any one who has one yet - but trades blows with the GTX 580 and priced at $379-429?
-- or higher?