2012-12-21-90

[Rumour] ATI Radeon HD 5970 priced $599?

Turkish website Donanim Haber have discovered that Google Shopping liststhe HD 5970 at $599 from ZipZoomfly. While the ZipZoomFly page is missing, this price pointfits in well with the €499 price point leaked by several Europeane-tailers.

If you recall, the HD 5970 was originally set to be priced at $499,according to AMD's slides. At the time, the HD 5870 was priced at $379,with it's price expected to drop with competition. Even so, a dual-5870product seemed like a bargain, and many doubted the validity of thisprice point.

Since then, supply shortages and overwhelming demand for the HD 5870 hasled to the HD 5900 series being delayed, and prices for the HD 5800 series have only increased. Latest information on the HD 5000's series' competitor - Nvidia's Fermi - suggests a release well into Q1 2010. In the end, the market is a little different to what we had imaged back in September. Unfortunately for consumers, all these factors put together point to just one conclusion - higher prices.

At the same time, $599 is a reasonable price point for the Radeon flagship. What you get is a product that will be far and away the fastest graphics card on the market, with no competition in the near future. We have seen the spectacular HD 5800 CF performance, and that is what you can expect from the HD 5970. Considering the underwhelming GTX 280 debuted for $649 back in 2008, and the EOL'ed GTX 295 is still available for $499, HD 5970's $599 is quite understandable.

Unfortunately, unlike the HD 4870 X2, the HD 5970 isn't simply HD 5870 times 2. To keep the power consumption below 300W, in accordance to PCI SIG standards, rumours suggest AMD have had to downclock the HD 5970 to HD 5850 clocks - though still shipping with the full 1600 shaders. In essence, the HD 5970 is two HD 5850s with 2 extra SIMD units. Considering HD 5850 currently costs $299, the HD 5970 is suddenly quite a bargain.

HD 5800 series' excess demand and short supply has meant limited availability - even today, 7 weeks after release. Since HD 5970 is nothing but two HD 5800 GPUs on a single PCB, the availability issues are likely to be carried over to the HD 5900 series as well. TSMC and AMD have promised widespread availability by the end of December. Availability has improved over the weeks, though at an agonizingly slow pace.

The Radeon HD 5970 is set to hit stores on 17th November. A HD 5950 has often been rumoured, though any information on the stripped down sibling is obscure, at best. When it does arrive, a $499 price tag would make sense.

Reference: Donanim Haber