- AMD is reportedly struggling to even out RX 9070 pricing at retailers
- The theory is that AMD’s original prices were too high compared to where Nvidia was pitching its RTX 5000 GPUs
- AMD needs to put all this gossip and speculation to bed as soon as possible
More rumors are circulating about AMD’s RDNA 4 graphics card, which is expected to launch sometime in Q1 2025, and there is some fresh information about what could potentially be going on behind the scenes.
There’s no denying that the reveal of RX 9070 models at CES 2025 was confusingly short, although an AMD executive has since clarified why – namely the lack of time for Team Red’s presentation at that event (a flimsy excuse, yes), and an apparent admission (Possible translation issues to be noted, mind you) that the company wanted to wait and see how Nvidia pitched its RTX 5000 GPUs.
New speculation (via VideoCardz) from a forum moderator (Pokerclock, who recently brought us gossip about Nvidia’s Blackwell stock levels) on German site PC Games Hardware throws something else into the mix.
Namely, a theory that the pricing of RX 9070 models has proven to be problematic and that the MSRP has not been officially agreed upon because the price tags AMD originally planned ended up being too high compared to what Nvidia announced with their next generation of Blackwell graphics cards.
Pokerclock claims that there are difficulties in changing this price and figuring out how to balance and correct this with what retail partners have already paid for these RDNA 4 products. Finding this out – and we have to be extremely careful about this rumor – is what seems to be causing some problems for AMD, and in a way, leaves its RX 9070 graphics card in a state of launch limbo, as it were.
Analysis: Time to act, AMD
Could there be something to this? Well, it makes sense in some ways, by which I mean Nvidia’s RTX 5070 and 5080 prices were certainly surprising – it surprised me, and probably AMD too, I’d imagine. It also fits with what’s been going on with AMD’s kind of ‘semi-launch’ at CES 2025, and the fact that we still don’t have a date for the proper launch (an event that could come this week if the rumors are true – on the 23rd or 24th of January, but of course it’s very close now).
Also, there are several sightings of the RX 9070 graphics cards arriving at retailers, so that also suggests that the launch pieces all fell into place, and then suddenly an Nvidia-shaped key was inserted into the RDNA 4 works when The Blackwell award was unveiled.
Notably, Moore’s Law is Dead also spilled some RDNA 4 details in his latest video on YouTube, and there were no pricing rumors, just a comment that he’s heard a lot of different rumors – starting at $450 (in the US ) and up.
Again, it paints a picture that everything is still pretty up in the air at this late stage for RDNA 4, although the YouTuber gives us a rough guess of $499 (in the US) for the RX 9070 and $599 for the RX 9070 XT. That would, based on some alleged internal benchmarks from AMD, also shared by the leaker, yield a pair of RDNA 4 graphics cards that would be RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti killers.
Interesting and potentially exciting times, but AMD can’t let these rumors about its next-gen GPU launch and pricing continue to simmer and bubble for too long – it needs to make a final decision on RDNA 4 pricing, if the company has t already, of course . And then those prices should be released very soon (which may actually happen, as mentioned, if the rumor mill is right).
