AMD drops pricing on Radeon 7000 products

The battle for Xmas sales is hotting up overall, but the surprising news from the channel is just how well received the AMD move to ‘R9' was. While new products were introduced, a quick look at several BIOS dates/product IDs showed that some were simple refreshes. But it seems to have worked. Which has caused an issue. KitGuru checks for cuts.

While the world + dog is focused on the graphics battle between Radeon and GeForce, there are several layers of ‘friction' within each organisation/its partners.

Let's say that AMD partner one decides to move lock, stock and two smoking heatsinks to the new R9 etc branding – with a full range of 260/270/280/290 products.

At the same time, AMD partner two thinks ‘Well, there are a lot of the 7000 series chips around – and the differences are not huge – let's keep our focus on the familiar.

All well and good, but both partners have huge numbers of cards in stock across the world – and only one of them will be right about the focus of consumer demand.

It turns out that AMD nailed its launch, as far as messaging gamers/enthusiasts that the new cards are the way to go.

The problem?

Well, any partner who was gambling on a ‘soft' launch and slow take-up, is going to be disappointed – and they are now sitting on stock.

The solution?

We're hearing that AMD has begun price moves to make products like the Radeon HD 7850 more attractive. These cuts might not be more than £10-30, but that might be enough to stimulate desire for the older cards – allowing the channel to be cleaned.

If you have been waiting to buy one of these from a company like HIS, then it looks likely that a drop is heading your way.

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KitGuru says: It happens every time there is an ‘EOL' (End Of Life), and you might even get some nVidia price moves to counter this. Watch the ‘Today Special' deal spaces online!

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