Motoczysz Price
When the Price is Not the Price
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When the glowing reviews of Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GT hit the Net, reviewers couldn't believe how great a card it is for "just $200." Many in the tech press took Nvidia's early guidance that these cards would cost "between $200-250" on faith. Others (myself included) did some last-minute calling and emailing to find out what the MSRP was on various cards—the XFX card we reviewed, for instance, carried an MSRP of $249 for the non-overclocked version. Still a great bargain, right?
And that's what those cards cost—briefly. Sometimes you could even find it for less, with special rebate deals that last a week and make the price look low in shopping engines, only to have it inflate when you add the thing to your online cart. The cynic in me thinks that Nvidia works closely with their partners on these rebate deals to make the cards cost effectively $30-50 less in the first week or two, so they seem like a better value and get better reviews, before the prices are jacked up. I have no evidence of this; I'm just cynical that way.
Then ATI released the Radeon HD 3850, at the bargain price of $179. Sure it's not nearly as fast as the 8800 GT, but it's not in the same price bracket, right? In the sub-$200 market, nothing can touch it. In fact, all the 8800 GT cards seem to have magically inflated to $269 or more, and most of those are out of stock. Fortunately, you can still easily find those 3850 cards for $179, but that doesn't get ATI (and their partners) off the hook. The same pricing shenanigans have occurred with the Radeon HD 3870.
ATI bet big on the 3850 model, and perhaps the feedback they got from OEMs was that it was the model they wanted most. But the enthusiast press and gamers got behind the 3870 in a pretty big way. For $219, it's considerably faster than the 3850, and with 512MB of RAM it doesn't fall into the same RAM-restricted performance problems that the 3850 does in some newer titles. We checked prices after our review went up, and the card was indeed widely available for $219.
Today, all the prices have inflated to $269, and most of those are out of stock. Dell's website actually has a 3870 card by VisionTek for $224, but that's really a $280 price with a $56 rebate. Oh, and it says "Usually Ships: 1-2 Weeks" which is Dell's way of saying "Out of Stock."
Aren't these things supposed to go down in price? I'm sure the 8800 GT is a hot item and is selling out. Before launch, Nvidia expected to be on allocation through the end of the year. After all, they buy wafer starts at TSMC well in advance and you can't just pay for more capacity. TSMC is making all the wafers they can for their various customers. When you're supply constrained on a hot item, prices often go up—or at least don't fall. So why promise everyone sub-$250 cards when you know you're going to be short on supply and vendors are going to raise prices? I'm willing to bet ATI didn't plan on demand for the HD 3870 being what it is, and made far more RV670 chips into HD 3850 cards. Those are readily available, and at the initially promised price.
This situation frustrates us as much as it does you. When we review a product, price is a serious consideration. If we give something a certain rating at a certain price, and the price goes up, it becomes a product we probably would not have rated as highly. This can happen with CPUs, monitors, motherboards, cases, you name it. The current video card battle is just the most visible example right now. Aren't price wars supposed to go in the other direction?
If you want my advice, don't play their game.
Nvidia has priced their parts such that their partners can make money at $249, and ATI the same at $219. Don't let 'em gouge you just because supply is tight. Simply don't buy. If demand drops at the inflated prices, they'll get the message. And be on guard when it comes to pricing claims—here or anywhere else. I get emails from PR agents telling me prices of their parts vs. competitors, and all it does is make me suspicious. We do our best to get accurate pricing come review time with our own research, but these things change and you should price things out yourself. When you see a review, here or elsewhere, consider how much of their opinion is based on price and whether that price is accurate. The best way to tell ATI, Nvidia, and their partners and retailers that these "bait and switch" pricing schemes are unacceptable is to vote with your wallet—by keeping it closed.
Source: https://www.extremetech.com/computing/82052-when-the-price-is-not-the-price
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