3060TI MSRP is $399 3070 MSRP is $499 So if an AIB wants a premium for a 3060TI quintuple slot quad fan deluxe limited edition then they can suck a rose coloured pickle, because people will be better off just buying a reference 3070 instead. Reserve them premium prices for premium versions of actual high end products like a Kingpin 3090, not the GPU equivalent of shovelware is what I'm saying.
Shouldn't happen with those either. The AIBs get the GPU, Ram, card design and target price in a bundle form Nvidia, if they can't asset flip the former three for the latter they are either incompetent and need to get the f*** out of the industry or need to negotiate a better price with Nvidia. But it ain't our problem and no one is going to cry if Nvidia makes slightly smaller record breaking profits.
I very much doubt that board partners get a package deal that includes absolutely everything one needs to release a highly complex piece of electronics equipment to market, including PCB designs, testing & certification, etc. Even if they did get a full package they still have to pay for parts and assembly, and that isn't cheap for pretty much any component in your PC. Board partners would literally lose money, why would they bother being a GPU partner on the first place? The MSRPs kicking around out there have only ever been applicable Founders Edition cards.
They've managed to make money from it just fine for over a decade before the current shortages made MSRP priced GPUs extinct.
You know that the M in MSRP stands for Manufacturer, right? Nvidia can't set an MSRP for an MSI graphics card because Nvidia don't manufacture MSI graphics cards. Nvidia manufacture Nvidia graphics cards, and those are the MSRPs that Nvidia gets to set. No one is saying that the market isn't **** or that current pricing is fair, but that's got nothing to do with who gets to set the MSRP for products.
AIBs selling their cards at the same price as Nvidia / AMD MSRP isn't some revolutionary new idea.... they've done it for years before. And to get back to the original point that brought the whole thing up, if an AIB adds any premium to the price of a low end card then those premium versions look really f**king bad compared to the basic versions of the next higher GPU. That has also been true for years.
OK, but that's a value judgement, and moreover it's your value judgement. Just because you don't think that they add don't add any value or look aesthetically awful is completely irrelevant as to the price that a manufacturer can charge. This was a point that you originally brought up: Board partner cards are not simply an asset flip, it doesn't work like that. There could be any number of ways a board partner could add value, and even if they don't they still have to design, test, and build a highly complex piece of electronics. These things cost money. Whether or not they are worth the additional cost over a competitor's product is a value judgement that distributors, system integrators, customers, etc, have to make. The difference right now is extraordinary market conditions. Hardly anyone can get these things, and people are willing to pay a significant premium to get their hands on them. Retailers, distributors, and manufacturers effectively have free reign to push the prices as hard as the market will bear - right now the market will bear a lot. This is the real issue with pricing right now, and it's almost impossible to make value judgements in this market because for everything except Nvidia FE cards, that value is impossible to determine when prices are inflated so much.
This ignored a massive amount of additional costs. When I do electronics the part costs and design are only a tiny part of the costs. Like less than 30%. This of it like this; you're a carpenter who makes chairs. There are two lumber yards in the world supplying wood, and one has had supply and quality issues so effectively there's only one. The one is renown for being very bullish in the market. You but wood for a chair, but the lumber yard makes an announcement that all chairs cost a price they set. You have a higher cost of rent/tax rates/you do more R&D/you prefer a higher quality of product/dozens of other reasons so you have to charge more. People have a go at you for not charging the price the lumber yard sets... As someone who does electronics we've never had a company tell us what price we should sell our products for. We set our prices according to what it costs us, our running costs and what amount our shareholders demand.
also as an FYI its illegal for a company to tell you what to set your prices at. Its anti-competitive and against the law. the MSRP is the "suggested price". what a company does and how they charge is completely up to them.. In todays market most have significantly upped their margins as supply is extremely tight and demand is also stupidly high due to crypto/other industries needing chips. as annoyed as everyone is and myself included this is normal capitalism at work.
Still in stock 42 mins later.... must resist the urge! My 3070 has just about paid itself off now after 5 months of mining with NiceHash
adds to basket for me can't seem to select paypal payment though which is annoying as I'd rather pay in 4, just has the option of scans awful finance.
hmmmm tempting, guy down my street is selling a 48 lg oled, if only the mrs wasnt home all day this summer