AMD Radeon HD 7970, 7950, 7870 Price Cuts Inbound. 7970GE Available Next Week?
by Ryan Smith on July 14, 2012 7:30 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon HD 7000
For those of you in the market for a new video card, in case April’s round of AMD Radeon price cuts didn’t quite meet your desires, AMD has ordered up another round of price cuts that will be taking effect on Monday.
The Radeon HD 7970, Radeon HD 7950, and Radeon HD 7870 are all getting official price cuts. The 7970 will be dropping from $479 to $429, the 7950 from $399 to $349, and the 7870 from $349 to $299.
| Summer 2012 Radeon HD 7000 Series Price Cuts | ||||||
| Card | Launch Price | Spring MSRP | Summer MSRP | |||
| Radeon HD 7970 | $549 | $479 | $429 | |||
| Radeon HD 7950 | $449 | $399 | $349 | |||
| Radeon HD 7870 | $349 | $349 | $299 | |||
| Radeon HD 7850 | $249 | $249 | ~$239 | |||
| Radeon HD 7770 | $159 | $139 | ~$119 | |||
| Radeon HD 7750 | $109 | $109 | ~$99 | |||
With all of that said however, as we’re in the middle of a product cycle with partners shipping custom cards, in practice AMD doesn’t have a great deal of control over final card pricing beyond what they charge partners for parts. So unofficially these prices have been in effect for some time since partners and stores have not been holding to AMD’s MSRPs. Indeed as of Friday evening the cheapest cards on Newegg are already below AMD’s official MSRPs, so today’s announcement mainly serves to bring attention to price movements that have already happened.
| Summer 2012 GPU Pricing Comparison | |||||
| AMD | Price | NVIDIA | |||
| Radeon HD 7970 Ghz Edition | $499 | GeForce GTX 680 | |||
| Radeon HD 7970 | $429 | ||||
| $399 | GeForce GTX 670 | ||||
| Radeon HD 7950 | $349 | ||||
| Radeon HD 7870 | $299 | ||||
| Radeon HD 7850 | $239/$249 | GeForce GTX 570 | |||
| $199 | GeForce GTX 560 Ti | ||||
| $159 | GeForce GTX 560 | ||||
| Radeon HD 7770 | $119 | ||||
| Radeon HD 7750 | $99 | GeForce GT 640 DDR3 | |||
On that note, AMD sends word that their free game promotions will continue to be active for some time, including both the HD 7900 Series Three For Free promotion and their HD 7800/7700 series DiRT Showdown promotion (though Newegg seems to have deactivated it as of this writing).
Finally, we’ve been asking AMD about the status of the new 7970 GHz Edition, which has so far been missing in action. After originally being scheduled to have limited availability in late June with wider availability in early July, the 7970GE has slipped by at least a couple of weeks – an unusual thing to happen to what has otherwise been a punctual AMD. At this time AMD is telling us that most of their partners have decided to launch the 7970GE on their customized premium cards, which has resulted in availability being pushed back. If all goes according to plan, AMD is expecting XFX and Sapphire to have cards available early next week. However prices will bear keeping an eye on since it’s unlikely that partners will stick to the $499 MSRP if they’re using the 7970GE for their premium cards.
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blackmagnum - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
Nvidia: give us the GeForce GT 640 DDR5.sheh - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
And 660.powerarmour - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
AgreedNovaguy - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
I imagine you could find the gt 640 gddr5 secondhand from people upgrading from OEM cards - I believe it's a option in the xps 8500.That being said, yeah, nvidia needs to get the 640, 650 and 660's out. I ended up buying a 7750 as an upgrade for a hd 2000 box because that was basically my only real option. Would have liked the option for a 640 or better yet a 650 if it was there and able to run off slot power.
Alexvrb - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
Yeah, Nvidia is competing in the low to mid range primarily with old designs. They're getting slow at doing a top to bottom launch. But at least they finally got more 680s on the market and launched the 670, it helped drive prices down on the higher end of the market.I'm still eyeing a 7850 though, it's a more attractive option than the 570 at roughly the same price.
StevoLincolnite - Sunday, July 15, 2012 - link
AMD is using primarily old designs in the low-end too.The Radeon 7350, 7450, 7470, 7570, 7670 all have roots in the Radeon 5000 series, a-la VLIW5 on 40nm and not VLIW-4 or Graphics Core Next.
I think the reason nVidia and AMD did this is because the low-end is generally high-volume, so 28nm may not have been able to keep up with demands, another reason could be cost... 40nm is very mature and yields would be very high.
bennyg - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
Yep in limited supply you'd rather make $499 GPUs than $99-$199 GPUs.Henkuberogus - Sunday, July 29, 2012 - link
I wonder whether they actually have more 680s out there or whether they're just not flying off the shelves like they used to due to in-house competition from the 670.I've always found nVidia's repurposed old card low end kind of icky because you'd get kids stuffing thrice rebadged 8800GTs into their crummy unventilated mall PCs and wondering why it was making that burning smell.
mevans336 - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
Hrmm, at $400, the 7970 looks incredibly tempting. I'm an nVidia guy though, always have been, but with the GTX 670 retailing for slightly over $400, it seems the 7970 is a no-brainer. Thoughts?Captmorgan09 - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
Tough one to call, I guess it matters on what games you play. I play games like BF3, Skyrim and Starcraft at 1920x1200. I really don't care about Crysis or Metro and I play the Dirt series on my PS3, so for me the higher power consumption of the 7970 pushes me over the edge to go with the 670. But then either of these cards would be a huge step up whenever I get around to replacing my damn hot HD4870. :)I have almost talked myself into purchasing the 670, but I am waiting a bit longer to see what Nvidia comes out with at the $300 price point. $400 for a video card gives me heartburn.