AMD Cuts Radeon R9 280 to $249
by Ryan Smith on May 13, 2014 7:10 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Radeon 200
AMD sends word this afternoon that they’re instituting an official price cut for one of their more recently launched video cards, the Radeon R9 280. The 280, AMD’s lower tier Tahiti part and Radeon HD 7950 analogue, was launched back in March, shortly before Cryptocoin Mania subsided and AMD video cards came back to their MSRPs. As a result of being launched in that time period, the 280 launched at an inflated MSRP of $279, suitable for a time when the higher tier 280X was well over MSRP but uncomfortably close now that AMD’s faster card is back at $299 where it belongs.
Consequently AMD is cutting the price of the 280 to bring its price back in line with its performance relative to AMD’s other video cards. Effective today the 280 is getting a $30 price drop, from $279 to $249. This puts it almost precisely between the 280X ($299) and 270X ($199) in AMD’s product stack. Meanwhile a $249 MSRP also means the card is now more directly competing with NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 760, which has a similar $249 MSRP, though can often be found for $10-$20 less. As one would expect, that is a very close matchup and it’s no mistake these cards are priced so close together now that AMD has better control of their retail pricing.
Wrapping things up, AMD tells us that they expect it will take a few days for the price cuts to filter through various partners and retailers, though a quick Newegg check is already turning up two cards priced at $249 or below. In fact Sapphire’s R9 280 Dual-X is already well below AMD’s new MSRP, with Newegg running what’s undoubtedly going to be a short-lived deal that sees the card priced at $219 after mail-in rebate, with Newegg taking off a further $20 for signing up for their newsletter to bring the final price down to $199. Meanwhile despite the price cut the 280’s status in AMD’s Never Settle Forever program remains unchanged, so the 280 is still a gold tier card that qualifies for 3 games through that program.
| Spring 2014 GPU Pricing Comparison | |||||
| AMD | Price | NVIDIA | |||
| $500 | GeForce GTX 780 | ||||
| Radeon R9 290 | $400 | ||||
| $320 | GeForce GTX 770 | ||||
| Radeon R9 280X | $300 | ||||
| Radeon R9 280 | $250 | GeForce GTX 760 | |||
| Radeon R9 270X | $200 | ||||
| Radeon R9 270 | $180 | GeForce GTX 660 | |||
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nathanddrews - Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - link
I'm not sure any GPUs are really valuable for mining anymore, are they? I thought we were entering the ASIC era. Read: don't bother mining on your quadfire setup anymore.Anyway, I bought one of these (7950) last fall for $180 after $10 rebate. This card should be closer to $150 by now. NOT IMPRESSED
Mr Perfect - Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - link
GPUs are pointless for bitcoin, but there are tons of alt-coins that keep popping up that are specifically designed to work best on GPUs. All the miners didn't want their massive GPU farms to go to waste, so they made ASIC resistant coins.Flunk - Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - link
They keep trying, and then someone just makes an ASIC that supports the algorithm. Scrypt ASICs are already here.JoyTech - Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - link
Interesting...can you share more info about upcoming scrypt ASICs? It seems that ASICs manufacturers have dodgy reputation (missed delivery deadlines) and conflict of interest (have been caught mining themselves on machines to be delivered to clients!).yuhong - Friday, May 16, 2014 - link
The Gridseeds has been out for a while now, and at least one more powerful scrypt ASIC is going to deliver soon.Mondozai - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
"Anyway, I bought one of these (7950) last fall for $180 after $10 rebate. This card should be closer to $150 by now. NOT IMPRESSED"Maybe if you shout louder someone will bother to care.
nathanddrews - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
I don't need to now that you have graciously reposted it.Communism - Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - link
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=Radeon+R9+290...Hrel - Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - link
It's $250 for a HIS. XFX is $270 then $240 after MIR. MSI is $270 then $260 after MIR.Price doesn't matter if it's on a crappily designed card. So realistically the price is $260. Which is still a hell of lot more card than Nvidia will give you at that price right now, WTF Nvidia, WTF.
Hrel - Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - link
Hm, 280x is only $290 (price in cart). For $30 I think that still makes more sense.