There has been a lot of confusion and consternation surrounding the launch of the AMD RX Vega graphics cards, especially around the pricing. But now AMD are saying they’re pulling out all the stops to “get those prices to where we suggested when we launched them.”
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I spoke to AMD’s Gerald Youngblood on the showfloor of Gamescom today about the struggles with both stock and pricing of Radeon graphics cards, and specifically about whether we were ever going to see Vega at its original launch price. So, how much does Vega really cost?
“Our SEPs, and the price tag that we announced,” Youngblood says, “is our full intention of where we would suggest the product be priced. Not just for launch, but ongoing.”
What happened, though, was we launched the product and the demand was really huge. Now we’re focused on replenishing so that there is plenty of stock so we can encourage our partners to hit the SEPs that we announced.”
It’s primarily this filling of retailers inventory which AMD sees as key to getting the prices of Vega down to their original pre-launch levels.
“First of all we just need to drive as much stock as we can,” Youngblood says, “because inventory is really important in everybody being able to hit those prices. Then it’s just working with our partners to enable it, but we don’t set the price of their product. But we will drive, and do everything that we can, to get those prices to where we suggested when we launched them earlier.”
AMD also need to up their GPU production game for their older cards too, especially because they’re set to launch a new Quake Champions bundle.
“We’re going to be bundling Quake Champions with the Champions pack,” he says, “which unlocks all the champions in the game, with all our Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 processors, and with all RX 580, 570, and 560 graphics cards as added value for our customers.”
That’s great for CPUs with lots of stock, but it’s practically impossible to buy any 500-series Radeon graphics card right now.
“We’re very focused on delivering increased supply out to the market,” explains Youngblood. “And that’s both to meet all the demands that are out there and, yes, we’re trying to catch up and get more stock out there. And you’ll see more stock available very soon.”
Fingers crossed it’s verysoon ‘cos those e-shelves look like the GPU locusts have just swarmed through.