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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phatboye - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
I would buy one now however because of NVidia's stupid marketing I can't seem to figure out If I am buying a Fermi or a True Kepler card. I don't want Fermi as it is a space heater. Looking for a mid range 28nm card for no more than $250, preferably around $200. I hear the GTX 660 & 650 is what I am looking for and should be released soon.Patflute - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
Cards that start with a 5 are FermiCards that start with a 6 are Kepler
Is that so hard?
Assimilator87 - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
Except for the lower end 600s, which are rebranded 4s and 5s.phatboye - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
If that were true then there obviously would not be a problem. Unfortunately that is not the case. Since TSMC is having trouble producing wafers on the 28nm node thus unable to keep up with NVidia's supply demand NVidia's marketing team thought it would be a good idea to continue selling 45nm Fermi based GPUs re-branded as 600 series. So not all cards that start with a 6 are based upon the new Kepler architecture.piroroadkill - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
Sorry, NVIDIA's card naming has never been that simple.CeriseCogburn - Sunday, July 29, 2012 - link
660 650 640, it is that simple.I understand all the geniuses here though cannot remember anything.
tribbles - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
As the article notes, some of these MSRPs have already been in effect. I picked up a Gigabyte "Windforce" Radeon HD 7950 from Amazon yesterday for $340. It's a good thing, too, because if my budget had been $400, I would have been purchasing a GTX 670 instead (I don't have any brand loyalty when it comes to video cards). In any case, it's nice to see the MSRPs on the 7-series Radeons more accurately reflecting their performance.StevoLincolnite - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
Still not there yet though, price/performance with this price drop is now on par (Maybe slightly more expensive?) with the 6000 series before they went out, this is most obvious when comparing the 5770 against the 7770, the 7770 is 2 generations newer but still doesn't even offer twice the performance of the 5770.I bought both my Radeon 6950 2gb cards for $250 each which unlocked into 6970's. So I'll hang onto them for another generation I think, considering they do sit nicely in the middle of the 7850 and 7870 performance wise.
May even pick up a cheap 6970 for Tri-Fire if I need a little bit of a boost, I saw one not long ago for $150 on sale here in Australia.
Impulses - Sunday, July 15, 2012 - link
Same here, I bought two 6950 2GB cards just over a year ago for $220 & $230 after MIR, I'd love a little more performance in demanding games at Eyefinity res (5760x1200) but prices are still too high to make any kind of upgrade for ~$500 worthwhile.Exodite - Sunday, July 15, 2012 - link
To be fair the 5770 should be compared to the 7870 and not the 7770, as the mid-range naming became x8x0 from the 6-series onward.What the 7770 doesn't compare favorable on is price, not performance.