Unwanted bad news for gamers: AMD may price the RX 9070 XT at a far from attractive rate

There are high hopes for AMD’s upcoming Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 cards, with the RX 9000 series release date finally having been announced as February 28, with the cards going on sale in March (March 6 has been mentioned). Nvidia has been ruling the GPU news headlines as of late, with the usual mixture of good (general performance) and bad (price gouging, melting connectors, etc.). Those in the market for a mid-range graphics card have been waiting for this moment, with the Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 likely going up against the GeForce RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti. But the hoped-for reasonable price tags for the AMD cards maybe be much higher than previously expected.

When we reported about RX 9070 XT and RX 9070-related leaks last week, it seemed that the boards could arrive at fair price points: Potentially around $500 for the Radeon RX 9070 and from $600 to $650 for the RX 9070 XT. But price leaks shared by @momomo_us, @GawroskiT, and VideoCardz, indicate that AMD fans could be in for a shock. RX 9000 boards from XFX are seemingly priced from $649 all the way up to $849, while placeholders for the Acer Predator BiFrost RX 9070 XT OC 16 GB graphics card reveal price tags of €1079.90 (about $1,133) and €1,106.53 ($1,161). These latter prices do not imply US customers will have to pay over a thousand dollars for the RX 9070 XT though, as European buyers will have to pay high VAT rates.

Obviously, a custom graphics card will have a higher price tag than the MSRP; for instance, the XFX Speedster Merc 310 AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24 GB board was priced at $1,099.99 while the MSRP for the RX 7900 XTX was $999. But then it can be argued a similar policy for something like the supposed $849 XFX Mercury AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Magnetic Air Edition would mean the MSRP for the RX 9070 XT could be more around the $750 mark (US dollars) rather than the aforementioned $600-$650.

There is still hope to be had for gamers if the prices are either fake or real: If they are fake then users will have to wait until AMD itself can confirm the true MSRPs (remember, AMD’s Frank Azor stated “$899 USD starting price point was never part of the plan”). If the prices are real, they will likely soon be cut to be more competitive against RTX 5070 boards. However, at the moment, there are many comments declaring that a pricing structure of this kind will simply leave the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT “dead on arrival” (DOA).