The UK
Following an initial launch announcement on September 23rd, we reviewed AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5850 graphics card on September 30th, concluding that the card sets a new performance and features standard at the £200 price point.
Trouble is, stock was notoriously difficult to find, so we're back again to take a look at availability and pricing some two weeks after AMD first unveiled the product. Let's see if availability has improved, and bear in mind that all the following GPUs are identical. Differentiation is based on price, bundle, and the manufacturer's warranty.
The table shows availability at five leading retailers, and respective pricing is correct as of 11am, Wednesday September 23rd and 3pm, Friday October 9th.
UK Market |
 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| retailer | product | availability (23/09/09) | price (23/09/09) |
availability (09/10/09) |
price (09/10/09) |
| scan.co.uk* | PowerColor Radeon HD 5850 1GB | Pre-order | £229.94 | Pre-order | £203.47 |
| MSI Radeon HD 5850 1GB | Not listed | Not listed | Pre-order | £210.28 | |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB | Pre-order | £229.94 | Pre-order | £210.68 | |
| XFX Radeon HD 5850 1GB | Pre-order | £229.29 | Pre-order | £212.42 | |
| ebuyer.com | XFX Radeon HD 5850 1GB | Not listed | Not listed | Pre-order | £209.99 |
| novatech.co.uk | PowerColor Radeon HD 5850 1GB | Pre-order | £218.49 | In stock | £218.49 |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB | Pre-order | £218.49 | Pre-order | £218.49 | |
| XFX Radeon HD 5850 1GB | Pre-order | £218.49 | Pre-order | £218.49 | |
| dabs.com |
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB | Not listed | Not listed | Pre-order | £198.95 |
| XFX Radeon HD 5850 1GB | Not listed | Not listed | Pre-order | £198.95 | |
| cclonline.com |
HIS Radeon HD 5850 1GB | Not listed | Not listed | In stock | £229.99 |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB | Not listed | Not listed | Pre-order | £208.83 | |
| XFX Radeon HD 5850 1GB | Not listed | Not listed | Pre-order | £228.33 | |
| *As always, UK-based HEXUS.community discussion forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUS forum. | |||||
When AMD first announced the Radeon HD 5850, not a single card was available from any of the above-listed retailers. Fast forward two weeks and all five retailers have cards listed, but stock remains limited. We've found that only two retailers have cards in stock - and both are currently available at seemingly-inflated prices.
What's useful is that a selection of cards are now available to pre-order at under the £200 mark, highlighting the fact that initial launch-day listings were inflated by nearly £30. Once stock becomes readily available, we'd expect the majority of retailers to align pricing at £200 or less.
Stock, albeit available, remains severely limited. Is the situation any better in Europe and the U.S.?
