I wish they'd make the bundle better for gamers. Include some more monitors with a lesser rebate, but at least for some of the more affordable freesync monitors, and mebbe go back to the old "offer a selection of games and you get to choose 3" or something with some other titles tossed in.
I also think they'd be best off taking the hit on the next shipment and offering a whole lot less bundles and a lot more individual cards, and I'm not sure if the mining lust for this card is gone or not but as much as I know Raja loathes the idea I think they need to plant some miner bombs in the drivers for at least a while to discourage miners from sucking 'em all down.
I get his position on it and I actually respect it, he genuinely doesn't want to ever intentionally cripple performance or limit the openness of their system. I on the other hand am not quite so inflexible and think that it would do them a WHOLE LOT of long term good with the community/gamers if they would just do it. I'd even recommend they be open about it and their reasons why, that'd give Raja some comfort with the whole openness thing and it could REALLY solve their problems of how to make this card available for gamers.
That'd be my advice, but I don't think anyone anywhere really knows what is going to happen yet so I also highly agree with the holding off of the pitchforks and torches for a bit longer until we get a bit more clarification. I'm not sure I want them to just make a quick call on this,
I'd prefer they really think about what they are trying to achieve in the gaming market place and how their actions in the immediate future are going to drastically affect the public's perception of them and the Vega launch versus the hit they'll take financially for it. I don't know the numbers and I suck with finances, but I do know gamers and the gaming community and there are a whole lot of rumors/half-truths/crazy shit going on and there are a lot of people who are viewing this as just how genuine AMD's commitment to gamers is.
Their last few launches have been terribly problematic, and I personally blame most of it on miners. I don't get mining, it seems like the whole stock market bubble to me before everything crashed. I kept wondering how they were selling all these packaged junk bonds that were obviously not worth what they were sold, it felt like a weird get rich quick scheme or money for free thing...and I always remember the quote, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is", and figured it'd end badly.
I was shocked when I found out I hadn't misunderstood it at all, there were just a lot of greedy slimeballs out there and a lot of people who didn't understand it and fell for the scam. Since then I've decided to sort of trust my instincts on weird stuff like that, and mining just seems like people are making monies with nothing really backing it but crunching numbers fast and I think it's gonna fall apart when people realize that...but I could very, VERY easily be wrong on that as I don't know very much about mining except that
I HATE HOW IT MAKES IT SO HARD TO GET THE BLOODY VIDEO CARD I WANT TO GAME ON!!!!
Sorry, it's late and I'm a bit medicated..but that's how I'm feeling on this one. They're doing great with CPUs, but no matter how good they are or what a great value they are AMD ain't gonna get back much graphics market share unless they can get the cards in to the hands of gamers. I think the only way to do that is to declare open war with miners on a driver level, because I just don't see any other way to do it. Price won't stop them, bundles won't stop them; they want the best and they'll get it.
Just make it not the best for that, the problem will take care of itself. No one in the community will fault you, heck they'll be screaming your praises to the gods of gaming themselves for finally doing something substantial to face the problem.
I know you don't want to AMD, but unless you can come up with a better idea to take the miners out of the equation the prices are going to be moot. The discounts on early cards are going to just be advantages to the miners, they always seem to find a way to get them first.
It would also cut down on the incentive for retailers to mark up prices. If they have to actually put the cards on the shelves and have people buy them it might make them reconsider jacking up the price 50-80%. That would be nice too, wouldn't it?
Please AMD, do the something good. You're on such a roll, the Ryzen kicks so much ass and everyone still loves it..but to be so close and blow it over miners?
Please, don't.
