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AMD rumored to launch its RX 6700 XT mid-range gaming GPUs on March 18

AMD is rushing the RX 6700 XT GPU launch despite the ongoing semiconductor shortages. (Image Source: AMD)
AMD is rushing the RX 6700 XT GPU launch despite the ongoing semiconductor shortages. (Image Source: AMD)
Latest rumors claim that AMD is preparing a March 18 launch for the RX 6700 XT mid-range gaming cards, even though Team Red is among the companies that have been hit the hardest by the global semiconductor shortages. This will most likely be another rushed paper launch to counter Nvidia's RTX 3060 release.

It looks like AMD is continuing its countermove game with the release schedule for the Radeon RX 6700 mid-range GPU series. Apparently, AMD was supposed to announce these cards at CES in January, but then decided to keep things under wraps until Nvidia makes its next move. Now that Nvidia has already confirmed its next move would be the launch of the RTX 3060 cards by the end of this month, the ball is in AMD’s court, and, according to the latest rumors, Team Red’s countermove will come as early as March.

At CES this year, AMD only stated that the RX 6700 series would launch some time in the first half of the year. Then, we started hearing rumors that the launch should occur in Q1 rather than Q2, but with the current semiconductor shortages affecting the GPU and CPU markets, that Q1 release window was not looking that doable. Nevertheless, AMD appears to be sticking to its counterplay strategies, as French publication Cowcotland somehow received word that the RX 6700 series is to be launched on March 18, so exactly 3 weeks after the RTX 3060 launch.

AMD is also expected to announce the laptop version of the RX 6700 GPUs, yet it is not clear if these are going to launch together with the desktop versions. We already know some of the 6700M specs, and we are hearing that there should also be a mobile equivalent for the desktop RX 6700 XT with specs that include 40 compute units with 2560 stream processors, up to 12 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, and 192-bit memory bus. A non-XT desktop version with only 6 GB of VRAM and dynamic TGP running between 146 and 156 W is also in the books, but may launch at a later time.

Cowcotland further mentions that launch availability for the RX 6700 XT cards will be “very limited,” which is not surprising given the current shortage problems. Still, a paper launch is better than no launch at all, at least for the sake of public perception. Now, all we need is an announcement for some crypto mining cards coming directly from AMD to counter Nvidia’s freshly announced CMP HX models.

 

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2021 02 > AMD rumored to launch its RX 6700 XT mid-range gaming GPUs on March 18
Bogdan Solca, 2021-02-19 (Update: 2021-02-19)