I mean, I get what you're saying, it's just that I don't think you can really blame NVIDIA or AMD for this dynamic. They aren't obligated in any way to disclose what they're working on or when it's released, and I don't think anyone would argue as such. Companies are free to sell what they have for as much as they want, and share information as they choose, so long as it's honest. The same goes for people.
Consequently, if it's anyone's "fault" that someone bought a 970 or 980 (or even a Titan X) a few weeks ago, well, the only other entity in that exchange is the buyer. The buyer made the choice to purchase something, and it's the buyer's responsibility to inform their own purchases. If they didn't know an update was coming even after leaks and rumors and everything - all of which a quick Google search would have shown - then that's on them. Just as if I buy a crappy monitor because I didn't spend five minutes reading professional reviews, then that's on me, as well. The information was freely and readily available, but the buyer didn't perform even basic due diligence before spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
The other thing, too, is that it isn't as if buying a card just before a refresh is bad in every way, either - if those folks bought those cards three months ago, then hey, they would have had an upgraded experience for months now. That isn't worth nothing! Even if it isn't as ideal as waiting in the long run, they couldn't even argue that they didn't get something they otherwise wouldn't have. So even if I feel bad for them that they didn't make the best purchasing decision they could, I'm not going to feel like they were cheated, or place the responsibility for that on anyone else.
Oh, for sure. I'm sure I'll get a lot of heat for saying this, but AMD's current lineup is one of the most compromised in recent memory - it's a hodgepodge of re-branded old cards and "flagships" that have poorly chosen compromises, from 4GB of VRAM to essentially mandatory use of AIO's. And I'd bet that most folks at AMD would agree with that, too, behind closed doors, because they've been saying all along that the future is Polaris and HBM2 and 14nm and everything. The problem is, people are buying cards right now, and presently on the AMD side we're in the ugly transitional period.
AMD has paid dearly for that - 3 out of 4 graphics cards sold today are NVIDIA. That's not because 75% of the market is in the tank for NVIDIA. That's because NVIDIA's products are better for most people currently.
Or they wanted to spread out releases across their multi-year timeline (desirable given how hard generational leaps are becoming), thought they'd have more time to respond to NVIDIA, and realized that they didn't. But even then, they're having to ramp up production in half the time, compared to a few days ago. Assuming that this rumor is true, AMD's got their work cut out for them.
