Last week AMD promised that its Radeon RX 9070 and Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics cards with default clocks and regular cooling systems should be available at recommended prices of $549 and $599. However, retailers in the U.S., U.K., and presumably elsewhere are now selling entry-level Radeon RX 9070-series models that are supposed to be selling at MSRPs at prices that are $50 to $130, according to The Verge. Our own research suggests things might be even more dire.
According to The Verge, major retailers in the U.S. and the U.K. including Micro Center, Newegg, and Overclockers U.K. have adjusted prices upward, with no models sold at MSRP currently in stock. As a result, AMD's Radeon 9070 XT experienced price increases of 11.7% to 21.7% in the U.S. ($70–$130) and 14% to 17.4% in the U.K. (£80–£100), while the vanilla Radeon 9070 saw increases of 14.5% to 21.8% in the U.S. ($70–$80) and 7.5% in the UK (£40). These boards are among the best graphics cards money can buy, but they are considerably more expensive than they should be.
The graphics cards in question come from ASRock, Gigabyte, PowerColor, Sapphire, and XFX. With the exception of Gigabyte, those companies are AMD's exclusive partners, do not sell any Nvidia-based add-in-boards (AIBs), and are expected to adhere to MSRP with their entry-level products. We are indeed talking about entry-level products that belong to PowerColor's Reaper, Sapphire's Pulse, and XFX's Swift series — all known for affordability rather than extra features and lighting.
Interestingly, Best Buy still lists XFX Swift and Gigabyte Gaming models at MSRP — Radeon RX 9070 XT at $599 and RX 9070 at $549 — but all four variants are currently sold out with no indication that they're likely to come back in stock. Micro Center also lists a few models at their original prices, but none are available.
Last week AMD said that multiple vendors would sell cards at launch prices, but it did not specify how many cards would be sold or how long they would last before prices might go up. The company also did not confirm which board partners or retailers would adhere to the MSRP if demand is high and supply is tight.
The Verge notes that at least some U.S.-based retailers, including Best Buy, Newegg, and Micro Center, continue to list some of Nvidia's latest GeForce RTX 5070, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5080 graphics cards at MSRP (though they're also out of stock). It's unclear whether it is a matter of supply and demand balance for these products (at the end of the day, they are pretty expensive), or Nvidia and its partners have a policy to have at least some products sold at recommended prices.
Currently, looking at most major U.S. online stores, the best prices we can find are typically far above the base MSRPs. Best Buy has RTX 5070 cards priced at $649–$739 in stock, with one model laughably showing a "Save $30" notification. Everything else is out of stock. Asus currently shows an RX 9070 Prime for $659 in stock, if you're willing to pay that much and you act fast; it also show RTX 5070 Prime for $549, which likely won't last two seconds past the time we post this. Literally everything is out of stock at Newegg right now. Amazon has some items in stock, but many show up under "new sellers" — it's a risk to buy from such people, obviously. Outside of a few select places, then, even a 22% markup right now is probably better than you're likely to find online in the U.S.
