The paper launch of 290x(a few thousand cards world wide) really hurt potential sales.
Oh, dear, what's happening. AMD released the card at 550$ and nvidia responded today by slashing from 650 to 500$ the prices of GTX 780.
Waiting for AMD response- Radeon 290X for the real price of 369$
There were only eight thousand BF4/R9-290X packs worldwide, but there were many more R9-290X cards available that did not have the BF special edition included.
Someone's getting confused about the BF4 limited edition and all the other cards that you could buy without BF4.
Err, why would they do that when the 290 will be the 780's competitor and cost less than $500?
I think I answered my own question.
Fud is spreading about that US retailers and etailers only had a few thousand cards.
This is the same Fud that spread Nvidia was only going to have 10k Titans made.
The paper launch of 290x(a few thousand cards world wide) really hurt potential sales.
I am afraid he is right. At newegg you have 0 available 290Xs
If AMD had waited for more inventory before releasing the 290X, that would have been a smart decision. I dunno how many cards they have moved in the last week, but it's not enough. As of 6AM PST the 290X is nothing special in the value department.
Radeon R9 290X Fastest selling card in recent history
A major US-based etailer has informed us that the new Radeon R9 290X sold out quite fast. In fact, they said that it sold a lot faster than any card in recent history and this happened on the launch day, in a matter of hours.
AMD shipped a few thousand cards to US etailers and retailers and from what we can tell they sold them practically instantly. Some major player expects to get larger batches of cards this week but the demand is overwhelming and they will probably sell out just as fast.
Is it really fair to make such claims?
Another week without launching the 290X would be another week with nVidia selling the GTX 780 for $650, and another week's worth of potential customers willing to buy a graphics card for the coming holiday season.
nVidia's price cut and 780 Ti release was a reaction to the Hawaii launch. Had the 290X been released in December 1st, nVidia would announce the 780 Ti and price cuts in December 5th. Delaying the 290X would be pointless.
Accordingly, the R9 290's release price will probably be a reaction to nVidia's reactionary price cuts, hence the delay between cards.
Good points for sure.
I agree that NVIDIA was bound to lower prices in response to Hawaii (obviously), my point is simply that if they'd waited until they could sate demand for the 290X in the first week of release, AMD could have sold a lot more cards before NVIDIA's reaction. Waiting another couple of weeks to build up stock wouldn't hurt them so much would it?
Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and this is simply opinion/speculation since we really don't know how many cards they shipped. Maybe it was a thousand, maybe a million
P.S. the 290X is still not in stock at newegg. I know that is somewhat typical for a high-end launch but it doesn't have to be that way.