News AMD denies 9070 XT leaked prices — '$899 USD starting price point was never part of the plan

[Admin]

AMD disputed the rumor saying that the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 were supposed to be priced around $899 and $749.

AMD denies 9070 XT leaked prices — '$899 USD starting price point was never part of the plan : Read more

 

[DS426]

This is why rumors can be a waste of everyone's time.
1) $899 is only $100 less than the launch MSRP of the 7900 XTX. That was a high-end-marketed card whereas AMD said long ago that this generation (RDNA4) wouldn't have a high-end card. They fail at marketing all the time but c'mon, they know that $899 isn't mid-range pricing, even if NVIDIA had decided to raise prices again on the 50 series.
2) $899 got a MCM and a fair bit of more die area last gen... and 9070 is still on GDDR6, not 6X or 7
3) AMD specifically renamed this generation to more easily compare to NVIDIA's models; designed to compete with the 5070 means we're not talking about an $899 USD GPU.

That said, the best way for AMD to squash this rumor is to just release official pricing and the market availability date. It really is hard to tell what the wait is for at this point.

 

[KyaraM]

This is why rumors can be a waste of everyone's time.
1) $899 is only $100 less than the launch MSRP of the 7900 XTX. That was a high-end-marketed card whereas AMD said long ago that this generation (RDNA4) wouldn't have a high-end card. They fail at marketing all the time but c'mon, they know that $899 isn't mid-range pricing, even if NVIDIA had decided to raise prices again on the 50 series.
2) $899 got a MCM and a fair bit of more die area last gen... and 9070 is still on GDDR6, not 6X or 7
3) AMD specifically renamed this generation to more easily compare to NVIDIA's models; designed to compete with the 5070 means we're not talking about an $899 USD GPU.

That said, the best way for AMD to squash this rumor is to just release official pricing and the market availability date. It really is hard to tell what the wait is for at this point.

Nvidia didn't raise prices on the midrange. They actually slightly lowered them. It would be in AMD's best interest to announce their MSRPs, though. It's a bit weird they didn't already, but then, they are extremely quiet about their cards this time around.

 

[dipique]

Nvidia didn't raise prices on the midrange. They actually slightly lowered them. It would be in AMD's best interest to announce their MSRPs, though. It's a bit weird they didn't already, but then, they are extremely quiet about their cards this time around.

I think they still want to wait for Nvidia's embargo dates.

 

[KyaraM]

I think they still want to wait for Nvidia's embargo dates.

But why? We know Nvidia's prices already. It makes little sense to wait..

 

[Jabberwocky79]

Yeah, suuuuure it wasn't the plan.

So, let's see. We've got: An announcement/not announcement at CES, a presumed release date of January 23rd that was then postponed by 3 months, and an adamant refusal to release pricing figures, which, if they were reasonable, would make all of this go away immediately.

There is no argument that can convince me that AMD wasn't going to price these cards at $50 below what Nvidia's 70 series was going to be, which - based on Ngreedia's track record, would have been more than what they announced. But team green pulled a fast one on team red, and now AMD is scrambling to figure out how to either make the cards competitive for that price, or how to slash prices and still make a profit.

Edit: Another food for thought - If AMD announced prices now and those prices were appealing, they could actually steal some market share from Nvidia because people would be willing to wait 2 months and buy AMD. As it is, they are losing market share because their recent actions are severely undermining confidence.

 

[hotaru251]

They fail at marketing all the time but c'mon, they know that $899 isn't mid-range pricin

AMD's flagship is aiming for 4080 performance.
the 4080 cost was $1200.
the 9070 is aiming for 4070 ti performance & that cost $800


Issue is likely AMD didn't expect NVIDIA to keep prices "low" as they have history of inflating prices. (jensen needs more jackets afetr all...)
AMD not announcing prices is not normal (i cant recall last time they withheld pricing after revealing)

 

[Jabberwocky79]

^^^ Exactly. I can put on my tin foil hat and guess how it went down too... and it's not that tin foil hatty because I'm a presentation designer by trade and know what the environment is like backstage at those kinds of events. Presentation decks are being tweaked practically up to the start of a presentation by designers sitting behind the curtain. I bet that AMD slide deck had a whole lot more info about their new cards, but someone backstage came across the info on Nvidia's presentation that was to be delivered later. AMD realized they had a situation on their hands, and had to suddenly cut a bunch out. When Hyunh got up to give the presentation, he basically didn't have anything to talk about regarding the cards, and had to resort to an unprepared 'They're great, you're gonna love 'em!'

 

[Amdlova]

Lol rtx 5070 will be so good

 

[edzieba]

Yeah, suuuuure it wasn't the plan.

So, let's see. We've got: An announcement/not announcement at CES, a presumed release date of January 23rd that was then postponed by 3 months, and an adamant refusal to release pricing figures, which, if they were reasonable, would make all of this go away immediately.

There is no argument that can convince me that AMD wasn't going to price these cards at $50 below what Nvidia's 70 series was going to be, which - based on Ngreedia's track record, would have been more than what they announced. But team green pulled a fast one on team red, and now AMD is scrambling to figure out how to either make the cards competitive for that price, or how to slash prices and still make a profit.

Edit: Another food for thought - If AMD announced prices now and those prices were appealing, they could actually steal some market share from Nvidia because people would be willing to wait 2 months and buy AMD. As it is, they are losing market share because their recent actions are severely undermining confidence.

AMD: Sometimes the jebaiter, sometimes the jebaited.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

But why? We know Nvidia's prices already. It makes little sense to wait..

Because we don't actually have final performance numbers, only Nvidia marketing numbers.

AMD's flagship is aiming for 4080 performance. The 4080 cost was $1200.
the 9070 is aiming for 4070 ti performance & that cost $800

But the 4080 was overpriced and the 4080 Super cut that to $999. Plus the 5080 was incoming and AMD had to expect 4080 performance would drop to ~5070 / 5070 Ti level. I think Frank is fully accurate and not exaggerating at all when he says $900 was never in consideration. $800? Maybe. $700 or less? Probably. Because even if AMD can match Nvidia on performance, give or take, it knows that Nvidia has more software features and ecosystem stuff.

RX 7900 GRE was priced at $549, but outside of RT and DLSS it easily keeps up with RTX 4070 Ti, often 4070 Ti Super. Why was it so cheap? Because it had to be.

Issue is likely AMD didn't expect NVIDIA to keep prices "low" as they have history of inflating prices. (jensen needs more jackets afetr all...)
AMD not announcing prices is not normal (i cant recall last time they withheld pricing after revealing)

Again, this is bunk. AMD has given prices in the past a week or two before launch and then changed them. With the current target release date of March, we're a month away from AMD announcing prices. The pre-brief materials on RDNA4 for CES were super thin. Cards were there, but were they working samples? I didn't see anything outside of AMD's booth running 9070 XT cards. Which to me says, prior to CES, RDNA4 was deemed to be at least a month or two distant.

I mean, we saw running Vega 64 silicon about six months before launch. But it wasn't ready for retail, obviously.

I think AMD was probably hoping to do $699 at most for the 9070 XT, and perhaps $599 for the 9070. Now it will probably be $599 and $499, respectively. Unless AMD thinks performance is a lot closer than in the past, which it could be because 5070 isn't exactly a huge bump in performance relative to 4070. Same 12GB, more bandwidth, a few more shaders and SMs, similar die size, and DLSS4 MFG doing all the heavy lifting.

 

[oofdragon]

There was NEVER a rumour or leak suggestiong the 9070 XT would cost 900 bucks. It's a "7" tier gpu, just for reference last gen 7700XT MSRP was $450. This gen it's supposed to mimic Nvidia name scheme so it could cost the same as a "7" green which in case of the Ti is $750 but we all know that if AMD price it like Nvidia they won't sell. This gen killer GPU is a 9070 XT costing max $550, let's hope $500. If it doesn't happen it's a skipped gen and who cares

 

[Gillerer]

... It would be in AMD's best interest to announce their MSRPs, though. It's a bit weird they didn't already, but then, they are extremely quiet about their cards this time around.

But why? We know Nvidia's prices already. It makes little sense to wait..

Nvidia has a history of fake MSRP pricing, where that is accurate only on a small batch of units at release (so they can claim the price is "real"). After the initial stock is sold through, all or almost all supply is for the higher cost board partner models.

It is actually in AMD's best interest to wait and see what the actual persisting selling price of the 5070 series is before even deciding the RX 9070 series prices - never mind committing to them by making them official.

This problem would have been even worse for AMD had they gone ahead with the January launch. Then actual existing cards in reviewers' hands would have had to compete with Nvidia's pricing and performance promises. AMD would have lost any momentum from a mere "wait" recommendation.

 

[spongiemaster]

Because we don't actually have final performance numbers, only Nvidia marketing numbers.

But the 4080 was overpriced and the 4080 Super cut that to $999. Plus the 5080 was incoming and AMD had to expect 4080 performance would drop to ~5070 / 5070 Ti level. I think Frank is fully accurate and not exaggerating at all when he says $900 was never in consideration. $800? Maybe. $700 or less? Probably. Because even if AMD can match Nvidia on performance, give or take, it knows that Nvidia has more software features and ecosystem stuff.

RX 7900 GRE was priced at $549, but outside of RT and DLSS it easily keeps up with RTX 4070 Ti, often 4070 Ti Super. Why was it so cheap? Because it had to be.

Again, this is bunk. AMD has given prices in the past a week or two before launch and then changed them. With the current target release date of March, we're a month away from AMD announcing prices. The pre-brief materials on RDNA4 for CES were super thin. Cards were there, but were they working samples? I didn't see anything outside of AMD's booth running 9070 XT cards. Which to me says, prior to CES, RDNA4 was deemed to be at least a month or two distant.

I mean, we saw running Vega 64 silicon about six months before launch. But it wasn't ready for retail, obviously.

I think AMD was probably hoping to do $699 at most for the 9070 XT, and perhaps $599 for the 9070. Now it will probably be $599 and $499, respectively. Unless AMD thinks performance is a lot closer than in the past, which it could be because 5070 isn't exactly a huge bump in performance relative to 4070. Same 12GB, more bandwidth, a few more shaders and SMs, similar die size, and DLSS4 MFG doing all the heavy lifting.

Is it normal for retailers and reviewers to receive cards more than a month before launch? Clearly AMD made the decision to bail on the original launch date at the very last minute. There's no way they realized the day of their CES presentation that their software was 2+ months away from being ready and removed all mention of RDNA 4 from their presentation because of that. 5070Ti is rumored to be launching towards the end of February, with RDNA4 launching in March. That's not a coincidence. AMD is clearly waiting on NVidia to launch first before deciding where they are pricing, after everyone was caught off guard by NVidia's announced launch MSRP's.

$900 may well have been the original launch price planned for the Bulgarian market. We'll likely never know. Seems like an odd thing for a retailer to go on record and lie about.

 

[DS426]

Nvidia didn't raise prices on the midrange. They actually slightly lowered them. It would be in AMD's best interest to announce their MSRPs, though. It's a bit weird they didn't already, but then, they are extremely quiet about their cards this time around.

I know. I'm using the premise that AMD threw around the $899 figure before NVIDIA released their pricing on the 5070.

 

[DS426]

Nvidia has a history of fake MSRP pricing, where that is accurate only on a small batch of units at release (so they can claim the price is "real"). After the initial stock is sold through, all or almost all supply is for the higher cost board partner models.

It is actually in AMD's best interest to wait and see what the actual persisting selling price of the 5070 series is before even deciding the RX 9070 series prices - never mind committing to them by making them official.

True on the first part. Also, relative performance of a model helps dictate demand and therefore actual street prices, both up and down the generational stack and against the competition.

On your second part, how long will that take? AMD's strategy is obviously to play a bit of a waiting game, but it sounds like they also have products that are ready to go in homes; AMD then has a balancing act of not losing market share from waiting too long vs. not losing market share or margin from crappy pricing.

Also, I think Jarred Walton pretty much nailed it, especially his AMD pricing theory. Just seems the most logical to me.

 

[DS426]

AMD's flagship is aiming for 4080 performance.
the 4080 cost was $1200.
the 9070 is aiming for 4070 ti performance & that cost $800

AMD's previous flagship, yes. That has basically no bearing on this generation as it pertains to 9070(XT)

NVIDIA can sell a 4070 Ti for $800. AMD can't even if the performance was the same.

It's getting harder to just say "performance" as RT perf vs. raster can change who the winner is on a comparison. AMD has obviously been lighter on the RT side -- something that GPU buyers are caring more and more about, especially at the upper mid market and higher.

 

[gggplaya]

This rumor from a Bulgarian retailer are super fake. It might be $900 in Bulgaria due to tariff/VAT or whatever. But AMD has stated numerous time for years now that this generation of GPU will target the midrange. $900 is not midrange!!!!! They are no longer targeting the high end. So $900 was never the price in the U.S.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Is it normal for retailers and reviewers to receive cards more than a month before launch? Clearly AMD made the decision to bail on the original launch date at the very last minute. There's no way they realized the day of their CES presentation that their software was 2+ months away from being ready and removed all mention of RDNA 4 from their presentation because of that. 5070Ti is rumored to be launching towards the end of February, with RDNA4 launching in March. That's not a coincidence. AMD is clearly waiting on NVidia to launch first before deciding where they are pricing, after everyone was caught off guard by NVidia's announced launch MSRP's.

$900 may well have been the original launch price planned for the Bulgarian market. We'll likely never know. Seems like an odd thing for a retailer to go on record and lie about.

It was pushed back, but I think at most a month. Was it really "pulled" the night before, or just decided that the slides were very thin and AMD needed something more than what it had planned to say? I'm not sure we'll ever know. The main thing the slides provided was notification on the naming scheme change.

I have not received a 9070 sample yet, and generally don't get cards until maybe two weeks before launch. (I did get the B570 about four weeks early, though... and RTX 5080 was three weeks early from one vendor, sans drivers.)

 

[cryoburner]

Yeah, suuuuure it wasn't the plan.

If AMD was looking to align the product naming and pricing of their cards positioned at the "x70" level to be more consistent with recent cards that use similar product numbering from Nvidia, then there was no way they intended to price the 9070 at $150 more than the launch price of the 4070, and the 9070 XT at $100 more than the 4070 Ti. Any planned pricing would have almost certainly not been any higher than Nvidia's MSRPs from the last generation. Even if the cards managed to offer a little more raw performance than similarly named cards in Nvidia's 50 series lineup, pricing them higher would make them a hard sell. Nvidia's $50 lower launch MSRPs for the 50 series may have potentially caused them to reassess pricing and positioning, but it seems very unlikely that they ever intended to price the cards as high as what was suggested in that supposed leak.

Of course, some partner cards of questionable value featuring "premium" coolers and such can at times end up with an MSRP that's $100-$150 over MSRP for cards in this price range, so it may have simply been that they were looking at tentative pricing from a partner that was trying to push some higher-end versions of the cards at those marked-up prices.

 

[spongiemaster]

It was pushed back, but I think at most a month. Was it really "pulled" the night before, or just decided that the slides were very thin and AMD needed something more than what it had planned to say? I'm not sure we'll ever know. The main thing the slides provided was notification on the naming scheme change.

From a news post on this site a few days ago:

US retailer B&H (via VideoCardz) confirms that it will begin taking pre-orders for AMD's Radeon RX 9070 series on March 23. The same retailer suggested that RDNA 4 was slated for launch on January 23.

Preorders starting on March 23rd means the launch is after that date, so that's more than a 2 month delay from January 23rd.

 

[Gaidax]

If 9700XT will (base) cost anything more than $700 bucks MSRP it will be DoA, because at that point it would make 0 sense over something like 5070Ti.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

From a news post on this site a few days ago:



Preorders starting on March 23rd means the launch is after that date, so that's more than a 2 month delay from January 23rd.

Let's just say that I trust Videocardz leaks and rumors as far as I can throw them. LOL. I'm pretty sure March 23 isn't accurate. January 23? I don't know. It would have killed me, though, so I'm glad it's coming in March rather than now.

If 9070 XT will (base) cost anything more than $700 bucks MSRP it will be DoA, because at that point it would make 0 sense over something like 5070Ti.

It all depends on performance, though. If it has 16GB and performs as well as a 5070 Ti, selling it at $699 is perhaps viable. I'm very curious to see how good the RT and AI improvements end up being. But I will say that DLSS transformers (plus DLAA and ray reconstruction) has reset the bar for upscaling and RT enhancements. Even if RDNA4 can compete with Blackwell in raw performance, the Nvidia features and libraries are a real thing that people benefit from using.

 

[jlake3]

From a news post on this site a few days ago:



Preorders starting on March 23rd means the launch is after that date, so that's more than a 2 month delay from January 23rd.

B&H opened Arc B580 preorders on launch day, and I believe B570 too. I don’t believe an official distributor is allowed to do pre-sales ahead of the formal launch day, so the terminology is just a quirk of how B&H does launches.

 

[Jabberwocky79]

If AMD was looking to align the product naming and pricing of their cards positioned at the "x70" level to be more consistent with recent cards that use similar product numbering from Nvidia, then there was no way they intended to price the 9070 at $150 more than the launch price of the 4070, and the 9070 XT at $100 more than the 4070 Ti.

I agree. However you are talking about Nvidia's previous gen. I think AMD expected Nvidia to do Nvidia things - which is to raise their prices from one gen to the next. I think AMD wanted to come in just below Nvidia pricing - heck, why wouldn't they want to price the cards at the maximum viable amount? But when Nvidia cut their own prices, it sent AMD back to the drawing board. Of course this is all just my personal opinion, time will tell the real story.