AMD and Nvidia have come under fire for their respective GPU prices. Both companies have only launched high-end cards and they’re understandably pricey. Still, not everyone can pay $800 or more for a GPU. The remedy to this situation is a midrange model, but neither company has revealed plans for those yet. It’s anticipated that Nvidia will launch the RTX 4070 in March at GTC, but it’ll still be a $500 card. Since AMD has historically undercut Nvidia on pricing, it’s widely expected that its midrange RDNA 3 GPUs will be the first affordable GPUs in the current generation. However, a new report indicates they might not be available for a very long time.
AMD is developing three midrange GPUs: RX 7800, RX 7700, and RX 7600. A total of seven RDNA 3 GPUs have appeared in a post on the Chinese forum MyDrivers. Two are confirmed to be the current RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT. Even though they might exist currently, sources indicate they’re being delayed until June 2023. That’s when China has one of its most significant shopping events of the year, called 618. It takes place on June 18, and it’s like our Black Friday. Apparently, AMD is waiting for this event to launch them simultaneously and hopefully sell many GPUs.
Discrete Desktop GPU shipments over time. (Image: JPR/Tom’s Hardware)
As Wccftech notes, this is a risky strategy if true. It’s an unprecedented gap between launches and comes when the gaming industry is begging AMD and Nvidia for more affordable GPUs.
It’s possible engineering reasons are behind the company’s plans. AMD had a widely reported issue with the vapor chamber on some of its Radeon RX 7900 XTX cards. We are still unsure how many cards were affected by that manufacturing snafu. AMD is reportedly offering RMAs to affected customers, but it might have led the company to take a second look at its partner XTX’s capabilities.
A second poster on MyDrivers points to other engineering issues for the delay. AMD has seen what Nvidia’s upcoming RTX 4070 and RTX 4060 can theoretically do and thinks it can’t compete. This has caused it to go back to the drawing board to polish the silicon and drivers. Specific topics of investigation include power consumption and thermals.
Despite the alleged delay, it’s also reported that AMD wants to compete on price-to-performance in the midrange. That is, after all, the vast majority of what gamers buy. GPUs in the $150 to $250 price range have always reigned supreme at the top of the Steam survey. The GTX 1060 is still at the top of the rankings despite being released in 2016. If Nvidia continues its trend of stratospheric pricing for Ada Lovelace GPUs, it’s giving AMD a big opening to exploit. Now the question is simply whether AMD can take advantage of it.
Now read:
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