Radeon GPUs have been significantly better value than similarly fast Nvidia cards lately. These lower prices (by today’s dismal standards) may not last much longer, however. According to news from China, AMD and AIB makers are now preparing a substantial price increase, despite similar price move happening recently. The reason is the AI mania again, which has massively driven up the cost of memory, as well as manufacturing itself.
AMD has raised the recommended retail prices of graphics cards, both for the Chinese market and globally, according to a report from Board Channels, a forum where information from the Asian hardware industry often leaks. The company has already notified its partner manufacturers of the increase, reportedly. The change will raise the so-called “recommended” end customer prices (MSRP), but actual real retail prices are derived from them, so it can be expected that sooner or later these higher prices will make their way through distribution into local etailers you buy from as well.
The reason for the price hike is the cost of graphics memory that is still creeping up, driven up by a DRAM shortage on the market caused by massive demand for servers and AI accelerators. Beyond memory prices, however, other costs are rising too—like payments for other components (TSMC raised chip manufacturing prices across the board this year) and probably also for the assembly itself. Reports previously surfaced that costs are rising even for something as superficial as packaging. And logistics is likely getting more expensive as well, given the situation in global shipping and oil prices.
- Read more: DDR4 memory prices to still rise sharply despite already outgrowing DDR5 on the second-hand market
Board Channels states that AMD has raised the recommended prices of the Chinese Radeon RX 7650 GRE and Radeon RX 9070 GRE models by 400 CNY, to 2,999 and 4,999 CNY, which works out to increases of 15% and 9%. The price of the Radeon RX 9060 XT is said to rise by 300 CNY for the 8GB model (3,390 CNY, +10%) and by 600 CNY for the 16GB model (4,899 CNY, +14%). In our market, this would correspond to a price increase of about 40 EUR for the RX 9060 XT 8GB and 80 EUR for the RX 9060 XT 16GB, but China has a lower value-added tax, which should be factored in here, so the difference could be somewhat higher in our market.
Radeon RX 9070 XT as a Glimmer of Hope?
Radeon RX 9070 will probably be the most affected card, with its price rising from 5,599 to 6,299 CNY, an increase of 12.5% (93 EUR in our market). That would put the card very close to the price of the full-fat and significantly more powerful XT model (which, after all, has the same memory, 16 GB), which costs 6,999 CNY in China.
The Radeon RX 9070 XT appears to be an odd anomaly in this story, as its price reportedly has not increased. We don’t know whether this is an error in the leaked data or just a temporary situation, with the price to be raised later. We also have yet to see whether the price increase will be reflected differently in our market, even though according to the source the price adjustment is supposed to take place globally.
Nevertheless, if the Radeon RX 9070 XT were to stay at its price point which would be relatively cheap (in the sense that it hasn’t moved up in price like the rest of the cards), it could be a small silver lining, or perhaps even an opportunity. Buying the RX 9070 would make virtually no sense, because the Radeon RX 9070 XT would costs just 10% (roughly) more, which is relatively little given the total price of the card, and you get considerably higher performance for it. The price increases of the lower models thus ironically improve the appeal of the RX 9070 XT 16GB somewhat.
It would be welcome for another reason: Nvidia’s alternative—the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB—is up to 50% more expensive than Radeon RX 9070 XT cards currently, and for the price of a RX 9070 XT, Nvidia’s lineup now offers only the slower GeForce RTX 5070, which is additionally disadvantaged by smaller 12GB of memory. That is already becoming a limitation in games, forcing you to lower image quality so the game runs smoothly or doesn’t crash due to running out of VRAM.
Incidentally, AMD has reportedly not raised the price of the old low-end Radeon RX 6500 XT GPU with 4GB of memory either. That SKU is no longer a very relevant choice for gaming PCs, though.
Zdroj: VideoCardz
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
