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[BennyBlanco]

Jen gets on stage a few weeks ago and unveils the 1080/1070. Lots of flowery language and the usual tech reveal hype man talk. Everyone here and elsewhere is thinking it's gonna be really expensive based on what he's saying.

Then boom!

Everyone rejoices and loses their shit. What a deal. $599 is so reasonable for this top tier card.

Fast forward a couple weeks, and now it's "pssshhh nothin personell kid, but we're only dropping the reference card now and it's gonna be an extra $100". So now everyone who wanted one is either gonna have to shell out that extra $100 or wait who fucking knows how long for the custom cards with factory OCs and the like.

I understand it from a business standpoint. They want to cut off people who were gonna slam f5 on launch day and scalp them I guess. But this seems like a really egregious dick move to me.

 

[Omok]

huh. even they have a $699 founders edition on the screen

 

[OmahaG8]

To beat the scalpers you must become the scalpers.

 

[JeffGrubb]

I kinda don't get it. You posted a picture from the announcement day that clearly says the Founder's Edition costs $100 more. Doesn't seem like they waited a few weeks and whispered it to anyone.

I gotta imagine all the $600 ones are coming soon. Has anyone announced a date for theirs?

 

[Transistor]

huh. even they have a $699 founders edition on the screen

But not once did they say that ONLY the founders edition would be available upon release

 

[Kyuur]

But not once did they say that ONLY the founders edition would be available upon release

...what else would that be?

 

[BennyBlanco]

I kinda don't get it. You posted a picture from the announcement day that clearly says the Founder's Edition costs $100 more. Doesn't seem like they waited a few weeks and whispered it to anyone.

I gotta imagine all the $600 ones are coming soon. Has anyone announced a date for theirs?

Right, but they never mentioned that only the founders edition was coming out 5/27 and we'd have to wait for the regular cards.

 

[Oxn]

I kinda don't get it. You posted a picture from the announcement day that clearly says the Founder's Edition costs $100 more. Doesn't seem like they waited a few weeks and whispered it to anyone.

I gotta imagine all the $600 ones are coming soon. Has anyone announced a date for theirs?

Except the $600 is no different than the $700 one. They are just throwing you off with the name.

Its like releasing an Ipad 3 Founders edition, then a month later selling the exact same product for $100 less, and claiming that the real price.

 

[LowSignal]

The prices on the old cards stayed high fo a long time because they knew they could get away with it, same here they know people will shell out the extra hundo.

 

[Goldfishking]

But not once did they say that ONLY the founders edition would be available upon release

So? People who want one for $599 will get one.

I'm not sure why you'd be annoyed that you dont get your GPU as early as you wanted it?

 

[Tagyhag]

But not once did they say that ONLY the founders edition would be available upon release

But this happens with all GPU's.

Reference cards come out and they suck and only impatient people buy them.

And then everyone else buys the superior 3rd party cards.

Edit: No one should be buying the Founder cards or the reference cards.

 

[Peterthumpa]

And it will sell like hotcakes anyway.

 

[Chinese Cartoons]

Yeah since the release of windows 10 their drivers have been total shit and I am stuck on an old version atm.

 

[Stiler]

I don't think some of you are getting the point.

Most people assume that you would be able to buy EITHER the normal $599 card OR the $699 "founders" edition come May 27th.

They never said that they were ONLY releasing the $699 founders edition only on may 27th and that those that wanted the vanilla $100 cheaper edition would have to just wait and wait and wait until they randomly decide to release it

 

[Dreathlock]

That happens when there is no competition. Just dont buy the rip-off scam edition and wait for the real proper cards with good silent cooling solutions and higher clockrates....for 100$ LESS.

 

[Lil'DigiOp]

What's the difference between a reference card and branded cards?(EVGA,etc)

 

[RotBot]

Right, but they never mentioned that only the founders edition was coming out 5/27 and we'd have to wait for the regular cards.

That information was released after the announcement, although the article linked criticized NVidia for being very ambiguous about it.

We all know that these Founders Cards will be the only cards available at the product launch dates (which is very soon). This is going to seen by many as an "Early adopters tax" or "NVIDIA tax" by many. Unless you want to pay $100 over MSRP, the likes of your purchasing a GTX 1080 or GTX 1070 at or close to its launch date seems to be impossible.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

I don't know. It's eyebrow-raising. I get some cynicism. But at the same time is it really price-gouging if people are lining up to pay this price? This is a luxury purchase. Nobody needs a 1080 right now. If it was a bullshit practice, hopefully consumers would see through this nonsense and wait for the $599 cards to appear. But based on that Amazon pre-order selling out immediately, I sort of gather that that's not going to happen.

 

[Oxn]

So glad I dont need a 1080 yet.

I have a price in my mind for what I want to pay for a 1080 Ti, and if they dont meet it, I dont buy.

 

[CHC]

I don't really think they are appreciably worse than any other major tech company. I mean... if you watch a presentation designed to market a product, you know what you're in for. They still pull bullshit, but not really more than anyone else.

As for the Founder's Edition thing, I really don't think we'll be seeing it again. Based off the complete bumbling answers during this Q&A, it's pretty clear no one at the ground level actually likes or supports this idea. If it sells it sells, but in the future I think we would probably just see more expensive cards rather than this weird division that no one can really explain. Even it does sell it's just muddy, confusing PR that I see Nvidia avoiding in the future, by whatever means they see fit.

 

[A-V-B]

I don't know. It's eyebrow-raising. I get some cynicism. But at the same time is it really price-gouging if people are lining up to pay this price?

Price-gouging is only valid if no one pays for it?

 

[CO_Andy]

Who else are they gonna milk besides their biggest fanbase (PC gamers)? Nvidia only have themselves to blame for burning bridges with both Microsoft and Sony.

 

[rakkadakka]

Of all the shit nvidia pulls this is on the bottom of the list for me.

 

[HowZatOZ]

It made sense to me that the Founder's Edition would be first going by the name and premium price. An early bird card I guess in a way for those who are impatient. Though I really doubt we'll be waiting for ages to get the third party cards, nVidia likes money.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

Price-gouging is only valid if no one pays for it?

What?

 

[KingSnake]

Don't pay the premium and wait a week?

 

[A-V-B]

What?

Why is it not price-gouging if people are still going to buy it? Doesn't this ignore the possibility of a monopoly in the relevant area of interest?

 

[BennyBlanco]

Don't pay the premium and wait a week?

Where are you getting a week from?

 

[Lockjaw333]

I doubt we ever see a 1080 at $599. Going to guess that all of the 3rd party custom cooler ones with be slightly higher, maybe $620ish.

I think the price of both new cards is deceptive.

But what other "shit" are you talking about? The whole 970 3.5gb deal? For me that was totally overblown, my 970 handles every game beautifully. OTher than that, what else?

 

[outunderthestars]

This doesn't really seem like something that would make someone sour on the company to me.

(Just ordered their kickass $200 Android tablet today)

 

[ZOONAMI]

That happens when there is no competition. Just dont buy the rip-off scam edition and wait for the real proper cards with good silent cooling solutions and higher clockrates....for 100$ LESS.

Why would they be $100 less? This is what people aren't grasping. There is no $599 card. No such product was shown, so until a card is actually at retail at that price, I wouldn't assume there is a $599 card. If you were an aib why would you sell your better than reference card, for significantly less than the price of the reference card? They will still sell all their cards at $699+. It wouldn't make sense for the AIBs to sell their cards for $599. The aibs are selling the reference card for $699. They've been posted to best buy, evga, etc.

 

[triplestation]

Its very slimy, yes

It amazes me how people are still willing to pay that price

 

[roadrunn3r]

Where are you getting a week from?

Let's make it a month then, doesn't change a lot. Simply don't buy FE cards and wait is the best you can do as a consumer.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I think I'm waiting for the 1070 before jumping at a 1080. I wouldn't be surprised if it winds up being the far better value, hence the reason they're getting the 1080 out the door first.

 

[ZOONAMI]

Let's make it a month then, doesn't change a lot. Simply don't buy FE cards and wait is the best you can do as a consumer.

Where are you getting a month from?

 

[BennyBlanco]

I doubt we ever see a 1080 at $599. Going to guess that all of the 3rd party custom cooler ones with be slightly higher, maybe $620ish.

I think the price of both new cards is deceptive.

But what other "shit" are you talking about? The whole 970 3.5gb deal? For me that was totally overblown, my 970 handles every game beautifully. OTher than that, what else?

The 3.5gb thing was kind of a big deal man. They were very misleading about it.


My 970 can't do everything I would like it to and I'm using a 1080p display.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

Why is it not price-gouging if people are still going to buy it? Doesn't this ignore the possibility of a monopoly in the relevant area of interest?

I understand that due to AMD's lackluster performance there's going to be some cause for concerns about a potential nVidia monopoly. I'm not saying that we shouldn't question things like this. But I don't necessarily think that charging a temporary premium for something people clearly want automatically raises alarms. I mean, these things are often kind of underpriced based on the supply-demand curve. I honestly don't fault a company for wanting to get in on that kind of action.

If the lower priced cards wind up coming way, way later so that they can ride the wave of people buying the FE for as long as possible, then I might call BS. But I don't know. It's just difficult for me to get worked up about something like this when at its heart it's boiling down to a situation where they're charging a price many people are eager to pay. These aren't necessary commodities. They're mid/high end GPUs aimed at an enthusiast hobby market.

 

[roadrunn3r]

Where are you getting a month from?

My uncle works for Nvidia.

 

[CosmicQueso]

Anyone else getting sick of Nvidia's shit?

Not really, no.

Should I be?

 

[KingSnake]

Where are you getting a week from?

Read wrong.

Anyhow wait a month. Or two months. Or 6 months. Whatever it takes. It's a luxury product not a product you can't survive without. You don't want to encourage this practice, protest with the wallet.

 

[Hypron]

Its very slimy, yes

It amazes me how people are still willing to pay that price

I mean, it's a very powerful card. Some people (not me) have lots of disposable income so the difference isn't that big of a deal for them.

 

[Oxn]

Even $600 is shit for that card.

 

[ghibli99]

For early adopters, I could see it being mildly irritating, but peeps are just eating it up, so it's not like any sort of message/warning shot is being sent to NVIDIA (contrast that to the reaction to the Oculus DRM issue or general sentiments about UWP and things of that nature).

I tend to follow the market about a year behind everyone else for most tech, so by then, it's matured a bit and prices have -- for the most part -- dropped to a point I'm comfortable with.

 

[mysocksarepink]

I regret my xb270hu

 

[Oxn]

Vega cannot come soon enough.

Hope some good Freesync monitors start coming cause I cant support Nvidia anymore.

 

[Abstrusity]

What are you going to do? AMD is shitting the bed, and there are no other contenders. Who's gonna compete with them? Fucking INTEL?

Nobody, that's who. Nobody is going to compete with them. In a couple years it'll be "yeah here's 5% boost to performance for double the price oh and we have an agreement with google so now you can't buy graphics cards on ebay because they have it listed as contraband."

 

[Carlius]

am getting tired of their shitty driver support for sure. if it werent monopoloized os much i would switch cards to another name, but no, nvidia and amd are the only two and nvidia has the edge just cause AMD is too dumb to make something that offers the same things nvidia does.

 

[Stumpokapow]

I'm a little confused as to what the issue is here. Reference cards exist. They have for over a decade. Is the source of the anger here that you need to wait a few weeks? It's OK. Your life will not end because you need to wait a few weeks for slightly higher 4K video performance on high end games.

This doesn't strike me as particularly dishonest, it strikes me as very clear: They're releasing two models (in addition to the models that third party vendors will release). Their official launch date is going to be supply-constrained, and so they are launching the more expensive model first. The less expensive model will come soon after, along with third party vendor models.

Consider you're talking about the company that went through the "3.5GB" GPU issue a few years ago and this really seems a disproportionate reaction.

 

[Freiya]

...what else would that be?

A better card?

I'm a little confused as to what the issue is here. Reference cards exist. They have for over a decade. Is the source of the anger here that you need to wait a few weeks? It's OK. Your life will not end because you need to wait a few weeks for slightly higher 4K video performance on high end games.

This doesn't strike me as particularly dishonest, it strikes me as very clear: They're releasing two models (in addition to the models that third party vendors will release). Their official launch date is going to be supply-constrained, and so they are launching the more expensive model first. The less expensive model will come soon after, along with third party vendor models.

Consider you're talking about the company that went through the "3.5GB" GPU issue a few years ago and this really seems a disproportionate reaction.

Is the more expensive model some how better? I'm pretty sure that's where the problem comes in and what the op is getting at.

 

[Salsa]

saying Nvidia has crappy driver support considering the alternative is pretty silly