So the 3000 series is really a Q1 2021 card. :)
KevinC
5334
Thatâs kind of glossing over the fact that performance wise theyâve also been kicking the crap out of AMD for many years. :)
Price/performance has been super-duper close, actually.
As a person who will never, ever buy a $1200 video card, I could care less what the top end looks like except as a view of the future.
stusser
5336
Kinda, if you donât look at the top-end and are willing to wait a year for AMD to match a mid-range product while using a ton more power every cycle.
KevinC
5337
Maybe in a limited range. My latest purchase was a 1080 and I donât think AMD had much to compete with that at the time, from what I recall (I could be mistaken!). I think this generation is probably going to be different, though, where AMD is a lot more competitive.
Yeah, this is my recollection of the past few generations.
That is a ridiculous price, even accounting for the exchange rate. They should have sold last month.
stusser
5339
They had the Vega64, released over a year later and using 65% more power. It didnât sell.
Oh, all hail stusser with his opinions up in here again. :)
I stand by what I said, but each gen is a little different. This last one was a little rough for AMD. They are definitely playing catchup now.
KevinC
5341
I mean, the 20-series was so anemic and overpriced because they didnât have any real competition. The fact that the 30-series is reasonably priced indicates to me that AMD has some nice cards coming our way (thank goodness!). Canât wait to see what they have up their sleeves, even if Iâm doubtful to purchase one myself. Too many bad experiences with AMD cards.
This really is sort of a sea-change moment for the industry, isnât it.
stusser
5343
That isnât my opinion, itâs fact. AMD hasnât competed at the enthusiast or top-end tiers for over 10 years. Their last really competitive cycle was in 2009 with the 5850/5870.
The RX480 was a great competitor at the $200 tier in 2016, and thatâs the best theyâve done. Nothing for enthusiasts.
Youâre right, and time is relative itâs been longer than I thought.
But, I only watch midrange and below where I actually care. And if someone says âI want a $200 video card whatcha got?â a lot of times AMD makes sense.
stusser
5345
Sure, and AMD bulldozer CPUs made sense at very low pricepoints too. That didnât make them successful, though.
Nvidia grew complacent with their 10 year winning streak. This coming cycle looks very good for AMD. Nvidia actually dropped prices on the 3070.
I feel like maybe youâre arguing something that is not my point at all.
I donât even remember anymore though, I could be arguing a point that wasnât a good response to whatever I started with. So Iâm just going to stop because I donât feel like going back and forth with you forever.
stusser
5347
Umm, OK.
Anyway, Iâm all for AMD competing. I had a 5850, that was a fantastic videocard. Even Nvidia fanboys (which sadly, do exist) should be happy they have competition. Drives prices down.
I think itâs more than that, personally. I think it has everything to do with leaning in to Ray tracing as hard as they did.
The best analogy Iâve come up with is electric cars. The early ones were expensive, didnât go far, and didnât have places to charge them. You were paying a premium to do a particular thing, but they didnât really do that thing all that well. But all that time and money spent on developing related technologies pays off eventually, which is what we are now seeing.
KevinC
5350
Oh I agree. Let me rephrase a little bit: the reason Nvidia could go so hard at ray tracing 1.0 with only marginal performance gains at those price points was due to AMD not being able to compete at the time. AMD had an opportunity to eat their lunch and couldnât do it.
stusser
5351
Not really. To this day ray-tracing is a gimmick. Very few actual games support it, and the 20-series RT cores werenât fast enough to turn everything on.
Next-gen consoles support RT, so we should see a lot more uptake next year.
Absolutely right, the piss-poor 20-series performance and pricing provided AMD with a huge opportunity that they completely failed to seize.
