While I agree the 5500 series prices seem a bit high, one must look from a business perspective. A business is not a charity, they're in business to turn a profit. There's SO MUCH (well before the holiday 'sales' anyways) inventory of the older-model cards around*, jamming up inventory channels. Buy an older less efficient card if you wish to take the path to save money, or pay a bit more for a newer card with longer driver support - AMD or Nvidia. *570, 580, 590 and such, not so much Vega 56/64 cards as most of those were blown out quick at 200~250 during late-summer sales. There's even a few 400 series cards milling about yet here and there, though it's mostly limited to stragglers with high prices no one wants to pay. So surely, from a business perspective, just like a car lot when new models hit the showroom floor, you can buy last year's model at deep discount or you can get the current model for MSRP or whatever the retail channel wants to charge you. I wanted an AMD 5700 / 5700 XT card but the tools nvidia puts out for game design and graphics work really sold me, so I ended up with a run of the mill EVGA 2070 Super Black. Paid too much, but that's what happens when your old RX 480 scrambles the desktop at boot-up and you've got loads of work to do. The folks I do work with on the PC here all use Nvidia, so it's important that I design for the same platform they run on to avoid surprise driver-related bugs that don't show when testing here. Had I been on a budget or 'Just average-Joe Gamer', the 5700 / 5700XT is a great powerful pair of cards that pack a mean punch and plenty of VRAM for 1080p game-play at smooth frame-rate, and the RX 570 8gb models that are left are a steal of a deal for those who have to just get what they can. TL:DR So never-the-less, either get an older card at discount and feel like you've got a super deal, and replace it in a year or two as funding allows; or grab the newer one and keep it a bit longer (as it'll have longer driver support), it all works out close in the end anyways. 5500-series prices will come down when supply outweighs demand for the then-current price, and the older models clear out, just give it some time (2~3 months, max?). Someone sure needs to fill the <300 range up with more cards - as there's plenty of choices but they all start at 289.99$ USD price and up, anything else is not for the modern 1080p or 1440p gamer unless on strict budget. I wish everyone a happy holiday. I must go off this thing to finish cleaning up the remains of the ornaments the cats keep smashing. CRA-SMASH!!! Aw look kitty made a Chris Mess of the ornaments. Less to put away later though, heh heh.