Newegg Launches Official & Unofficial AMD Radeon R9 Game Bundles
by Ryan Smith on May 14, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Newegg
- Game Bundles
Kudos to the PC Perspective crew for tracking this one down. It looks like Newegg is running a very unusual set of video game bundles with AMD’s higher-end Radeon cards.
Having apparently launched in parts over the last couple of weeks, Newegg is now bundling multiple video games with many of the Radeon R9 cards the e-tailer carries. A “base” offer involves the recently launched DIRT Rally, Codemasters’ latest off-road rally driving game, which is being offered with most of the R9 cards. Meanwhile the also recently launched Grand Theft Auto V is also being offered as a bundled game in a more limited fashion, being included with many of the R9 290 and 290X cards.
What makes this bundle so unusual however is its simultaneous official and unofficial nature. Officially AMD is running a DIRT Rally bundle – though having never released an announcement about it – and according to the terms & conditions this bundle has been going on as recently as April 27th, DIRT Rally’s launch day. Meanwhile Grand Theft Auto just recently begun showing up at Newegg, and unlike the DIRT bundle, AMD is disavowing all knowledge of this, stating that they are not involved in the GTA bundle.
| Newegg Radeon R9 Game Bundles | |
| Video Card | Bundle |
| Radeon R9 295X2 | DIRT Rally |
| Radeon R9 290 Series | DIRT Rally + Grand Theft Auto V |
| Radeon R9 285 Radeon R9 280 Series Radeon R9 270 Series |
DIRT Rally |
As a result the cards covered by these various bundles are a bit more inconsistent than in official AMD bundles. 7 of the 9 R9 290 cards include DIRT, and only 5 of those 7 include GTA V. For the R9 290X, 15 of the 17 cards include DIRT, and 10 of those 17 cards include GTA V. Consequently while we typically always say to double-check cards for bundles before purchasing, this time we really mean it, as more cards than usual are being excluded.
Overall, although retailer-specific offers are not unprecedented, these days it’s very rare to have retailers run their own video game bundle promotions. Typically such promotions are backed by the manufacturer, if only to take advantage of the buying power of such a large order. So for Newegg to offer their own GTA V bundle is quite a surprise, and if it were not for the fact that Newegg is the only retailer doing this it would be hard to believe, especially given the high-profile nature of GTA V. Meanwhile the availability of the DIRT bundle is similarly odd; along with Newegg it’s available at NCIX, but surprisingly not Amazon or Best Buy. For the moment at least, it looks like it’s just Newegg that gets all the goods.
In any case, given the unofficial nature of these bundles, there isn’t a published end date for either bundle. The AMD DIRT Rally codes are valid until the end of 2015, however we would expect the promotion to end much sooner than that. Consequently very little of this makes any sense, but for prospective Radeon R9 buyers, enjoy it while it lasts.
Update - 5/15/2015: Well that didn't last for very long. As of this morning all of the GTA V bundles are gone, and now only a handful of cards quality for the DIRT bundle; 2 of the R9 290s and 5 of the R9 290Xs. The entire situation gets curiouser and curiouser, and for the time being it looks like the bundles have tapered off almost as quickly as they appeared.
Source: PC Perspective
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chizow - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
It's actually quite different, AMD rebadged 8000 series some 9 months before rebadging again to R# series designations. In this case, we are talking only a few months.It is certainly possible AMD does this, but I doubt they will given so many parts will be shared. I mean jumping another 100 series in a few months would be a lot of rebadging even for AMD. Keep in mind, there is a cost to rebadging, I mean look at the fire sale and burn off going on now for AMD 200 series. It is cheaper for them to sell those cards at say, $30-50 less than to recall them from the channel and physically re-box/re-badge them as new. We saw the same exact thing with the 7950B and 7970GE.
chizow - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Uh, its called a hypothetical situation genius. I am asking you HYPOTHETICALLY if you think anyone would buy Rebadgeon OEM 300 series if AMD launched the 400 series next month. You obviously don't think that's going to happen either, which leaves us with a high likelihood that they launch the desktop line as 300 series. So again, this leaves them in another difficult situation because the rebadged parts relative to their SKU designation (x70 Pitcairn, x80 Tonga etc) are sucky/underwhelming, which leaves very low expectations for the only part # that is left over, the x90 part.So, final question is, do you think AMD is going to launch an x90 part that is MUCH faster than the rest of the rebadged parts? Or do you think AMD is going to push all those parts down ANOTHER SKU and leave them as 300 series, and thus, still confuse the market?
Basically they are damned if they do, damned if they don't, any non-retard understands this because their designations and ASICs for the OEM line suck, simply put.
silverblue - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
NVIDIA provided the following Fermi parts in the 700 series:GeForce GT 730 (DDR3, 128-bit)
GeForce 705M
GeForce 710M
GeForce GT 720M
The first and fourth are particularly interesting. The GT 730 comes in two Kepler flavours (DDR3, 64-bit and GDDR5), whereas the GT 720M also comes as Kepler. To the best of my knowledge - and I'm happy to be proven wrong - AMD haven't released two cards with the same model number on different architectures.
The 800M and 820M are also Fermi, but the 800M series features THREE architectures. What's more, throughout the examples above, there are 40nm and 28nm flavours.
I suppose you'll turn this into something positive?
chizow - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Cool yeah as already covered, those are the lowest of the low-end as rebrands, old arch, not top to bottom like AMD's rebrands. Not a single new chip in either the OEM or mobile line-up. Indeed, their entire mobile line-up is GCN 1.0!!!Obviously that is where comparisons end with Nvidia's mobile line-up, and there is no distinction at all with their OEM desktop line-up (it is one and the same with reference cooler), as they may introduce a few custom SKUs but they will be based on the latest top tier chips.
How you would try to align Nvidia's situation with AMD's 8000 series and current rebranding is simply laughable and shows to what level AMD fanboys will try and defend their behavior. And for what? Are you happy with the news every single part announced so far is a rebrand?
silverblue - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Not at all, but as already pointed out, the 8000 series was an OEM line. I'd prefer a single line, but still.As for the 300 series, it's looking increasingly clear that the vast majority of the 300 series, aside of the top and bottom parts, will be rebrands. It's not ideal for anybody and I wish AMD would develop a completely fresh series like with the HD 4xxx desktop series but while their finances are this bad, it's hardly likely. However, as NVIDIA have mountains of cash, I'm not sure why they aren't releasing a completely new series, either.
The situation with the GT 730 was amusing. Why should a potential buyer need to check which architecture they're buying? It's bad enough having different memory types, and both companies are as bad as each other here.
You have already touched upon why rebrands are necessary, but Rebadgeon? In any case, I don't think you'll find many AMD "fanboys" championing the 8000 series.
chizow - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Rebadging at the low-end is honestly quite simple, there's no need for anything faster because you can only slice the pie so many times before you are left with virtually no difference, and certainly, nothing worth building a new ASIC for. Look at it like the GeForce MX of the mobile era, you just need to satisfy the demand for something better than IGPU and you basically give it away at $40 added cost at retail.dragonsqrrl - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Wow, you keep trying to draw some sort of equivalency between the 960m/950m and AMD's current rebadging streak. Do you ever go back to your old comments? I can recall at least 3 separate times when you were thoroughly shut down on this issue.chizow - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
They don't expect anyone to remember from post to post, they are just posting for dim-wits who aren't going to know any better or think critically on their own. Any non-idiot can see there is really no comparison between the rebrands on the low-end that both parties will necessarily partake in compared to the full top to bottom rebrands AMD has done twice now with virtually identical parts (8000 and now 300 series).silverblue - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
We don't have official confirmation of the entire 300 series yet, however it's most likely the case that the majority of the stack will be rebadges. At the very least, I'd like to see an end to the GCN1.0 parts, but that's unlikely to happen this time around.I wouldn't keep harping on about the 8000 series. It's not as if you could go into a shop and buy one to put into your PC. Regardless, the series should never have existed.
Crunchy005 - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Like I said chizow is being his usual biased Prejudice self. I feel it carries over to how he deals with people as well.*chizows childish voice I have made up* I don't know you so therefore your an AMD fanboy and you disagreed one one tiny point. AMD FANBOI stop spreading lies!