Friday, March 7th 2025
AMD Questions Reported/Predicted Elevation of Radeon RX 9070 Series MSRPs
Yesterday's global launch of Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 was a relatively successful affair; day one stock was swiftly snapped up. Naturally, buying conditions were not ideal for every customer. Despite a prominent UK retailer's teasing of plentiful supply (pre-launch), online feedback pointed to apparent limited supplies of RDNA 4 cards across European regions. Fresh reports suggest that anticipated fluid price conditions have caused a larger than expected rush at retail; hence the rapid depletion of opening day stock. As reported yesterday, a handful of PC hardware stores have alluded to forthcoming upward shifts in pricing for the lower-end of an all-board partner-built Radeon RX 9070 series graphics card lineup. VideoCardz has highlighted a disgruntled customer's experience with Ebuyer UK. Bran180s—a Radeon subreddit member—managed to snag a baseline MSRP conformant Sapphire PULSE RX 9070 XT model for the ideal launch price (£569.99, including VAT), but the webstore reneged this transaction.
A screenshot was uploaded to Reddit, alongside a short story: "was on the website ready for the launch of the RX 9070 XT, got one straight away and paid no issues. Ebuyer emailed me today to cancel, and now the price is £150 more." The British e-tailer has issued apologies, following the absorption of online criticism (see relevant screenshot below). The "normal price" of Sapphire's basic Pulse card was eventually adjusted to a mere £664.98, but Ebuyer has de-listed this SKU (at the time of writing). Other UK webshops—Scan, AWD-IT, CCL, Box etc.—have similarly implemented price hikes across low, mid and premium card tiers. Australia's Hardware Unboxed managed to extract an official response from AMD—their social media post quoted Frank Azor. The Team Red exec indicated that his team is ready to intervene: "it is inaccurate that $549/$599 MSRP is launch-only pricing. We expect cards to be available from multiple vendors at $549/$599 (excluding region specific tariffs and/or taxes) based on the work we have done with our AIB partners, and more are coming. At the same time, the AIBs have different premium configurations at higher price points and those will also continue."
Sources:
Radeon Subreddit, HardwareUnboxed Tweet, VideoCardz
A screenshot was uploaded to Reddit, alongside a short story: "was on the website ready for the launch of the RX 9070 XT, got one straight away and paid no issues. Ebuyer emailed me today to cancel, and now the price is £150 more." The British e-tailer has issued apologies, following the absorption of online criticism (see relevant screenshot below). The "normal price" of Sapphire's basic Pulse card was eventually adjusted to a mere £664.98, but Ebuyer has de-listed this SKU (at the time of writing). Other UK webshops—Scan, AWD-IT, CCL, Box etc.—have similarly implemented price hikes across low, mid and premium card tiers. Australia's Hardware Unboxed managed to extract an official response from AMD—their social media post quoted Frank Azor. The Team Red exec indicated that his team is ready to intervene: "it is inaccurate that $549/$599 MSRP is launch-only pricing. We expect cards to be available from multiple vendors at $549/$599 (excluding region specific tariffs and/or taxes) based on the work we have done with our AIB partners, and more are coming. At the same time, the AIBs have different premium configurations at higher price points and those will also continue."
36 Comments on AMD Questions Reported/Predicted Elevation of Radeon RX 9070 Series MSRPs
Corporations are not people, etc, etc...(despite what their newsletters suggest)
rigged"mutual" as well. They all profiting insanely from this entire scam. And all of them.This is what I told and been mocked by other TPU members. Everyone was laughing their ass off, telling the scalping of entire RDNA4 stock was impossible. Especially at high margins, which is impossible to tell, because AMD shifted their responsibility to AIB partners.That's indeed low. But that doesn't mean that sellers do not set the price whatever they want, and can get away with. They've tried to sell with +150-200$/€- people bought, they've tried +500$/€. and someone still bought.Also people should bear in mind, that there's a group of buyers, that will buy at watever price- the gougers, which sell the cards on second hand marketplaces like ebay. And they have the tools to buy all the available stock.That was since the 1080Ti release, when it was unavailble for purchase, due gobbled by miners.Because they are now have the "reason" why they "can't" control the partners- they don't have MBA cards. all their cards are AIB only. They completely depend on them. And some of them want the margins they have for the the nVidia cards they make as well.
AMD would love to have 100% wafer allocation, but they are barely at 9%, and out of that 9%, they split that between CPU & GPU with their high end chips getting the biggest cut from that 9%, but also remember, those lines aren't 100% perfect, they got defects as well
it will not get any better until new high-end fabs come online in a few years, which is why they have to delay a product launch, so they can at least have more than a few cards available
Oc UK and Scan offered MSRP models at launch, translating to £570 for the XT. The starting price at Box was £705 right at launch, but now, almost everything is marked as "coming soon".
Oc UK currently lists MSRP model XTs for £630, but they're out of stock with no ETA. Scan doesn't usually give us a price on models that are out of stock, although the Sapphire Pure is listed for £670, XFX models for £705-725, and the Asus Tuf for £815. Ebuyer has the Sapphire Pure and the XFX Quicksilver listed for pre-order for £680.
It's a little bit better with the non-XT. MSRP models are listed at Oc UK for £540, but they're not in stock. Scan has the Sapphire Pure in stock for £630, the PowerColor Red Devil for £635, and the Asrock Steel Legend for £640. Ebuyer has the Sapphire Pulse and XFX Quicksilver and Swift OC for £600 and the Sapphire Pure and Gigabyte Gaming OC for £630.That's exactly the impression they were trying to make. :)
as I mentioned before, TSMC is booked solid into 2028/29 which is around the time another fab will open, but, if the current trend continues, the new fab is going to be booked solid as well, so maybe another 3-5% for AMD, with Nvidia & Apple & Qualcom taking up the most orders