GTX470s selling out in under 5 minutes

Accelerated Computing CUDA CUDA Programming and Performance
1

On the Fermi “soft launch” day, I activated the “auto-notify” feature of all the GTX470s for sale on Newegg. The first notification came at 5:36 p.m. EDT last Thursday for a reference EVGA model, but my 10 minute response was too slow and they were already sold-out. The second notification came at 6:28 p.m. last Friday for a factory-overclocked EVGA. I responded immediately and got the card. Today at 4:39 p.m., I received a notification for a reference Asus model. For fun, I clicked on the link and refreshed the screen a few times. After about 2 minutes, the status switched to “Out of Stock”. It looks like the demand will be outstripping the supply for a little while yet.

2

So then why aren’t prices following supply and demand? Strange world, huh - what’s wrong with this “free market”?

3

Nothing. It’s working fine. If you don’t have the auto-notification pipeline from NewEgg, or some other inside avenue, you can go to eBay, and pay $500+ for a GTX470, or $650+ for a GTX 480 pre-order. And of course, the actual price at any time is not a set number, but a mean with a distribution (possibly Gaussian). Keeping the price lower than it should be creates an artificial shortage, just like raising the price too high would create an artificial glut.

Over time, things will even out, mean prices will stabilize, and the market will weigh the item’s value and set an appropriate price.

Regards,

Martin

4

Maybe availability is increasing. There are two GTX 470 models in stock at Newegg as I post this.

5

I snagged one GTX470 from NewEgg. I am actually hoping to get 3 GTX 480s, but I guess this is good to get as insurance anyway… we have no idea when GTX480s will be available. (And for that matter the 470s could disappear at any time too.)

Overnight shipping, so I should have a new toy on Wednesday. We’ll see!

6

Heh, I got a bunch of auto-notify messages for a couple GTX480s from Newegg. I clicked the links within 60 seconds of getting the mail and the cards are gone.

7

My ETA date has been moved to 4/15. This is particularly slow shipping for Newegg.

8

Wow that’s cheap compared to Sweden, GTX 470 costs like 550$ and GTX 480 700$ here. Maybe I should buy a 470 now while I’m in Houston…