Zardon

AMD's new range of video cards is assuredly one of their best ranges in the companies history, with class leading performance, cutting edge technology as well as reduced temperatures compared to the last generation with great overclocking capability.

The only issue is availability - and its a problem that shows no signs of miraculously disappearing either. We reported a while ago that TSMC has been having issues with their 40nm engineering process and this is having a knock on effect for the end user. In the last week I have received over 200 emails from Driverheaven readers asking for my help in locating a 5800 series video card.

A month has passed and it is still difficult to get hold of a HD 5870 and the situation is even worse if you are looking for a HD 5850, which offers substantially better value for money than its bigger brother. Searching on google we find only a handful of stores with either in stock and the prices in Europe are also sky high with a lowest price of around 390 euros for the HD 5870. The 5850 we found on 3 stores and the prices are even worse with over 300 euros being the best deal we could find.

The Juniper series is easier to get with the Hd 5750 being available in quite a few shops and my personal favourite the HD5770 is stocked on most stores with prices around the £130 mark. With my own testing the HD5770 is a MONSTER card in Crossfire, even capable of powering the most demanding engines at the native resolution of a 30 inch panel.

In the USA, it seems just as tricky finding any of the 5800 series with slightly better odds if you want a 5700 series card.

This is a huge issue for AMD because if you think about it, the demand for these cards is so high without any competition right now from their main competitor Nvidia. This is costing AMD a lot of potential money and with the recent stepping down of former CEO Ruiz, their shares are taking a beating - down 18% in recent weeks.

Unfortunately AMD's massive leap on releasing DX11 capable hardware before their competitors has been not as much of a success as it should have been.

Allan Campbell: Heaven Media

BlueMak

The prices for the 5850 in Greece are at about 227 euros, but none is in stock.
For the 5870 I can find (out of stock) at 300. (skroutz.gr)

For more expensive, I found the MSI VGA R5850-PM2D1G at 232 euros here http://www.my-shop.gr/eshop/catalog/...ducts_id=30392


It looks like it is very difficult to find one even here. (supply is rarely a problem here, only price is)

I hope that AMD will find ways to increase supply or else they will lose a great chance.

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Chaos

im glad i got one asap

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Judas

i should see if i can sell my stock....wonder if people would be willing to pay the rediculious cost of shipping

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comp_ali

It didn't arrive here in the first place , was expected any way.

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Chaos

Judas what would a 5850 cost to my door B2X1K4 postal code

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Judas

Sapphire 5850 1GB

about $430 + 10% for GST/PST

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Chaos

k will think on it

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SeraphicSorcerer

So what is shipping to america? LMAO

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Cow_160483

Same here

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Decode!
Muhahahahah!

Chaos

well thats too rich for my blood but thanks Judas

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procupine14

Well I shipped a smartphone to europe last week and it cost me around 23.00 to ship basic post so i suppose you can use that as a scale. UPS is ridiculously expensive. It was somewhere around 80 dollars for just the charger and phone in a tiny box

as you may have guessed my customer went with the USPS route

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Judas

yeah i know it would be expensive...

that's only 10% over my wholesale costs

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Chaos

I found the Sapphire card local for $319 delivered to the door for $368 taxes in

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Chaos

I must say despite the shortages, it seems ATI 5800 series and XFire have finally matured to the point that it's a feasible option

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Zardon

I agree with that, probably for the first time since it was released. I still think they need to work on getting Xfire profiles out the door faster but apart from that its strong.