Here’s to impatient impulse buys.
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Indeed. It would seem that sometimes they pay off. Mind you, I really was in the market for a newer card. I was using a very new but old ASUS 7850 Direct CU that I had sitting on the shelf for more than three years still in the shrink wrap. I suspect it will be the last AMD graphics card I owned (the wife has it now) as I don’t see AMD changing their game any time soon. G-sync I can put up with. Being slighted because there’s a market in crypto currency is inexcusable. Before the data mining game began, we, the BUILDERS, were giving AMD our patronage. We, the ENTHUSIASTS, were giving AMD our hard-earned FIAT. iF AMD prefers crypto currency over our hard-earned funny munny let them have it. I’m sure the data miners will only be too happy to indulge them. I’m tired of reading the flimsy fan boy excuses for AMD.
This is absolutely NOT the retailer’s fault. This is a DIRECT SUPPLY issue predominantly based on who makes the GPUs and who supplies the suppliers. Guess who. I’ma gonna say it again: AMD could easily design DATA MINING CARDS for the miners for a whole lot less money and charge them 50 bux less per card for less manufacturing and design GRAPHICS CARDS for people who actually need, of all things :::drum roll::: GRAPHICS. AMD has proven to me that they are no different than Intel, no different than Microsoft, and no different than the rest of the FAT CATS more dedicated to making megabucks than dedicated customer service. I’ll give NVIDIA points for at least trying to make a card specifically geared for data miners and for making GRAPHICS cards more dedicated to graphics than mining crypto currency. Until AMD changes their tune I won’t be buying any more of their graphics cards. I speak for myself. I’m not telling anyone what to buy. If people want to pander to corporate abuse and price gouging that’s their prerogative. I want no part of it.
And Nvidia does not do this? They have been driving up prices every chance they get. Trust me, I am no AMD fan. I was just sick of Intel and Nvidia. Now I am sick of them all.
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Alas, my friend, we must choose the lesser of two evils and sometimes that choice is not a clear distinction. I’ve done the math. What we have to pay for the lousy 5% improvement that VEGA offers just isn’t worth the money the retailers are charging (not that I blame the retailers). Perhaps in time the prices will drop but by then AMD will be on the make for the next mining market and all those spent VEGA cards that were running non-stop will be dirt cheap and mostly ready for the trash heap. 
Fear not, the mining craze can’t last forever. Those cryptocurrency values will crash again.
Yup. And only then will AMD come grovelling back to the Enthusiasts like an unfatithful spouse. I’ve been watching the game for years and years. Sure, NVIDIA prices are going up but that’s only because AMD prices are completely outrageous. I’m having a hard time believing AMD is keeping us supplied with good, stable, budget cards. There’s nothing “budget” about a card that costs $500.00 Canadian. So I paid the extra $100.00 for a top end card that VEGA can barely even touch, despite the fact that the cheapest VEGA card would run me at an extra $200+ 
So much for budget cards.
You’re not in manufacturing, are you? AMD isn’t making the cards, they simply contract to have their chips manufactured and sell them to the board partners who build the boards and add the VRAM and other components. Who are you going to disparage for the 30% increase in DRAM prices? What happens if and when the mining craze crashes again and AMD has tens of thousands of extra chips on hand that they can’t unload because the market has been flooded already? At this point it’s practically a guessing game. If you don’t like the card, fine, but it’s not really AMD’s fault for miners, they can’t hold stock just to sell to YOU specifically, you’re no more worthy than any other customer, nor should you be.
I beg to differ. AMD is in charge of the supply that goes to the supplier. AMD also sells AMD GRAPHICS CARDS. I don’t see any other brand name on the AMD reference cards. Nobody is forcing AMD to cater to the cryptos, but evidently AMD prefers their business so I say let them have it and when AMD has tens of thousands of extra chips on hand let them grovel as they have in the past. Doubtless they have already made their profit tenfold and then some, yes? I’m not ASKING AMD to hold stock. I’m saying AMD already has the wherewithall to satisfy both the crypto currency market and the enthusiast market but they don’t bother to bother. I absolutely agree that I am no more worthy than any other customer and it is precisely for that reason the data miners should not be getting all this preferential treatment while the RETAILERS shelves continue to remain empty.
We can only hope AMD will reinvest those mountains of cash they’re making off the miners back into R&D so they can develop graphics that can compete with Nvidia, as they finally have CPUs that can stand in the ring with Intel. From a strictly business perspective, I can’t blame them for what they’re doing. They’ve been hurting financially a long time. However, it’s unwise to treat the consumer this way. It tends to bite you in the ass in the long-term.
For my use case Vega beats the 1080 Ti in most cases. So still worth it to me.
I am just very dissatisfied with the lack of honesty and transparency how this whole fiasco went down.
Pricing is getting worse and is all over the place for the same card:
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007708%20601301447
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Of course you are aware that AMD just got 1.3 Billion from Intel this year, yes? I agree that it would be nice if they actually gave NVIDIA some real competition but so far I’m not seeing it and I’m not holding my breath. Seems to me that we’re looking at an orchastrated situation. Personally, I’m tired of listening to the same old tune year after year. I don’t think AMD really wants to surpass NVIDIA. I think they’re quite comfortable making their profit by claiming underdog status and winning sympathies to the extent that their customers are only too happy to pay more for less. Just my opinion, of course.
Based on the link you just shared I should hope that your card beats a 1080 Ti. Man, most of those prices are nearly 400 bux more than what I paid for my card! And I’ve read that you can’t even run these cards effectively on Windows 8 so I can’t help but to wonder how versatile they are. My 1070 runs fine on both Windows 8x and Windows 7. I haven’t tried it with Linux yet but I certainly intend to at some point. So glad I didn’t wait for VEGA >> https://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007708%20601301447
Just to be clear, those are prices in Canadian dollars.
For me the 1070 would be all but useless. The Titan Xp would have been my next choice, and only due to its recent driver update.
My statement still stands. I paid 600 Canadian for my 1070 (less a 30 dollar rebate plus free shipping). Most of those cards are pushing a grand Canadian easy. Still, if you’re happy with your purchase that’s what matters. My purchase satisfies all my requirements for what I do. I have little use for a graphics card that can only work on Windows 10. See: Radeon RX 500 / VEGA series doesn’t support Windows 8.1!
True. I paid $840 each for two. Still a lot cheaper than Titan Xp but not as good. Price to performance though is still relative. My plan is to upgrade next year anyway. Hopefully AMD can close the gap with nvidia then and we will have better options for all our use cases.
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Looks like you got a good price. I expect it will continue to escalate. By the time AMD appears to be “closing the gap” I suspect NVIDIA will have something even more advanced, tried and tested, high performance and, of course, limited to g synch. But I’ll probably be able to run any o/s with it. To be honest, I don’t see myself purchasing another graphics card for another 5 years anyway. That is, if this one manages to last that long. Now if I were a hard core gamer things might be different; but I’m not. In fact, I started this thread looking for a solid, budget, all purpose graphics card because all the reviews I had been reading seemed to fall short of what I was seeking. In the end I finally gave up and paid nearly double what I wanted but I’m pleased with my purchase nontheless. It’s really a no-brainer when a decent quality budget card costs twice as much as a standard quality high end card.
Well G-sync is proprietary crap and do they still have that spyware known as the GeForce Experience? So there are certain philosophies AMD follows with their products that Nvidia does not. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
I keep my registry quite clean. You probably already know there are ways of avoiding this nonsense. I certainly didn’t bother going to NVIDIA’s web page to download any extra garbage. I’d rather run generic drivers than the proprietary telemetry (although I certainly checked it out before reinstalling my o/s). Don’t think for one minute that CATALYST doesn’t pull the same garbage. In fact I’ve had much worse experience with AMD in this regard than I have with NVIDIA. But yeah, you’re right. Seems there is no escaping invasive software these days. So far EVGA seems to be quite tame. I’m hoping they stay that way.
Noctua makes quality. I’m not a liquid cooler guy by any stretch of the imagination. As a result I happily discovered Noctua and I am so very pleased with their quality despite the colour combination of the fans. I seriously wish they’d start giving us options on those. I’m almost about ready to ask them to go RGB on black. lol
OF course, every little bit helps. Thanks for helping me make my selection.