AMD’s RX 9070 XT GPU is reportedly witnessing massive market demand, which has prompted retailers to sell SKUs at tags way above the set MSRPs.
Retail Channels Are Likely Pricing an MSRP Increase By AMD As The Radeon RX 9070 XT At $599 Becomes a Distant Reality
Well, there’s no doubt that current-gen GPU launches were messed up in terms of retail availability, since not only were inventory levels noted to be significantly lower, but less stock prompted sellers to raise prices of GPUs to “obnoxious” levels, especially with NVIDIA’s RTX 50 series. There was hope with AMD’s RX 9070 XT launch that we would get GPUs at their “deserved” prices, but it seems like, despite Team Red’s assurances of delivering MSRP stock to consumers, it appears nowhere to be found at the proposed $599 price tag. Instead, retailers have bumped up prices massively since launch.
There are several factors attributed to the constant price increase with AMD’s RDNA 4 GPUs, with a significant part being played by the US tariffs, along with the high demand, even after months of launch. Diving into the situation of retailers, Computerbase has managed to analyze the prices in Germany, and it seems like they have been in an uptrend since launch, with median prices being €700 -€800. Only a limited entry-level units are available under the €700 mark, but it seems like most retailers have bumped up prices in the region.
Looking at the US markets, we see retailers like Amazon offering the Radeon RX 9070 XT at around $960, which marks around a 50% difference from the MSRP, which is shocking. The cheapest “in-stock” Radeon RX 9070 XT we could find was at MicroCenter, where the XFX Swift White Triple Fan edition was being sold at $849.99. While this might be a decent deal, it seems clear that the retail channels are pricing in an MSRP increase by AMD, since we cannot find MSRP prices anywhere, even with listings where SKUs are out of stock.
The situation is similar at NVIDIA’s camp, except when you pay inflated prices there, you’ll get awful perf/$ value out of the GPUs. For consumers looking to get their hands on current-gen models, we suggest they either refer to second-hand markets with caution or wait out on an upgrade once the trade tensions settle.
