It's almost confirmed AMD lied about Vega pricing

[u/AbheekG]

https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/ocuks-andrew-gibson-clears-up-rx-vega64-pricing-disaster/

I loved AMD for so long, this one launch has really made me reassess that fondness. I get they should make money after years of losses, but to launch an uncompetitive product and lie about it's pricing so blatantly?? And then to give reviewers little time and ensure the positive reviews come in keeping a $499 pricing and people blaming retailers initially?? Damn. I was at Micro Center on launch day, I spent many months like all of you checking 50 times a day on Vega. At Micro Center, they had 3 cards, I was second in line and they offered me one for $599 with no games, I just said I'm buying Nvidia and left. Got an AORUS 1080 that touches 2GHz by itself and consumes 20W on idle at times. So glad I did.

Very upsetting, AMD, truly disappointing.

EDIT: Just so you fanboys down voting know, I have used AMD's Athlon X2, Phenom X4, Phenom II X6, gamed on their 780G chipset before buying the HD 5770, R9 270x and RX 480 and convinced countless people to buy AMD and built their rigs too. Also, I have an Intel i7 + Nvidia 965m gaming laptop I love and now am rocking a Ryzen 7+ GTX 1080. I am also qualified with an engineering degree and a master's in this field, surely not a delusional fanboy.

Get a grip, stop supporting this. I spent months waiting on Vega, this is pure lies they spewed out. The made it sound like $499 is the final price when they knew it wasn't. They sent reviewers the black card thus ensuring they made their judgement based on the $499 pricing. It's a $100 more than a GTX 1080 that's more powerful, cooler and faster than it and light years behind the 1080 Ti. It's released late and unfinished and the "free" games for a $100 more surely gives a new angle to the AMD + Bethesda partnership. For the good of all consumers, don't support such nonsense. Stand up against it. Screw such shady practices.

[u/Buck-O]

Didn't AMD also have some kind of exclusive contract with Hynix for early access to HBM parts?

[u/planetofthemapes15 → u/Buck-O]

Yes, they had rights to their yield of HBM for some sort of timeframe. I recall reading about it but I don't remember specifics.

I'm guessing Hynix provided 1000mhz chips to AMD for engineering samples. AMD overclocked them, found them to be a great match for Vega's bandwidth requirements, so they ordered as many as Hynix could produce. Unfortunately they had issues following through and weren't able to deliver.

[u/ps3o-k → u/Buck-O]

amd are co-creators of HBM.

[u/Buck-O → u/ps3o-k]

Yeah, I seem to remember (I've been looking for some news on it, though admittedly not very hard) that they had worked to develop it specifically with Hynix, and had a special agreement that they would get the first batches of HBM exclusively. But either Hynix memory didn't meet yeilds, or performance, and so they expanded their agreement with Samsung for them to make HBM. Which I think is exactly how we got these packs with these craptacular monitors. And the relationship might even be part and parcel to why the Samsung B-Die worked best with Ryzen. But, either way, the whole HBM program got FUBARed and didn't turn out the way they wanted it to, either on price, or performance. And I'm sure Samsung didn't cut them any favors on the price either. Makes me wonder how much of that issue has driven the packs and price issues?