AMD's Radeon VP calls RX 9070 XT demand 'unprecedented' — RDNA 4 launch 'milestone event'
Restocking GPU supply is AMD's "priority number one".
David McAfee, AMD Vice President and General Manager over Client Channel Business, called the demand for AMD's newest GPU release "really unprecedented" this week. In an appearance on HotHardware's Thursday livestream, McAfee shared some details about what caused RX 9070 and RX 9070 XTs to sell out worldwide at blistering speed, and AMD's plans to get the cards into the hands of customers now and in the far future.
McAfee, who oversees much of AMD's consumer CPU and GPU businesses, was amazed by the success of the RX 9000-series' first wave. "The launch of RDNA 4 was really a milestone event for our graphics business. The demand was very, very, very strong all around the world," said the Radeon boss.
The AMD RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 hit the shelves on March 6th, heralding the beginning of AMD's "RDNA 4" GPU generation. Though the cards launched with a $599/$549 price tag, one week later it is near impossible to find the cards for this price, as all models of the cards across all of AMD's board partners are either sold out or being sold for as much as 22% over the MSRP from legitimate retailers.
McAfee explained in part why selling GPUs for appropriate prices and with ample stock can be a challenging game. "In [AMD's CPU business], we put a processor in a box, we set a price for that product, we ship it directly into the market, and we control that end-to-end."
In stark contrast to this, AMD's supply chain for selling GPUs involves a large number of AIB partners, which buy AMD's ASICs and build multiple models of each GPU, which models are then selected and ordered from by primary sellers.
"If you look at where we stand today, priority number one is restocking all of our partners," confirmed McAfee, then reiterating the lengthy process which stands between AMD shipping supply to partners and finished products hitting shelves. AMD is said to be intensely focusing on pushing Navi 48 into the hands of board partners/
McAfee and AMD affirm that when supply returns for RX 9070 XT, it will be accessible at the starting price point of $599. This echoes Frank Azor's pre-launch promise that RDNA 4's MSRP is not just launch-only pricing, but will persist throughout the lifespan of the cards.
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This claim may fall on consumers' deaf ears, however; for the last several GPU generations, especially from Nvidia cards, GPU prices skyrocket immediately after launch and then never recovered. Nvidia RTX 4090 prices never settled back at or below MSRP for its entire lifespan, with the card now costing upwards of $3,000 even with the existence of the RTX 5090.
McAfee remains optimistic about RX 9070 XT's price settling down soon, however, and about the current state of AMD's consumer offerings. "As we refill the channel from what happened last week, you'll see more supply coming," claimed the Radeon boss. "Not just at the opening price points, but across the entire range as we look at the rest of this quarter, Q2, and beyond."
Ever since the launch of the Ryzen 9 9800X3D, AMD internally has apparently been riding hit after hit with pride. McAfee boldly proclaimed, "We think we've got the most compelling portfolio in the industry right now across the entire range", including notebooks, laptops, high-end desktops, enterprise use, and everything in between.
For those anxious to see AMD make a return to halo-tier top-end GPUs, more patience will be necessary. Per McAfee, the vast majority of consumers buy GPUs at sub-$700 price points. For AMD right now, building up broad appeal and brainspace is far more important.
"We have aspirations to cover the entire gamut of gaming solutions that are out there in the market, and maybe one day we'll get there. But for now, we're really focused on growing scale and deriving the developer relationships that come from having a bigger footprint in the graphics market."
With AMD snatching GPU market share away from Nvidia even in Q4 2024, and the launch of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D securely claiming AMD's top dog status for CPUs for any consumer use-case, the future is bright for AMD (thanks in no small part to the struggles of its competitors). What comes next? Hopefully affordable RX 9070 XTs.
Sunny Grimm is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has been building and breaking computers since 2017, serving as the resident youngster at Tom's. From APUs to RGB, Sunny has a handle on all the latest tech news.
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ingtar33 in AMDs defense, i don't think they expected nvidia to step on their own penis so bad with the 5000 series, maybe if they had a year of warning they might have ben ready for it. but it was really a disasterous 2 months before the 9070xt launched.Reply -
bit_user Reply
First, it's a mistake to use the RTX 4090 as characteristic of its entire generation. It's an outlier.The article said:for the last several GPU generations, especially from Nvidia cards, GPU prices skyrocket immediately after launch and then never recovered. Nvidia RTX 4090 prices never settled back at or below MSRP for its entire lifespan
Second, it did return to near MSRP, at a few points. It's not hard to find this, on sites like PC Part Picker.
Finally, because the RX 9070/XT cards are mid-range AMD cards, there should be less of a problem with AI bros buying them up and we should expect their price trajectory to better match what we saw with cards like the RTX 4070 Ti and RTX 4080. -
Kindaian The other thing to consider is that AMD hires the production capacity. And that is allocated in advance. Sure there are slots available for extra production runs, but those cost more than normal planned runs (and probably go into some sort of "auction" with bids for them).Reply
So there is less wriggle room for more production than say Intel has, because Intel can decide to shift their production runs internally (which any foundry customers like AMD can't do). -
Gururu Reply
Yes totally. It was a genius business decision to hold the product back, giving time for the outlets to build inventory. Fortune was on their side when nVidia fell on its face (although they are still en route to destroy AMD this generation in sales).ingtar33 said:in AMDs defense, i don't think they expected nvidia to step on their own penis so bad with the 5000 series, maybe if they had a year of warning they might have ben ready for it. but it was really a disasterous 2 months before the 9070xt launched. -
DavidLejdar Also waiting. MSRP $599 (for XT) is currently about 550 Euro. With VAT on top, that comes to a price of around 650 Euro. Prices in retail here though, near almost 900 Euro at the moment for cards in stock, plus another around 100 for OC versions. So nearly 250 Euro difference.Reply -
NickT300 The only way to force prices down is to STOP overpaying for GPUs. Only that will force prices down. If people continue to overpay, retailers will continue to take advantage of high prices.Reply -
Shiznizzle Note to David McAfee, AMD Vice President and General Manager over Client Channel Business,Reply
Please do lean on partners to ramp up production to levels where the actual MSRP priced cards are available for the everyday casual gamer.
I would like to upgrade my 3060 12gb but i am in no hurry if it is going to cost me a fortune that makes a 5000 series look actually "cheap". -
Silicon Mage Me and my old RTX3080 will just wait out the current generation and try again when the 6000’s hit.Reply
I’m not sinking stupid amounts of money into a mini furnace with dumb power connectors that could Chernobyl on me at any moment just by looking at it funny.
Ended up buying a Mac Mini with the interest I earned on the savings I had allocated waiting for a card to come into stock.
Actually feels good to be out of the race. -
tracker1 While I understand that capacity was set well over a year ago. That said, I wish more of these cards were sold by random draw for verified accounts...Reply
Without BS bundles, etc. it's bad enough that some models were 40-45% over MSRP to start from. I refuse to buy from a scalper. I feel like they should be shot and add nothing of value.