14 DAY TRIAL // A pretty common sense rule says that as soon as one or more manufacturers compete over a market segment prices will go down, but it seems this isn't always the case as AMD's recently launched Radeon HD 6850 and HD 6870 graphics cards seem to prove, a price check run across North America showing us these have actually gained a few bucks over AMD's suggested retail pricing.
This news comes to us thanks to The Tech Report website which conducted a price comparison across three online stores in the US (Newegg, TigerDirect, and Amazon) and one in Canada (NCIX) and came up with some pretty interesting conclusions.
Only available models were taken into consideration, Tech Report also choosing not to factor mail-in rebates into the equation.
After a few calculations were performed, it seems like Radeon's HD 6850 availability looks pretty spotty across the US, none of the online stores taken into consideration carrying more than four HD 6850 models, a single card being retailed at the at the official launch price, the HIS H685F1GD.
Furthermore, the average price asked for the HD 6850 was $199.99, $20 more compared to AMD's suggested $179, Amazon charging as much as $224 for the Diamond 6850PE51G.
In Canada, availability was a lot batter, NCIX carrying seven HD 6850 models, although the average price was still greater than AMD's suggested one, coming in at $198.93 Canadian (about $197.2 US).
Moving over to the HD 6870, that has a suggested retail price of $239, availability seems to be a lot better, a wide range of graphics cards being available through the e-tailers mentioned, although the average price is still $20 over AMD's suggested one, coming in at $259.99.
End of it all, it really seems that HD 6850 and HD 6970 prices have seen a slight increase over the recommended pricing, although if you perform a thorough search you will surely be able to find a Barts model that sticks to AMD's pricing policy.
Also, you must note this isn't AMD's or their board partners fault since retailers can pretty much set their own pricing and since these Barts based GPUs are in high demand right now, this comes as a pretty easy way of making an extra buck.
So, if you plan on going for a HD 6870 or HD 6850 right now, I suggest you wait a few weeks more since prices are bound to go down sooner or later or, at least, go through a thorough price search.