How does price scaling work??

[mute20]

I was wondering how often the price of videocards drop? This is mostly for low/mid as I will never buy any card over 200$. This applies especially for the next generation of videocards 7000/600 series. Also is it worth it to buy the previous generation of cards when they are phasing them out or just buy the newest low/mid when it comes out?

 

[crewton]

The prices do drop when the new line rolls out but it isn't much I think generally 25%

Buying an old gen vs new gen depends on what they offer. For instance 4000 vs 5000 series I'd go with 5000 since it offered dx11 and eyefinity. However choosing between 5000 and 6000 doesn't offer much difference and most prefer the 5850 to the 6850 for example. The same can be applied to nvidia between gtx 200 and 400 and 400 vs 500.

I'm not sure if 600/7000 will have dx12 by then but I believe they will have PCIe 3.0 by then so buying a new gen would have that benefit.

 

[JDFan]

Really epends on what improvements are in the different generations -- Did the companies merely change generations to make people feel it was new or are there actual differences (ie. smaller die size - lower power consumption - better performance - new features added like DX11 etc.)

If they are simply a refresh of the same tech then the older gen prices will not drop much but if they actually add new tech then the older cards may see some pricing drops since clearing old inventory becomes harder when it is lacking features that the new product offers.

 

[mute20]

Best answer selected by mute20.