- AMD has described its RDNA 4 launch as “unprecedented”
- Demand has outpaced supply significantly
- The company has promised restocks as “priority number one”
AMD has described its RDNA 4 graphics card launch as “unprecedented” in a new interview, promising that restocks of the two current GPUs are “priority number one”.
In an hour-long video interview with AMD’s David McAfee, Corporate VP and General Manager via HotHardware, the company made its mission statement clear: “The biggest thing we are doing quite honestly is ramping supply of Navi 48, very aggressively the demand we saw on day one was really unprecendented and unprecendeted across all the price points in the RDNA 4 product portfolio”.
Despite promising “wide availability” during the announcement of RDNA 4 hardware at the end of February, RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT stock has been fleeting since the first day they hit the shelves. Current stock is dry in the US, usually reserved to just bundles, and options available in the UK can be well above the aggressive sticker price set by AMD, something claimed to be “limited time” by some retailers.
“We want to make sure that users are able to buy cards at the prices they expect to see in the market” McAfee later adds in the interview, “We’re doing everything that we can to make that happen” for “retailers as well as our board partners are doing their part to help ensure that there’s plenty of supply at those price points”.
AMD did not produce a reference model for either the RX 9070 nor the RX 9070 XT, meaning that the design, features and price point (to some extent) could be dictated by third-party AIB models. As such, it falls on the company’s partners to ramp up production to meet demand in “making sure that they have all the components that they need to build the widest assortment of cards that they can”.
While the current offerings of RDNA 4 hardware are firmly placed in the midrange market, with respective MSRPs of $549 and $599, respectively (being roughly on par with the RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti), McAfee expressed that AMD may still attempt to compete at the higher-end as well.
“We certainly have aspirations to cover the entire gamut of gaming solutions that are out there in the market, and maybe one day we’ll get there”. It’s unclear whether this comment pertains to a potential higher-end RNDA 4 card or whether RDNA 5 will offer RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 rivals in the future.
A commitment to consumer demand
We’ve been impressed with the current RDNA 4 lineup since it launched earlier this month, citing the RX 9070 XT’s near-RTX 4080 performance for the low price of $599 as a particular highlight. This is to say nothing of FSR 4, the latest version of the upscaling and Frame Generation technology, which is now AI-powered, being a step closer in quality, smoothness, and performance to Nvidia‘s ever-evolving DLSS, too.
Given the sheer price-to-performance afforded by both the current RDNA graphics cards, it’s not surprising to see that their availability has been limited (seemingly) far beyond AMD’s expectations – hence the shortages.
Traditionally, Team Red has played second fiddle behind Team Green, but the aggressive pricing (and powerful performance) of its latest cards have meant that it’s occupying a niche in the midrange space that PC gamers can get behind. This is especially true given the lackluster RTX 5070, which we gave a 3-star write-up.
It’s been just over a week since the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT went on sale, and they’ve been hard to find ever since, selling out in minutes from major retailers across regions like the US and the UK.
AMD’s promise of restocks and backing its partners as they ramp up AIB production is an encouraging move. We’re hopeful that AMD keeps to its word and that more PC gamers will be able to see what’s possible with a GPU under $600, while its major competitor is more concerned with pushing performance boundaries (and prices) in the other direction.
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alekshamcloughlin@outlook.com (Aleksha McLoughlin)
