AMD's Frank Azor dashes RX 9070 MSRP rug-pull rumours as retail stock suffers after launch

Yesterday, following the launch of the AMD Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT GPUs, which we reviewed, there were leaks and rumours claiming that AMD would increase the MSRP of the RDNA 4 GPUs as soon as the first batch of retail units was sold out. New information seems to suggest that this is not the case — that doesn't necessarily mean that prices won't increase going forward, though. 

According to AMD's Frank Azor, the company is working with its add-in-board partners to replenish stock at retailers. Despite the high demand, though, "MSRP pricing (excluding region specific tariffs and/or taxes) will continue to be encouraged," beyond the launch. This seems to suggest that there will be no changes to the suggested pricing of AMD's RX 9070 line-up, but that there is still some potential for price increases, both at the hands of AIBs and retailers. 

At this point, it seems as though supply and demand will determine GPU pricing for the AMD Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT, which means the only way AMD can actually ensure MSRP — or close to MSRP — pricing is by ensuring there is ample stock. On that front, AMD at least seems to be doing a slightly better job of keeping stores stocked than Nvidia did with the launch of the RTX 5000 series. 

One particularly comical Reddit post (embedded below) pointed out that the Illinois Micro Center had 170 RX 9070 GPUs and 440 RX 9070 XT units in stock, while Nvidia's RTX 5070 Ti and 5080 GPUs were out of stock and there were a mere seven RTX 5090s and 10 RTX 5070s. Online stores, on the other hand, have seemingly seen much higher demand, with many posts in the r/PCMasterrace subreddit and on X citing order cancellations over a lack of stock and high demand. 

Mid-range gamers may also want to check Amazon, since cards like the RX 7800 XT are selling in the neighbourhood of $518.