ATi vs. NV --- Availability, Plenty of X1900's, very few 7900's

[fallguy]

To keep in trend with this sites way of doing things, Ill use newegg as the site to compare. As it is what they use in evaluations to show stock and pricing.

Currently right now, newegg has ten 7900GTX's, and ten 7900GT's listed. Out of those ten GTX's, just one/b] is in stock. Out of the ten 7900GT's, zero are in stock.

On the flip side, newegg has sixteen X1900XTX's (three refurbished) listed, all of them are in stock. They have fifteen X1900XT's (three refurbished) listed, all but one are in stock. They have thirteen (one refurbished) X1800XT 256MB&512MB's listed, and again all but one are in stock.

So, out of twenty 7900 cards, there is one in stock at newegg. Then out of fourty four X1800/X1900 cards in stock, fourty two are in stock. ATi has gotten a bad rep for lack of availability, it sure seems like NV has not only caught up to that, but passed it. With the 7800GTX 512MB launch, and now the 7900 launch, NV simply has not had enough cards to sell. ATi got thrashed for this on certain sites, NV appears to get a free pass, for whatever reason.

Again, this is only from newegg. Im sure other e-store have some in stock as well. Also, availabilty changes very fast, so later today, it may be a slightly different story. This is how it is right now.NV needs to get on the ball, and get some cards out quickly. The people who suffer are the consumers.

 

[jcll2002]

yeah, Im waiting for the 7900gt toget in stock.

 

[InorganicMatter]

It's not that. Have you been watching it over the weeks? I have, as soon as some get in stock they are sold out in a few hours. It's not that nVidia is pulling a "Phantom Edition special," it's just that the demand for these cards is so high. That's a good thing, it's a very popular card. It's why nVidia will forever be ahead of ATI.

 

[fallguy]

It's not that. Have you been watching it over the weeks? I have, as soon as some get in stock they are sold out in a few hours. It's not that nVidia is pulling a "Phantom Edition special," it's just that the demand for these cards is so high. That's a good thing, it's a very popular card. It's why nVidia will forever be ahead of ATI.

When the 7800GT/GTX was launched, they sold a lot of cards as well. And they never went out of stock. And the price dropped a lot within the first month. So your argument about people buying only NV cards, and not ATi cards, doesnt work. Or else it would have been the same then. I dont have the hard numbers, I doubt anyone but NV does, I would imagine there are far less 7900's sold at this point (and made) than the 7800 series at the same time frame.

 

[pxc]

I bet ATI wishes they could sell out the X1900s like nvidia is doing with 7900s.

 

[Mav451]

Well, at least I have those 7900GT owners to thank for affordable, used 7800GTs. Thanks guys =D.

 

[cyks]

The people who suffer are the consumers.

LOL... suffer? It just seems that the 7900s are in high demand. As in, lots of customers have already cleaned the majority of the stock. lol... suffer....

 

[BBA]

To keep in trend with this sites way of doing things, Ill use newegg as the site to compare. As it is what they use in evaluations to show stock and pricing.

Currently right now, newegg has ten 7900GTX's, and ten 7900GT's listed. Out of those ten GTX's, just one/b] is in stock. Out of the ten 7900GT's, zero are in stock.

On the flip side, newegg has sixteen X1900XTX's (three refurbished) listed, all of them are in stock. They have fifteen X1900XT's (three refurbished) listed, all but one are in stock. They have thirteen (one refurbished) X1800XT 256MB&512MB's listed, and again all but one are in stock.

So, out of twenty 7900 cards, there is one in stock at newegg. Then out of fourty four X1800/X1900 cards in stock, fourty two are in stock. ATi has gotten a bad rep for lack of availability, it sure seems like NV has not only caught up to that, but passed it. With the 7800GTX 512MB launch, and now the 7900 launch, NV simply has not had enough cards to sell. ATi got thrashed for this on certain sites, NV appears to get a free pass, for whatever reason.

Again, this is only from newegg. Im sure other e-store have some in stock as well. Also, availabilty changes very fast, so later today, it may be a slightly different story. This is how it is right now.NV needs to get on the ball, and get some cards out quickly. The people who suffer are the consumers.

The only reason I have an X1900XTX is because nvidia could not produce enough GTX 512's to fill my order.

The reasons I will not switch to nvidia is the 7900 is not really any better than the X1900XTX in performance, has less IQ and as you pointed out...is not easy to get because of inadequate supply.

 

[fallguy]

I bet ATI wishes they could sell out the X1900s like nvidia is doing with 7900s.

I guess NV wished they could have sold out of the 6800U, like ATi did with the X1800XT/PE?

LOL... suffer? It just seems that the 7900s are in high demand. As in, lots of customers have already cleaned the majority of the stock. lol... suffer....

Yes, suffer. Because when you have limited choice, you dont always get what you want. And prices are higher, because of limited supply. Yes, consumers suffer.

I never said they were not in high demand, both 7900's are good cards. So where the 7800's, and as I said, they never went out of stock like this, and they dropped in price within a few weeks. Which is just the opposite of the 7900 series.

These responses are pretty typical of what I expected however. NV can do no wrong to some people. If they have cards available, its ok. If they dont, thats ok too.

 

[pxc]

I guess NV wished they could have sold out of the 6800U, like ATi did with the X1800XT/PE?

You mean X800XT Phantom Edition (or Press Edition), the cards that were not available anywhere for months? The card that I waited 4 months for before cancelling when the ETA was another 2 months? LOL

Even ATI admitted availability was a total failure.

 

[Obi_Kwiet]

Get an X1800XT then. You can find those for 300$.

 

[killerD]

The 7900GT is probably going like hotcakes, but I highly doubt the 7900GTX is selling any better than the 1900XT line, like the 7800GTX 512 - they're just getting poor yields. Logic would say the only people buying the 7900GTX over the 1900XTX are SLI users who dont want the hassle of switching MB's.

 

[Mrwang]

This site in particular trashed ATI for its poor availability with the X800XT PE. And yet Kyle himself defended Nvidia and blamed poor availability with the 7800 512GTX on Chinese New Year. I went back and looked for his post but amazingly it was deleted.

Both are great cards, I give a small edge to the XX or whatever they call it.

 

[Chris_B]

Nvidia seem to be having supply problems as well as a lot of cards that seem to be coming preoverclocked and are crapping out at those clock speeds either artifacting or locking the machine up.

 

[texuspete00]

The 7900GT is probably going like hotcakes, but I highly doubt the 7900GTX is selling any better than the 1900XT line, like the 7800GTX 512 - they're just getting poor yields. Logic would say the only people buying the 7900GTX over the 1900XTX are SLI users who dont want the hassle of switching MB's.

Hey that's me. Soon as Nvidia and Dell align orbits I will be putting in two Nv cards to avoid switcing mobos. Get rid of the x1900XT. Back to shimmy ville. Oh well, my boards got like condensation proofing and crap, really not worth the hassle for me to go crossfire. So hurry up Nv!

I do think Nv probably sells more GTX's than ATi XTX. Nv just plain seems to be a more popular company in general for gaming. There have been a number of cards that have just been very sucessful gaming cards. 6600's for instance. 52% of steam users are Nv compared to 41%. 5000+ people are using SLI, yes it was out longer, but 93 Crossfire.

http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html

Though I agree, the x1900 is more appealing for single card use. Nvidia bias isn't that weird I guess. A lot more people had TNT2's than Rage3d's I figure. Wasn't until the 9700's and later that they became like, you know, "the big two" competitors.

 

[HeavyH20]

NVIDIA sells less video chipsets than ATI (22% versus 23% market share), but. is currently selling more high end cards (discrete market share) than ATI. When most people buy the ATI card, they buy one. With the NVIDIA 7900GTX, more than few are going SLI right out of the gate.

And, it is not fair to compare the 7800 GTX 512 for supply. It was never a production card, it was simply a limited release.

But, just got rid of my X1900XTX and am sticking with the 7900 GTX.

 

[gostriker]

Is pretty obvious to all that ati is on a bit of a roll and nvidia is having some problems.

 

[Lord_Exodia]

Is pretty obvious to all that ati is on a bit of a roll and nvidia is having some problems.

Not really, nvidia is outselling ati dramatically. That's why they can't keep the cards in stock, it's not yeild problems. Or anything of the sort. It could be because of SLi, the fan problems on XTX temp problems etc. Not many people are [H]ard enough to fix those type of issues and just plug the card in and go. Those people woudl be wise to choose a 7900GTX over a X1900XTX card. Besides that the 2 cards are neck and neck when it comes to performance. Also for their profits and sales you can check their stock reports. both releast new reports NV is doing much better

 

[^eMpTy^]

To keep in trend with this sites way of doing things, Ill use newegg as the site to compare. As it is what they use in evaluations to show stock and pricing.

Currently right now, newegg has ten 7900GTX's, and ten 7900GT's listed. Out of those ten GTX's, just one/b] is in stock. Out of the ten 7900GT's, zero are in stock.

On the flip side, newegg has sixteen X1900XTX's (three refurbished) listed, all of them are in stock. They have fifteen X1900XT's (three refurbished) listed, all but one are in stock. They have thirteen (one refurbished) X1800XT 256MB&512MB's listed, and again all but one are in stock.

So, out of twenty 7900 cards, there is one in stock at newegg. Then out of fourty four X1800/X1900 cards in stock, fourty two are in stock. ATi has gotten a bad rep for lack of availability, it sure seems like NV has not only caught up to that, but passed it. With the 7800GTX 512MB launch, and now the 7900 launch, NV simply has not had enough cards to sell. ATi got thrashed for this on certain sites, NV appears to get a free pass, for whatever reason.

Again, this is only from newegg. Im sure other e-store have some in stock as well. Also, availabilty changes very fast, so later today, it may be a slightly different story. This is how it is right now.NV needs to get on the ball, and get some cards out quickly. The people who suffer are the consumers.

I love your one man crusade to trash talk nvidia, but the reality of the situation isn't as sinister as you make it out to be.

The X1900s have been out longer, so everyone that wanted one got one, and everyone that was waiting for the new nvidia cards is now buying them all up. X1900 availability was sketchy for the first few months too. nVidia is ramping up production, cards are appearing in stock weekly, it's only a matter of time before demand slows and e-tailers start to build up stock levels...

If you want to see an explanation of why the stock is low, start a poll to see how many people own x1800s and x1900s vs the 7900GT.

 

[BaDave]

There are plenty of 1900xt and 1800xt cards on neweggs referb. section .Whats that tell ya ?

 

[teenk]

There are plenty of 1900xt and 1800xt cards on neweggs referb. section .Whats that tell ya ?

That the 7900 series haven't been out that long?

 

[forcefed]

I definetly noticed this too, but without knowing all the facts you can argue all night long.
Is the demand so high that nvidia cant keep up, or are the yields so low that they cant make enough.
Same goes for ati, is no one buying their x1800/1900's or are they making more then enough to supply everybody.

 

[krameriffic]

Is pretty obvious to all that ati is on a bit of a roll and nvidia is having some problems.

Nvidia was having problems during the GeForce 5XXX era. Beginning with the 6XXX, NV dominated the market, while ATI fell behind. The 7XXX series and X1800/X1900 series are in currently on a very similar level in terms of performance and price. The next gen will, assuming the trend continues, show ATI on top once more.

 

[chinesepiratefood]

X1900 series has had a while for the high demand to settle

Newegg top 5 sellers (today)


* XFX Geforce 6800 XTreme PVT42EUDE3 Video Card - Retail

$134.00
* PNY Geforce 6200 VCG62128APB Video Card - Retail

$49.99
* eVGA Geforce 7600GT 256-P2-N553-AX Video Card - Retail

$189.00
* eVGA Geforce 7800GS 256-A8-N507 Video Card - Retail

$299.00
* eVGA Geforce FX5500 256-A8-N313-LX Video Card - Retail

$54.00

 

[MFZ]

If the 7900 series were being mass produced, availability would be high just as it was with the 7800 series. In fact 7900 stock should theoretically be even higher since it's made on a smaller die - well theoretically anyway. Reality is showing quite the opposite, the 7900 series has been sparsely available since release with a few trickling here and there to retailers which suggests that the production of these cards may not be as great as nV fans would like us to believe. Furthermore, XT/XTX cards now cost less than their nVidia counterparts, have greater availability and there are people buyinng them everyday without stock issues despite the X1900 cards having a bigger die and production cost. As fallguy said, the consumers that have been waiting on nVidia are the big losers here.

 

[pxc]

Reality is showing quite the opposite, the 7900 series has been sparsely available since release with a few trickling here and there to retailers

What reality do you live in? The cards were WIDELY available on release and are still available now. That's called a hard launch, if the concept is unfamiliar to you.

It's been out less than 3.5 weeks and many stores are already getting subsequent shipments.

 

[Maximos]

It's why nVidia will forever be ahead of ATI.

Well well well...looks like a nVidia !!!!!! is in town

nVidia did the hard launch of the 7900 series perfectly. That, coupled with the fact that they have some real muscle, made people eager to buy them...ATI's parts are a couple months older, and they tend to run hotter and louder. People always want newer hardware, so that probably played a role in it as well.

 

[BBA]

X1900 series has had a while for the high demand to settle

Except they never once went out of stock, even when they were in demand.

 

[Chris_B]

Except they never once went out of stock, even when they were in demand.

Overclockers uk has always had stock of the x1900 series, they've been out of the 7900gtx's for a while, only today did the bfg and one other version i think show as being in stock. According to gibbo on the forum (stock purchaser) xfx only send like 10 cards a day out to them of the 700mhz clocked variety of the gtx's. Plenty of threads on those overclocked cards locking up and artifacting as well.

 

[HeavyH20]

The X1900XT and XTX never had that high of demand. The 7900 GTX is selling faster with more demand than the X1900 for a few reasons.

1. When the X1900XT(X) was released, the 7900 GTX was on the horizon. A lot of people deferred any decision to buy until the NVIDIA spec was known.

2. The X1800 was just released, and the dedicated ATI user base went with this card since it did as well as the 7800 GTX. Also, some people were unsure about the X1900 since the specs were not that different than the X1800 other than the shaders.

3. The X1900XT(X) was not much faster than the already released, albeit hard to get, 7800 GTX 512. Except, of course, in any SM 3.0 game with AA and AF turned up.

4. NVIDIA chipset motherboards are more popular and people usually like to keep SLI as a possible upgrade path.

5. Moving to a Crossfire board adds $200 to any Crossfire costs. So, the ATI card really needs to be $100 less each to compete at par.

6. SLI is a more accepted dual card solution than Crossfire.

So, here we are with NVIDIA selling the 7900 GTX like hot cakes and the X1900 series cards are collecting dust on etailers shelves. So, if you are looking for a high end bargain, single card solution, the X1900XT will fit the bill nicely.

 

[MFZ]

What reality do you live in? The cards were WIDELY available on release and are still available now. That's called a hard launch, if the concept is unfamiliar to you.

It's been out less than 3.5 weeks and many stores are already getting subsequent shipments.

Look at the OP's post and then look at the prices for 7900 GT/GTX cards, the availability has gone down while the price has gone up. Why is it that the 7800 series, which was uncontested at the time, never ran out of stock yet the 7900 keeps running out despite being on a smaller die? nV fans claim it's selling out very quickly and while that may be true simply because the numbers of 7900 cards is so small, it doesn't prove that the cards are selling as well as you'd like us to believe. Unless you or any other nV fan can provide us with solid sales figures (burden of proof) then the logical course of action is to assume there are supply problems and that is the reason behind there not being more 7900s out there for cheaper prices than their X1900 counterparts.

 

[kubebot]

I hope to see ATi's next cards be cooler,quieter,cheaper,widely available & consume less power. Competition is good.

 

[MFZ]

I hope to see ATi's next cards be cooler,quieter,cheaper,widely available & consume less power. Competition is good.

Power consumption isn't a problem for anyone buying a high end card or at least it shouldn't be anyway. Heat output isn't a factor either since it's blown outside the case with the X1900 hsf and as for price and availability, it is more available than nVidia's 7900 cards and costs less.

 

[l337x3r1cx]

Power consumption isn't a problem for anyone buying a high end card or at least it shouldn't be anyway. Heat output isn't a factor either since it's blown outside the case with the X1900 hsf and as for price and availability, it is more available than nVidia's 7900 cards and costs less.

and also if you play your games with that handy dandy thing called sound you cant hear it anyways.

 

[kubebot]

Power consumption isn't a problem for anyone buying a high end card or at least it shouldn't be anyway. Heat output isn't a factor either since it's blown outside the case with the X1900 hsf and as for price and availability, it is more available than nVidia's 7900 cards and costs less.

Less power consumption might result in better OC. More heat typically means higher RPM noisey fan, plus less OC. I've considered getting a 1900XT & slapping on an after market cooler, but worried about what I've heard of artificating from the heat at low rpms. I built my gaming PC with quiet,budget, & decent peformance so thats were my concerns lie .

 

[kubebot]

and also if you play your games with that handy dandy thing called sound you cant hear it anyways.

Play F.E.A.R. during a quiet moment(when its suposed to be scary). It works better without loud fans in the background. I mostly game with headphones on & I used to still hear my old PC in the background. Now I dont know what Im going to do to about my loud ass 360 }8^P

 

[^eMpTy^]

and also if you play your games with that handy dandy thing called sound you cant hear it anyways.

I've heard an x1900 first hand, and it's annoying, even in my noisy office...as for the heat, sure it blows it outside the case, but the card still radiates a LOT of heat inside the case...and that wasn't even very heavily loaded.

Heat and noise concerns are definitely real issues with these cards.

 

[Stellar]

The 7900 was a fab change. When you have a fab change, you are typically bound to have troubles with yield.

The Superclocked cards, for example, are plagued with stability issues. The yield is just not there yet.

 

[fallguy]

I love your one man crusade to trash talk nvidia, but the reality of the situation isn't as sinister as you make it out to be.

Thats pretty hypocritical coming from you. With all of your topics you've made against ATi. Im not making it out to be anything. Im posting facts. newegg has just one, out of twenty GT/GTX's in stock. I dont think it will stay like this much longer, rumor is large shipments starting again mid April.

This site in particular trashed ATI for its poor availability with the X800XT PE. And yet Kyle himself defended Nvidia and blamed poor availability with the 7800 512GTX on Chinese New Year. I went back and looked for his post but amazingly it was deleted.

Yep, ATi got a good thrashing over availablity problems. Yet NV gets a free pass.

The 7900 was a fab change. When you have a fab change, you are typically bound to have troubles with yield.

The Superclocked cards, for example, are plagued with stability issues. The yield is just not there yet.

This is my opinion as well. I dont expect it to be like this forever, but they are having problems supplying enough GPU's, no doubt about that.

As I said before, the 7800GT/GTX series was never sold out. And already had a huge price drop in the same time frame since its release. In stark contrast, the 7900GT/GTX isnt nearly as easy to find, and prices went up, due to lack of cards.

The 7800 series didnt have any competition, due to ATi's X1800's being late. So people basically had one brand to choose from, NV. I was one such person who bought a 7800GTX, actually two. Now there is an alternative, the X18/900's. So to me, it sure looks like there was more 7800 series made and sold in the first few weeks, than the 7900's. Because it was a much larger step up from the 6800U, to the 7800GTX, than from the 7800GTX to the 7900GTX. And because as I said, there was no alternative competition. Once again, the 7800 series wasnt out of stock like this, and the price dropped. What does that tell me? That NV hasnt made nearly as many 7900 series, as they did the 7800 series. Its just my opinion, but I think if we had the numbers, they would agree with me. Hopefully NV will get these cards out, because its the consumers who suffer the most.

 

[InorganicMatter]

Yep, ATi got a good thrashing over availablity problems. Yet NV gets a free pass.

ATI wasn't trashed over availability problems. Kyle clearly said:

ATI, HardOCP is not your personal PR bitch, so don't treat us like one again. You're on thin ice and you should be ashamed of your actions this year. We at HardOCP don't want to be a mouthpiece for vaporware in order to keep your stock price up. So from now on, if it is not the real deal, just keep it to yourself.

He wasn't trashing them over availability, he was trashing them over the fact that they repeatedly sent him stuff to review and it was obvious that it would never hit mainstream. It wasn't a review ATI wanted, it was free advertising they wanted; it pissed Kyle off and quite frankly it would have pissed me off too. nVidia, on the other hand, admitted there were GTX/512 availability problems; did you ever see them trying to get a "free ride" on marketing by releasing a "Phantom Edition" so they could be on the front page for a day? I'll answer for you: NO!

The 7900 was a fab change. When you have a fab change, you are typically bound to have troubles with yield.

Yep, remember the X800XT (not even the Phantom Edition, just the regular one)? It took a few months just to see decent availability on those, and when you did see them the prices were gouged and they sold out almost immediately.