AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series Price Cuts, New Game Bundle Inbound
by Ryan Smith on August 20, 2012 9:00 PM ESTIn another quick shift in the hyper-competitive performance video card market, AMD sends word this afternoon that they are enacting some price cuts that will be taking effect later this week. This latest round of price cuts comes hot on the heels of last week’s launch of the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, which saw NVIDIA introduce their first 28nm performance video card at $299.
The bulk of the cuts here will be for the 7800 series, where the 7870 in particular is finding itself somewhat displaced after the launch of the GTX 660 Ti. The $299 660 Ti isn’t necessarily in direct competition with the already-cheaper 7870 – which had a street price of around $279 last week – and since AMD had already quietly shuffled prices around ahead of the GTX 660 Ti launch, we weren’t expecting any further changes here. But it would appear that the gap between the 7870 and GTX 660 Ti is closer than AMD would like.
As a result the 7870 will be getting a slight price cut to push prices towards $249. This would make the card a full $50 cheaper than the GTX 660 Ti, which is apparently the kind of leverage AMD wants right now.
Meanwhile because the 7870 is getting a price cut, so is the 7850. AMD is expecting the street prices on the 2GB 7850 to fall to around $209 after the price cuts take effect, putting it $40 below the newly repriced 7870. The 2GB 7850 has been averaging $239 in the past week, so this would represent a price cut of around $30. Meanwhile the extremely rare 1GB version of the card would end up below $200, though given how few of those cards exist it’s hard to say if it will hit AMD’s $189 price target.
Alongside those price cuts the 7800 series will be receiving a new game bundle promotion in a few weeks. The AMD Gaming Evolved title Sleeping Dogs will be AMD’s latest bundle, replacing the outgoing DiRT Showdown bundle. This will sit opposite NVIDIA's existing Borderlands 2 promotion, which went live last week. As with past bundles this is being done at a retailer level, so it’s primarily geared towards online retailers (e.g. Newegg) that can quickly bundle vouchers with new cards.
| Second Summer 2012 Radeon HD 7000 Series Price Cuts | |||||||
| Card | Launch Price | Spring MSRP | Summer MSRP | Second Summer MSRP | |||
| Radeon HD 7970GE | $499 | N/A | N/A | $499 | |||
| Radeon HD 7970 | $549 | $479 | $429 | $429 | |||
| Radeon HD 7950 | $449 | $399 | $349 | $319 | |||
| Radeon HD 7870 | $349 | $349 | $299 | $249 | |||
| Radeon HD 7850 | $249 | $249 | $239 | $209 | |||
| Radeon HD 7770 | $159 | $139 | ~$119 | ~$119 | |||
| Radeon HD 7750 | $109 | $109 | ~$99 | ~$99 | |||
Meanwhile, along with the 7800 series the 7950 is also technically getting a price cut. We say “technically” because AMD seems to be rubber stamping price cuts that have already happened. The 7950 has been readily available below its $349 MSRP for quite some time now, and AMD’s new MSRP of $319 reflects the price of cards that are already available.
Finally, it should be noted that despite AMD’s official announcement we wouldn’t be all that surprised if only a few cards ended up reaching these new MSRPs. AMD lists their MSRPs as “starting at”, which means that AMD is listing the price of the cheapest card. This is largely how the previous round of price cuts played out, so pickings right at these new MSRPs may be slim.
| Post-Cut Summer 2012 GPU Pricing Comparison | |||||
| AMD | Price | NVIDIA | |||
| Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | $469/$499 | GeForce GTX 680 | |||
| Radeon HD 7970 | $429/$399 | GeForce GTX 670 | |||
| Radeon HD 7950 | $319/$299 | GeForce GTX 660 Ti | |||
| $279 | GeForce GTX 570 | ||||
| Radeon HD 7870 | $249 | ||||
| Radeon HD 7850 | $209 | ||||
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StevoLincolnite - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
2014 for a pair of Radeon 6950's? Ain't happening, I game at 5760x1080.TheJian - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
Thus proving my point about 2560x1600.Thanks for that Steve :)
Dang, you must feel like you almost stole those cards...LOL. NICE.
RussianSensation - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
Did you actually read AT's own review?Using 1080P only,
HD7950B wins in Crysis Warhead, Metro 2033. The card are tied in Dirt 3, 1 fps separates them in Batman AC. However, in Skyrim mods weren't used and both Skyrim and Batman AC can work well on a 7950 with 8xMSAA. Like I showed you earlier, once you add mods and higher MSAA for better image quality, the 7950 will win in Skyrim, Dirt 3 and Batman AC as well.
It's not a clear win for the 660Ti at all. In fact the main reason the 660Ti even looks good is because Zotac AMP! 660Ti OC / MSI Power Edition 660Ti were used.
Take a 7950 @ 1100-1150mhz and it'll be at the top of those benchmarks in every game over a GTX670 besides Portal 2 SSAA. Portal 2 is an exception for SSAA.
Using a wide variety of games with SSAA, even HD7970 beats a 680:
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/20...
That means in a wide variety of games with SSAA, the 7950 will once again win over the 660Ti.
TheJian - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
You don't see the benchmarks in 2560x1600 in AT's review? That's not 1080P. You're not seriously telling me you don't know what 1080P is are you? I'm not even sure how to respond to that.Check the comments in the article, click VIEW ALL comments and read page 4. And #1 don't bother pointing me to sites not in english, and #2 they're useless if they don't tell me the speeds, models etc of whatever is being tested. Read the "wall" of text. I used half of Anandtechs OWN tests and statements against them...Did YOU read the review? I quoted Ryan at least a dozen times FROM that article. He really made it too easy. He replied they test in 2560x1600 because of some monitor that "enthusiasts" can now buy under $400. But only if you order from Korea or New Zealand from websites that "Just Started" on Amazon...LOL. Their website (the only one with reviews) has a blank Faq and About page...ROFL. Their email is a gmail account and they have no contact#. But Ryan, says this is a popular monitor with Enthusiasts and newegg nor amazon sell it, and it can't be bought in the USA. Did you read any of our exchange or just trolling? Pointing me to sites in german that have no explanation of how the test machine or what cards are in it, or what speeds they did the tests at do me no good and are useless. Stop wasting my time. As Ryan said, the 7950B chips are REJECTS which is why they are 1.25v. Did you READ Anandtech's articles? You seem to be able to write in english you should be able to READ it.
Zotac speeds can be bought for $299 check newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Core Clock: 1019MHz
Boost Clock: 1097MHz
Memory can be boosted FAR above 6.6ghz shown already
http://hardocp.com/article/2012/08/21/galaxy_gefor...
7.71ghz. Easy to do 6.6ghz and they did it with a 3gb card not 2gb (less chips is easier to OC).
Knowing this, why would you NOT compare Zotac benchmarks when most cards out of the box will do these speeds and higher easily. Hardocp got their card to 1300mhz! You keep quoting 1150mhz for 7950's. It's tough to even buy a Default clocked 660. 1150 on your chip RUNS HOT and chews up watts. 80 watts more to be exact:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7950-overc...
138watts vs. 217watts at 1.25v. That's what it took and you can keep your hot chip thanks.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6152/amd-announces-n...
Ryan (quoted many times in my wall to him :)) is quoted as saying they are HOT REJECTS in their boost review. Sorry.
"These numbers paint an interesting picture, albeit not one that is particularly rosy. For the 7970 AMD was already working with top bin Tahiti GPUs, so to make a 7970GE they just needed to apply a bit more voltage and call it a day. The 7950 on the other hand is largely composed of salvaged GPUs that failed to meet 7970 specifications. GPUs that failed due to damaged units aren’t such a big problem here, but GPUs that failed to meet clockspeed targets are another matter. As a result of the fact that AMD is working with salvaged GPUs, AMD has to apply a lot more voltage to a 7950 to guarantee that those poorly clocking GPUs will correctly hit the 925MHz boost clock."
There won't be many old 7950's left soon...LOL. Welcome to your boost chips :) Deboost chips? The tahiti chips were BINNED to get 1.125v default (660's are .987) and your rejects are 1.25v. Good luck hitting 1150 without heating your house. Your top clock is the boost clock out of the box, where as hardocp shows, the 660 will do another 100 past that all on it's own...LOL. 1300mhz after they changed it to 1200. That's not a limit either, they'll go to whatever is safe.
http://www.behardware.com/articles/853-18/roundup-...
Look at the chart. 11 7950 cards. Only 2 hit 1200 and needed a heck of a lot of volts to do it. 1.275? Jeez.
"The maximum clock on the Radeon HD 7900s generally seems to be between 1125 and 1200 MHz when the GPU voltage is adjusted."
Not good, and those are not BOOST chips that already need 1.25v for 925 reliably. Keep dreaming. Anandtech's words not mine.
Do you read Anandtech articles? I'm done with you troll.
Ammaross - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
Speaking of troll TheJian...Anyway, you (eventually) cite how hard it is to get a 7950 OCed to 1150, but yet you still rely on AT's benches comparing heavily-overclocked 660Ti cards against a STOCK 7950 card? Even a few mhz bumps would do loads better (as shown by the slightly OCed 7950B marks).
What I don't get is why AT insists on reviewing extremely OCed cards, but lines them up with non-OCed competitor parts? It's like comparing an OCed i5-3570K@4.8Ghz against AMD's stock lineup.
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
the next new egg verified buyer" Blown away
Pros: Out of the box very impressive. Card is well designed, lots of cooling added to the Twin Frozr. After some tweaking, I benchmarked 1330mhz stable while adding ~500mhz to memory as well."
This is reality son.
RussianSensation - Saturday, August 25, 2012 - link
No the reality is that a GTX660Ti @ 1330mhz can't even touch a stock GTX670 in games because of the ROP/memory bandwidth limitation:http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/08/16/nvidia...
OC 7950 walks all over your 660Ti 1300mhz:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/08/23/galaxy_g...
Let's cheer-leading, more facts please :)
CeriseCogburn - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
I see the page you linked at bittech and the 660Ti equals the 7970.LOL
Let's face it, you're the amd fanboy of the decade here, who can't read his own facts he links.
RussianSensation - Saturday, August 25, 2012 - link
HardOCP just proved everything we have been saying since GTX660Ti launch:1) HD7950 OC keeps up with an OCed 670 at 1080P and is arguably faster at 1600P
2) GTX660Ti OC is no match for a 7950 OC at 1080P, and especially at 1600P with MSAA:
660Ti got smashed:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/08/23/galaxy_g...
CeriseCogburn - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
from your link see the 660Ti winhttp://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTM0NTczNj...
amd did a skyrim driver hack, so that's 1 win nVidia, only a recent change for amd
The third game , of 3, that "proves everything to you" is an amd favored game.
So much for the wild eyed amd fanboy again.