Rising memory prices put AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 in an awkward spot

The latest surge in memory prices is quietly reshaping the GPU landscape. AMD board partners are reportedly shifting their focus toward the Radeon RX 9070 XT аt the cost of the standard RX 9070 — not because the latter is being discontinued, but because it makes less financial sense to produce than its faster sibling.

The issue comes down to VRAM costs. The Radeon RX 9070, RX 9070 XT, and RX 9060 XT all ship with 16 GB of GDDR6, typically requiring eight memory chips per card. That puts the RX 9070 in an awkward spot: while it costs nearly as much to manufacture as the XT model, it must be sold at a lower price due to its lower performance. For board partners, this narrows margins significantly, making the RX 9070 XT — with MSRP at $599 — a more attractive product than the $549 RX 9070. The XT variant also has more room to absorb rising memory costs without requiring immediate price adjustments.

Market behavior has already reflected this imbalance. After their March launch, the RX 9070 reached MSRP sooner in some regions, but its pricing — just below the XT — left little incentive for buyers to choose it. Older sales data suggested that the RX 9070 was roughly one-tenth as popular as the RX 9070 XT from the outset.

Importantly, this shift doesn't mean the RX 9070 is being discontinued. AMD board partners may still manufacture it, but production priorities appear to be changing in order to minimize pricing disruptions as VRAM costs climb. Meanwhile, the RX 9060 XT remains in a safer position due to its lower price point and distinct role in the lineup.

AMD has previously said it encourages board partners to keep MSRP models available, both shortly after the RDNA 4 launch and again more recently. So far, however, those assurances have done little to curb real-world price drift — raising questions about how long the RX 9070 can remain a viable option in AMD’s GPU stack.