http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/1...urrency-mining-could-kill-amds-gaming-efforts
"Downstream complications
Beyond making life fun for reviewers, who have to take practical cost considerations into account when evaluating different GPUs, there’s another problem here. AMD’s entire GPU strategy since October of 2013 has relied on steep price cuts to fuel sales. The Radeon R9 290 and R9 290X were killer cards partly because they equaled or bettered Nvidia’s GTX 780 or GTX Titan, but at far lower price points.
At $400, the R9 290 was faster than the GTX 780 — and the GTX 780 is $100 more expensive. When the R9 290 is selling for $600, the entire value equation around AMD’s MSRP’s falls apart. An R9 280X for $489 is an absolutely terrible investment; the Nvidia GTX 780 will demolish that price-performance ratio — but that’s where things sit today.
These price trends are particularly worrisome given that AMD has just launched its new Mantle API. It’s essential that AMD illustrates strong demand for its graphics cards in gaming. GPUs sold into the cryptocurrency market at huge prime premiums could wind up driving gamers away from AMD at the very time Sunnyvale needs to win them over.
That’s not to say we’ll see companies dropping Mantle — it just makes the way forward that much harder for AMD. When it comes to Mantle, a GPU sold to a gamer and a GPU sold to a miner aren’t fungible. The modest positive impact on AMD’s graphics revenue may not be worth the long-term complications or potential loss of market share."
Any idiot will tell you when faced with such a dilemma there is ONLY one thing to do...FLOOD the market to:
1. Meet pent up demand (evidenced by out of stock skus) and make more $$$
2. Protect the gaming segment your initial pricing strategy (before increases) meant to address and exploit.
3. Keep your market share of gamers not lose them to Nvidia " An R9 280X for $489 is an absolutely terrible investment; the Nvidia GTX 780 will demolish that price-performance ratio — but that’s where things sit today." I just built a gaming rig and chose a GTX 780 for this very reason.
4. Actually have cards available for purchase that highlight your possible game changing API Mantle.
Now here is the weird part. AMD didn't flood the market and they have had MONTHS to do so. Do you think Sapphire, MSI, , NewEgg, Amazon, etc. all want more cards to sell...instead of multiple "Out of Stock"...of course they do. Do you think AMD wants to make more money by selling more cards and protecting their core gaming base...of course they do.
Why haven't they done so? Why after almost 4 months can they not even come close to manufacturing enough cards to provide price and inventory stability? Why? Because they CAN'T...or they WOULD. Why can't they? I can only guess something in the manufacturing process as I have outlined in other posts. What else makes sense? "They are just selling too well and the miners are buying them" doesn't hold water and isn't borne out by the recent revenue/GM disclosures and future revenue/GM predictions.
*EDIT 1*
Comment from a poster on the linked article: ***i wonder if they don't have enough wafer's at tsmc for instance to saturate the market. For example, are they perhaps prioritizing macpro supply over r290/290x.
***are they perhaps prioritizing foreign markets?
*EDIT 2*
A producer will decrease supply if and only if one or more of these 3 things happen: 1. Demand wanes 2. Input costs make manufacturing more expensive so resources are shifted to other more profitable products...especially if that product is now no longer profitable 3. They lack a component or process to manufacture that product consistently
High demand will ALWAYS be met with higher supply unless one of those 3 things happen. In fact in many cases, high demand and high supply = lower prices...AMD would want this. Conversely, in almost all cases, high demand and low supply = higher prices. AMD does NOT want this. The simple fact AMD hasn't changed this equation by providing more supply means they can't...thus they are supply constrained.
