Obviously because you dare to write it.
Show me which product of 7000 series fits to Dave's definition- to address a specific segment. But "specific segment" should mean the same as what for example 4890 did- it gave you premium (the highest possible from the company) performance for mainstream money. And if you think even more deeply- it offered you in May 2009 performance for 250$, and this same performance one year earlier was 650$.
At this current point in time you can get 7770 for as much as 180$, and this is soon to become 3 years later.
Not to speak about 7870 which is not less than 350$...
Building brand- in the case of graphics cards- I dare say it should mean more market share- the higher market share- the higher the value of the brand.
And right there you proved Dave's point.
The 48xx cards greatly eroded the Radeon's brand positioning and image for the worse.
Yes, consumer's obviously loved the low prices. And it gained AMD some much needed marketshare.
However, as you are aptly demonstrating it also cheapened the brand, hampering and ultimately destroying AMD's ability to make a profit in the video card market.
Just look at how people started to complain when the 5870 launched at 369 USD. And that was for the highest performing card you could get with no competition.
And consider that just a few short years before the X1800 XTPE had launched at 549 USD. And more recently the X1900 XTX launched for 650 USD.
Two words, brand erosion. 48xx did significant damage to the Radeon brand image. It may have been needed considering how HD 2900 XT performed versus the competition, but as you are so well at pointing out, AMD still hasn't recovered from the damage that 48xx has caused to the brand.
You don't like it, and that's fine. All consumers are entitled to their opinions and can vote with their wallets. I did so by boycotting Nvidia products for many years due to product renaming. And I boycotted AMD for a year due to the product shuffling of the 6xxx generation.
But you seriously don't seem to understand what Dave has been saying about building the brand back up again.
Now that doesn't mean that market forces won't force AMD to adjust prices at some point. If supply starts to greatly outstrip demand they'll have no choice.
We may be seeing that slowly starting as Newegg has 3 cards under MSRP. However, 2 cards are still at MSRP. 9 cards are still above MSRP. And 3 cards are out of stock. And those 3 cards slightly under MSRP are likely AIB discounting and not AMD.
So make no mistakes about it. AMD are serious about trying to rebuild the brand. For me, that's not good news as it means it takes their enthusiast class cards out of my budget range. But for AMD it's a good thing. Perhaps they'll finally be able to post a good profit if they can get decent margins for their products.
Nvidia, interestingly enough didn't suffer from as much brand erosion from the 48xx versus GTX 280/270 price war. As you didn't hear as much complaining about price when their GTX 480 launched at 499 USD (compared to 5870 price complaints at 369 USD). And this despite the fact that Nvidia and AMD trading performance leads for the past few years.
The 48xx cards were interestingly enough the best and worst product that AMD has released in the graphics card market. On the one hand it kept the Radeon brand relevant and probably saved it. On the other hand it absolutely destroyed their ability to make a decent profit in the video card market. And they are only now slowly starting to recover from the damage that 48xx caused in that regard.
As a consumer I don't like it. I liked getting discount video cards which is what AMD have been offering for the past few years (versus the Premium video cards that Nvidia have been releasing). But that wasn't making a healthy business environment for AMD's graphics division.
People complain about driver quality, about software developement assistance (Nvidia spending way more than AMD here), etc. You can't do that if you don't have the money for it. And you won't ever have the money for that if you are considered the discount brand. Hence, AMD attempting to rebuild the brand image as a premium product and rejoin Nvidia in that market segment.
Radeon as a premium brand. 9700pro to X19xx.
Radeon as a discount brand. HD 2900 XT to 6xxx.
We'll see if AMD are successful at rejoining the premium brand graphics market that Nvidia has had to itself since the HD 2900 XT launched.
And for the record. I'm expecting 7970 prices to eventually drop to 499 USD, but only after GTX 680 is able to stay in stock at retailers. Which could take a couple weeks or could take a couple months. Just like when 5870 was priced way too low for its performance level and demand versus supply, GTX 680 is priced too low with regards to its performance and hence demand versus supply. So just like 5870, we're likely to see a prolonged launch window where supply is insufficient compared to demand.
Which is AMD's window to continue getting as much for the 7970 as they can, only reducing prices when demand starts to greatly undercut supply.
And in the end, they'll hope that the brand image has gotten a boost and there won't be as much griefing when the 8970 launches. Similar to how there was less complaining about the 6970 at 369 USD versus the 5870 at 369 USD.
Regards,
SB
