Price drops of AMD Radeon R9 290-series are over, price-tags freeze

Prices of AMD Radeon R9 290-series graphics cards seem to have stabilized both in the U.S. and in Europe. Apparently, supply and demand of such graphics adapters are now balanced and there is no need to further cut the prices.

At present the most affordable AMD Radeon R9 290X boards in the U.K. are priced between £245 and £265 inc VAT. The cheapest AMD Radeon R9 290X  graphics cards cost $279 – $299 in the U.S. after mail-in-rebate. Prices in Eurozone vary greatly, but inexpensive Radeon R9 290X adapters cost between €330 and €350. The most affordable Radeon R9 290 graphics cards are currently priced at $240 (after mail-in-rebate) – $260, £220 – £230 and €285 – €300 in the U.S., the U.K. and Eurozone, respectively.

All of these prices have been stable for over a month now, which means that neither AMD nor its partners have reduced prices of the Radeon R9 290-series products any further. Moreover, some AMD Radeon R9 290X graphics cards even got more expensive recently. Stabilization of the prices indicates that either AMD and its partners can no longer reduce prices without facing massive losses, or the companies no longer need to maximize sales of such hardware in the channel.

Back in early January, 2015, chief executive officer of AMD revealed that the channel still contained excessive amount of the current-generation Radeon inventory. The company vowed not to announce any new graphics adapters in the Q1 2015 and instead concentrate on selling through the existing add-in-boards.

“From Q1 to Q2, I think the largest improvement will be around the channel health,” said Lisa Su. “We have had this channel problem for a couple of quarters, and it is important for us to correct that. We definitely reduced some inventory in Q4, and we will take significant action to reduce that inventory in Q1, and that will give us an opportunity to return to a more normal desktop channel business.”

AMD and its partners among makers of add-in-cards and retailers started to cut-down prices of AMD Radeon R9 graphics adapters in September ’14 following launches of Nvidia Corp.’s GeForce GTX 970 and 980 graphics boards. AMD said that it needed to reposition some of its products in order to better compete against rivals and to lower inventory. Market sources revealed that demand for high-end AMD graphics cards was constrained because many of those who used advanced Radeon graphics adapters for crypto-currency mining started to sell their hardware off via Internet auctions in the third quarter of 2014.

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KitGuru Says: If you were planning to get a Radeon R9 290-series graphics card when the prices hit the bottom, then you probably have missed your chance already since many models actually got slightly more expensive in the recent couple of weeks. However, unless demand for the Radeon R9 290-series drops significantly in the coming months because the market expects arrival of the Radeon R9 390-series in June, the prices of the Radeon R9 290-series graphics adapters will remain on the current levels for a long time.

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