AMD Radeon Price Cuts Are Not From Red - AIBs Took Matters in their Own Hands

Price cuts take recently graced the AMD R9 lineup, bringing the R9 290X to $399 and the R9 290 to $299 (the same cost for GTX 980 and 970 respectively). Notwithstanding, something very contradictory was posted by Hilbert over at Guru3D today. Apparently, these price cuts are non official MSRP reductions, but rather an AIB introduced limited time promotion. AMD Radeon

Radeon R9 290 and R9 290X price cuts are 'temporary, AIB induced, promotions' - AMD

I accept to say that the PC hardware scene is getting weirder by the day. Before I say go any further, here are the facts of the affair as conveyed by Guru3D. AMD states that the cost driblet of the R9 280, R9 285, R9 290 and R9 290X is not an actual (MSRP) price cutting simply rather "promotion from board and channel partners themselves, and ...for a limited time only". They further go on to state that the U.s. 'Promotional' Price Cutting is live while EU markets should follow shortly. In short: Board Partners took matters into their own easily when the GTX 980 and 970 were released, dropping the price at their discretion for an unknown only limited amount of time.

The approximate 'Promotional Prices' of the Radeon R9 series is as follows:

Radeon R9 280 - $210
Radeon R9 285 - $229
Radeon R9 280X - $260
Radeon R9 290 - $299
Radeon R9 290X - $399

Basically, the top end Radeon R9 290X dropped from the $549 cost signal to a mere $399 with others in the lineup following suite. And you know what? I have a feeling something very, very technical is going on behind the curtains at Red I think. Come across, AMD has recently lost some momentum in its stock price, and contra-revenue tactics will only encourage bearish beliefs of investors. However, they admittedly need to bulldoze up need since the new Maxwell prices completely and utterly undercut their old ones. Only how do they exercise that without scaring away even more investors? The solution is of grade to maintain the MSRP and land that the discounts are at the AIB's expense, non AMD's. This would result in increased demand while making sure that the contra-revenue policy doesn't reverberate on them straight.

Either way, this is a really good opportunity to pick up Radeons because this 'Promotional Price Cut' won't last forever. There are too some complications with this plan. See, retailers tin't work on loss-taking tactics in the long run, so this offer will merely last till the stock lasts. Later which, the toll should go up again and the demand consequently, down. When this happens, AMD will have to roll out the R9 300 Series (Pirate Islands) asap or there could be some serious repercussions for the company.

Interesting: #AMD is denying Radeon'due south Cost Cuts, dubbing it a "q4 sell out' programme. http://t.co/ng1hRULK06

— Usman Pirzada (@usmanpirzada) October 10, 2022