AMD’s Phantom: The RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT are Great, but Have Disappeared

Ah, AMD! At long last, you have decided to do something about your subpar GPU market share. Better late than never!

AMD has recently launched the RX 9070 and the RX 9070 XT, for $550 and $600. So how do these two new cards compare when pitted against nVidia’s offerings?

The Good

• • Both cards have very good performance, able to play all games at 1440p, as well as the majority of titles at 4K.
  • These two new cards run cooler and quieter than their predecessors. In particular, the 9070 (no XT) runs very cool and beats the nVidia competition handily.
  • MSRP for both cards is a lot lower than the previous RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX that they are replacing. $550/$600 vs the $900/1000 launch price of the older cards. Very importantly, they match or beat nVidia’s MSRP for its competing cards.

The Bad

• • While performance is good, both cards run nearly identically to the cards they are replacing. The RX 9070 and RX 7900 XT are indistinguishable, and the same goes for the RX 9070 XT vs RX 7900 XTX.
  • The argument that we are getting a price cut is disingenuous, as $550/$600 is still a high price.
  • $550/$600 is only the MSRP. In reality…

The Ugly

WHY AMD, WHY? nVidia’s cards that launched earlier suffered from chronic overpricing and severe lack of availability, so what does AMD do? AMD launches two cards that ALSO suffer from chronic overpricing and a severe lack of availability!

• • The $550 9070? Went up to $710 and out-of-stock.
  • And the XT version for $600? All the way up to $800 (and, of course, out-of-stock).

Going Forward

nVidia and AMD have both launched two cards each this month. All four are great, all four are better than all prior alternatives in that price range, and so we are adding all four to our main build chart. As for availability and MSRP… well it is a disaster, but time heals all wounds.

• • The RTX 4070 will be removed from the Outstanding and Excellent tiers.
  • The RTX 4070 Super will be removed from the Exceptional tier.
  • The RX 7800 XT will be removed from the Outstanding tier.
  • The RX 7900 XT will be removed from the Enthusiast tier.
  • The RX 7900 XTX will be removed from the Extremist tier.
  • The RTX 5070 and RX 9070 will be added to the Outstanding tier.
  • The RTX 5070 Ti and RX 9070 XT will be added to the Exceptional and Enthusiast tiers.

Let us hope that these cards will be in-stock for MSRP soon. We have suffered enough! (And yes, this part of the post is intentionally duplicated from my earlier article discussing the launch of two new cards from nVidia.)

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