Radeon R9 290X Retail Prices Hit $900
by Ryan Smith on February 14, 2014 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Radeon 200
Though we keep track of video card pricing regularly on an internal basis, it’s not something we normally publish outside of our semi-regular buyer’s guides. More often than not video card pricing is slow to move (if it moves at all), as big price shifts come in concert with either scheduled price cuts or new product introductions. But in a process that has defied our expectations for more than a month now, even we can’t fail to notice what Radeon prices are quite literally up to.
In a sign of the daffy times we live in, Radeon R9 290X prices have hit $900 this week at Newegg. Every card, from the reference models to the water block model, is now at $899, with Newegg apparently doing brisk enough business to be sold out of more than half of their different 290X SKUs. This of course is some $350 over the 290X’s original launch price of $550, a 64% price bump. Meanwhile the Radeon R9 290 has been similarly affected, with 290 cards starting at $600, $200 (50%) over MSRP.
The culprit, as has been the case since the start, continues to be the strong demand for the cards from cryptocoin miners, who are willing to pay a premium for the cards in anticipation of still being able to turn a profit off of them in the long run. Interestingly this also comes right as Chinese New Year comes to a close. Chinese New Year doesn’t typically affect video card prices for cards that are already released and on shelves, but the lack of production for the roughly 2 week span certainly isn’t doing the 290X market any favors given the strong demand for the cards. In the meantime however this does mean that 290X cards are unfortunately priced out of the hands of gamers more than ever before; at $900, we’d be just $10 short of a GTX 780 Ti and a Core i5-4670K to go with it.
Finally, it’s interesting to note that this phenomena remains almost entirely limited to North America. Our own Ian Cutress quickly checked a couple of UK retailers, Scan.co.uk and Overclockers.co.uk, and found that both of them had 290 series cards in stock at pre-VAT prices that were only marginally above the North American MSRPs. A PowerColor R9 290 OC can be found for £275 (~$460 USD) and an XFX R9 290X for £334 (~$560 USD). The European market of course has its own idiosyncrasies, but ultimately it’s clear that UK pricing has gone largely unaffected by the forces that have driven up North American pricing, making this one of those rare occasions where hardware is more expensive in North America than in Europe, even after taxes.
| Radeon R9 290 Series Prices | ||||
| North America | UK (excluding VAT) | |||
| Radeon R9 290X | $899 | £334 (~$560 USD) | ||
| Radeon R9 290 | $599 | £275 (~$460 USD) | ||
Update (11:30 PM): It’s interesting just how greatly things can shift in only half a day. This morning 290X prices were $899 with Newegg having 5 models in stock. But as of late this evening prices have dropped rather quickly by $200, bringing them down to $699 (just $150 over MSRP). All the while however, Newegg’s selection has dwindled to just two models, showcasing just how high the demand for these cards is and how quickly buyers will snatch them up even when they’re still well over MSRP.
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asd87afsda9087 - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
And $290 - $220 = $70, thus he only paid $70 to go from a 7970 to a GTX 780. Don't worry, it's Friday.designerfx - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
Not all versions follow said pricing. I see a gigabyte version for $599. http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GDDR5-4GB-2xDVI-Gra...Death666Angel - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
"Usually ships within 2 to 5 weeks." Counting anything that is not in stock as a proof against this trend is a bit misleading.Despoiler - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
I just got that model for 598 shipped Fedex 2 day from another online vendor. They are out of stock now, but if you do a little digging you can get a not terrible deal. At least not as terrible as Newegg's prices.Alanreichel - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
"They are out of stock now, but if you do a little digging you can get a not terrible deal."Agreed. You have to be willing to search and spend some time waiting but there are still decent prices to be found.
Yesterday I picked up 2 XFX 290 DD's for $493 each. Only $94 over the reference card MSRP for a non reference card. 25 were in stock yesterday here:
http://www.shopblt.com/cgi-bin/shop/shop.cgi?actio...
3DVagabond - Monday, February 17, 2014 - link
No, that's just another facet of the market. If you have to have instant gratification you will pay extra for it. If you don't mind waiting a few weeks you can save money and pay reasonable prices.konondrum - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
"The culprit, as has been the case since the start, continues to be the strong demand for the cards from cryptocoin miners, who are willing to pay a premium for the cards in anticipation of still being able to turn a profit off of them in the long run."The truth is actually much worse than this. The real culprit are criminal organizations who are using cryptomining in order to launder their money. They don't care if they are losing money in the process because it costs them significantly less than typical money laundering schemes.
anubis44 - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
"The truth is actually much worse than this. The real culprit are criminal organizations who are using cryptomining in order to launder their money. They don't care if they are losing money in the process because it costs them significantly less than typical money laundering schemes."You've hit the nail on the head. If you have millions and millions of ill-begotten dollars, and you can go out and buy a bunch of graphics cards and convert that millions and millions of illegal money into bitcoins or litecoins, which can't be traced to you, that's a very strong incentive to do just that. The best part is that, once you've finished mining the coins, you can still sell the cards used and get back some of your initial outlay, so you've laundered all your illegal money by buying the cards and mining with them, and then you get untraceable bit/litecoins, and then you make legitimate money back when you sell the cards. If that's not ingenious, I don't know what is. Only thing is that the value of the bit/litecoins is only based on what people perceive it to be. If people suddenly decided en mass, that bitcoins weren't worth anything, then they wouldn't be worth anything. I'm pretty sure governments around the world are going to start clamping down on these crytocoins for this very reason.
Despoiler - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
Neither of you two actually understand how it works.Enkur - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
Enlighten us please