AMD Denies Radeon RX 9070 XT $899 USD Starting Price Point Rumors

[Bronan]

Then why did they ship physical products to retailers in the meantime ?

I don't believe in the drivers arc, it's fundamentally a pricing issue IMHO.

But regardless, yes, the scenario you outline is entirely believable. It's not the marketing department's attribution to decide whether engineers have done a good job. In fact, I doubt they're having any authority over the engineers. They'll just assume the information is correct and produce commercial materials accordingly.


Professional bullshit vs incompetent bullshit. Pick your poison.

They always send pre examples to retailers so they can give feedback about certain things what is as far as i know common practice in kinda all hardware related stuff not only for consumers
I worked for the governement in my country for several years and they send always hardware which supposed to work flawless but they actually failed several times with their products as i always found issues with servers and other never seen by normal people hardware
For example i needed a server which should be capable to run many modem cards as it was needed to communicate with loads of contacts elsewhere in the country, according to them ( now no longer existing company ) told the people who wanted to sell the hardware that this server was capable of handling 6 of this heavy duty cards
They had to come from america to see in reality that it did not work, they actually could on,ly handle 3 of them at once as they where all so demanding that they chocked when the slots capability of that time.
So they had to admit that it does not work as intended, later when better high level slots where implemented on server boards they clearly had learned do not promise something can handle something without testing it first extremely well.
I am talking about servers with a pricetag upwards to many thousands of dollars, some even being over 50k.
But as more and more is needed every period in time in the business hardware improvements only happen after people like me bring the hardware on its knees going in snail pace or worse

 

[AusWolf]

I think the problem is that there is a huge delta between what they initially wanted to charge and what they now have to charge (thanks to nvidias pricing) that created this whole bag of issues. This is a horrorshow.

They couldn't have charged so much. The rumoured $899 would have put it at 7900 XT performance and price, which 2 years after the 7900 XT, would have been stupid. Not to mention the 7900 XT is much cheaper now.

 

[Nater]

I don't think AMD has much to worry about pricing them that high. Ya'll really think you're gonna get a 5070 for $500 or a Ti for $749?

4080's are already $1500 and 4090's are going for $4000.

 

[3valatzy]

They couldn't have charged so much. The rumoured $899 would have put it at 7900 XT performance and price, which 2 years after the 7900 XT, would have been stupid. Not to mention the 7900 XT is much cheaper now.

The bad thing is that they don't give a them fack about the gamers.
Look at how the RX 7600 prices stagnated for years:

 

[freeagent]

I knew it lol.

Performs like Nvidia, charge like Nvidia.

Like everyone must want to spend 1000USD on a GPU lol..

 

[Bomby569]

I think the problem is that there is a huge delta between what they initially wanted to charge and what they now have to charge (thanks to nvidias pricing) that created this whole bag of issues. This is a horrorshow.

the problem is that unlike intel or nvidia, amd's pricing strategy is doing whatever the other guy is doing.
And Intel works on solving issues much faster than AMD, like years, decades faster.

 

[TPUnique]

They always send pre examples to retailers so they can give feedback about certain things what is as far as i know common practice in kinda all hardware related stuff not only for consumers

A small number of samples to beta-testers and perhaps a select few, massive retailers, I could imagine it.

But here we're talking about potentially thousands of cards, sent a lot of retailers, big and small, across the globe. So I don't buy this hypothesis. This rather indicates that the cards were intended for sales, by the end of January, after a CES announcement.

 

[Bomby569]

forget about the politics, focus on the price problem:

If Trump's new threat of massive 100% tariffs on chips from Taiwan comes true an RTX 5090 for $2,000 will seem cheap

How about an RTX 5080 for $2,000....?

www.pcgamer.com

if this happens, 1000usd for 9070 will be a bargain, maybe amd is holding for their price to make sense

 

[Hecate91]

The bad thing is that they don't give a them fack about the gamers.
Look at how the RX 7600 prices stagnated for years:
View attachment 382135

What are 4060 prices like though?

the problem is that unlike intel or nvidia, amd's pricing strategy is doing whatever the other guy is doing.

The problem is nvidia has nearly 90% of the market, so everyone else is going to follow the pricing, the other problem is people only complain about amd's pricing.

 

[JustBenching]

the problem is that unlike intel or nvidia, amd's pricing strategy is doing whatever the other guy is doing.

That's not just the pricing strategy, they are copying nvidia 1:1 on everything. RT upscaling framegen antilag and on and on it goes.

The problem is nvidia has nearly 90% of the market, so everyone else is going to follow the pricing

Huh? How does nvidia having 90% of the market force everyone else to follow their pricing? Im pretty sure nvidia isn't stopping amd from launching the 9070xt for 399.

 

[Bomby569]

The problem is nvidia has nearly 90% of the market, so everyone else is going to follow the pricing, the other problem is people only complain about amd's pricing.

Intel did is thing. That is no excuse. AMD is just shit at this.

 

[Hecate91]

Huh? How does nvidia having 90% of the market force everyone else to follow their pricing? Im pretty sure nvidia isn't stopping amd from launching the 9070xt for 399.

Because thats how a marketshare monopoly works, when one company gets away with anything, every other company is going to use that strategy. But why should AMD have to give away the 9070XT if it competes with a 5070Ti selling for $750-800?

Intel did is thing. That is no excuse. AMD is just shit at this.

Intel gets a free pass on pricing alone, their drivers still haven't caught up and the cards aren't on shelves.

 

[JustBenching]

Because thats how a marketshare monopoly works. But why should AMD have to give away the 9070XT if it competes with a 5070Ti selling for $750-800?

No, nobody forces amd to charge what nvidia does. They are choosing to do it themselves cause they are greedy - one of the greediest companies (maybe apple has them beat). I didn't say AMD has to sell cheaper, im saying they are not forced. That was your claim.

People expect nvidia to lower their prices so they can get amd for cheap. Well, you got your wishes, nvidia dropped a bomb at CES and now you get to enjoy much cheaper amd gpus, be glad and enjoy your XT at half the price.

 

[Bomby569]

Intel gets a free pass on pricing alone, their drivers still haven't caught up and the cards aren't on shelves.

for what I've seen Intel drivers are much better and the product is perfectly usable now, and it's not like AMD's drivers aren't shit.

 

[Wasteland]

As usual, the most obvious explanation proves correct. AMD had an over-optimistic pricing scheme at the outset, then panicked when Nvidia announced the MSRP on Blackwell. That much has been pretty clear from the outset. The only remaining question was, "so how delusional were AMD's intended prices?" Padded-room levels of delusional, it turns out.

Whatever you want to say about the products specifically, or the market generally, it's clownish for AMD to spend the last year making a big deal about how they're bowing out of the high end and then turn around and price their next GPU at just ever so slightly less than their previous "high end" cards. Given that context, even $750 would look goofy, irrespective of the competition's pricing.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for the "AMD can't just give their products away" defense. Profit margins are sky high on these chips. If AMD wants to continue their decline into total irrelevance on the GPU market, then by all means, cling to those profit margins. But cutting prices to move product seems like a much smarter play. AMD doesn't even have the excuse that all these consumer GPUs could have gone for a much higher price in the enterprise market. From that perspective, I'm almost coming around to the idea that AMD is greedier than Nvidia.

 

[TechLurker]

The twist: It'll be more expensive, as TSMC retaliates by raising costs and letting the tariffs get passed down the chain to consumers.

Apple won't care, their fans will pay whatever the cost is for a new iPhone or watch, even if it puts them into debt. NVIDIA won't care too much; their fans will also pay the markup.

AMD and Intel will feel the pain though. AMD would have to increase costs to make a profit in the States just as they were planning to focus on cheaper GPUs until UDNA, and Intel would have to do the same as well, which might blunt their momentum some, given they were relying on being cheaper than the competition to get GPUs into the hands of budget-strapped gamers.

 

[Bomby569]

AMD and Intel will feel the pain though. AMD would have to increase costs to make a profit in the States just as they were planning to focus on cheaper GPUs until UDNA, and Intel would have to do the same as well, which might blunt their momentum some, given they were relying on being cheaper than the competition to get GPUs into the hands of budget-strapped gamers.

The US will soon have high end chips produced in the US if they haven't got them already, TSMC will only not allow the cutting edge to be made in the US.
Intel and AMD could sell those budget cards by not using the latest and greatest chips. I wouldn't mind to use last season nm chips if they were cheap and performed reasonably well for budget price.

 

[Bronan]

As usual, the most obvious explanation proves correct. AMD had an over-optimistic pricing scheme at the outset, then panicked when Nvidia announced the MSRP on Blackwell. That much has been pretty clear from the outset. The only remaining question was, "so how delusional were AMD's intended prices?" Padded-room levels of delusional, it turns out.

Whatever you want to say about the products specifically, or the market generally, it's clownish for AMD to spend the last year making a big deal about how they're bowing out of the high end and then turn around and price their next GPU at just ever so slightly less than their previous "high end" cards. Given that context, even $750 would look goofy, irrespective of the competition's pricing.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for the "AMD can't just give their products away" defense. Profit margins are sky high on these chips. If AMD wants to continue their decline into total irrelevance on the GPU market, then by all means, cling to those profit margins. But cutting prices to move product seems like a much smarter play. AMD doesn't even have the excuse that all these consumer GPUs could have gone for a much higher price in the enterprise market. From that perspective, I'm almost coming around to the idea that AMD is greedier than Nvidia.

Huh since when did AMD release prices i do have not seen any prices released by AMD at all
The big media am all over the place and comes with prices, as AMD as far as i see not posted any prices at all
I bet the rumour mills make big numbers of views with this nonsense
The same goes for the released info about the product, the supposed freaking leaks are most of time not being actual at all either
I wish the endless want to know how good something is up front ends and is complete nonsense
Wait till the hardware is launched for real and then see what it is going to be
I actually do not care about so called reviewers posted whatever i wait until real results are shown when the hardware start to flood the market, not a second sooner
As i wait till one of my friends have bought and ran them for REAL in house with their games
That is the only thing i take for real, the hype to know all before the end product is fully released ON THE MARKET is absolute not very smart

 

[Bomby569]

Huh since when did AMD release prices i do have not seen any prices released by AMD at all

again with this, if the retail have the cards they know the price. Use your brain

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Intel did is thing. That is no excuse. AMD is just shit at this.

-Eh Intel is not a great example of a company trying to stay in business.

Generally Nvidia expects 70% margins on their parts, AMD expects 40%, and Intel is lucky to get 10%, off the cuff.

 

[Sound_Card]

Assuming the $840 rumor is true: What I don't understand is why are they charging that much for an upper midrange segment card? That's high-end pricing. If the 9080xt came out, would that have been $1100?

It's pretty clear that there is a discrepancy between retailers, board partners, and AMD. It looks like AMD has to haggle all parties to get the cards down $150 respectively. $650 for the 9070xt and $550 for the 9070.

 

[AnotherReader]

the fabulous price will be according to my teapot 898.99 US DOLLAR. Not $899. A bit cheaper. Rumours are false. Go ahead. Nothing to see. Nothing to discuss.

I think I saw that topic also today at PCGH. When there are so many talks about AMD graphic cards in our bubble - will it lead to more sold amd graphic cards? Probably not.

Maybe amd should also publish outdated games with newer screenshots like riding wizard 2000, car driving simulator with reflections, the many of none to name a few fabulous awesome staggering breathtaking games for the commodore 68. Finally there is mod support for riding wizard 2000 (sarcasm - hopefully)

--

That price topic is such waste of time. Still reading the comments.

-- edit: I honestly agree 16GiB VRAM is not much anymore. Was bare minimum 2023 but we have 2025. And please no odd numbers. 24GiB VRAM should be the next standard, not some other odd numbers. DRAM is not that expensive. Only expensive is the bigger pcb size because of more dram chips

While DRAM is cheap, PCBs are even cheaper. In any case, memory capacity would be either 16 GB or 32 GB for a 256-bit bus; 32 GB would require placing DRAM on the back.

 

[Bronan]

Assuming the $840 rumor is true: What I don't understand is why are they charging that much for an upper midrange segment card? That's high-end pricing. If the 9080xt came out, would that have been $1100?

It's pretty clear that there is a discrepancy between retailers, board partners, and AMD. It looks like AMD has to haggle all parties to get the cards down $150 respectively. $650 for the 9070xt and $550 for the 9070.

Did AMD posted the price already i do not think so as far as i know all is part of the rumour mills
So useless to take serious people need to have patience to see when the real prices are in big numbers are everywhere in the shops talking about the price is asking for fail rumours
I personally do not care what the price of a card is, wait till the early adopters start show real performance in REAL games
Benchmarks are useless nonsense it has nothing todo with the real performance and and see what my games do
I let others burn their fingers who jump on it early, common sense is very important

 

[Vayra86]

maybe we're on different time zones here.
It's clear to me the backpedalling was made by the tech team when they say nvidia's AI claims.
GPU's out and marketing campaigns already paid for and couldn't be backpedalled

Perhaps. Or perhaps its just juice.

OTOH we did see this even with Nvidia's marketing admitting they just took a 4GB figure for granted on the 970.

I don't believe in the drivers arc, it's fundamentally a pricing issue IMHO.

Exactly, this is all a silly spin on what is a strategic blunder. They were ready to launch something priced out of the market again and had to backpedal to prevent a repeat of the 7900 series. Also whatever happened to the 7900XT(X) perf at half price? I think AMD overvalued the 9070XT at the last moment, and then Nvidia launched. Part of the overvaluation might be driver related, too, but that never stopped them in the past, why would it now?

 

[AnotherReader]

Apparently, the pricing was a mistake by Google Translate (not linking directly to the bird site).