New GPUs are finally here, or are they really? Even then, are they available for the price they’re meant to be? That’s quickly becoming one of the most talked-about topics in PC gaming right now. So today we’re going to look at the pricing situation with AMD’s newly launched RDNA4 graphics cards compared to NVIDIA’s RTX 50 series. Now that the dust has settled from this week’s launches, we can take a proper look at what’s actually happening in stores versus what was promised. So, let’s break down the real pricing situation, what you’re getting for your money, and most importantly – whether either company is actually offering decent value.
AMD RX 9000 Series
Alright, let’s jump straight into what we’ve seen with AMD’s RX 9070 series launch. As many of you watching the launch coverage from us already know, AMD has taken quite an interesting approach with these cards. Most notably, they’re not selling reference design “Made-By-AMD” cards at all this generation. That render that was accidentally leaked during their Reddit marketing? Yeah, that card doesn’t actually exist for purchase.
Instead, we’re seeing exclusive partner cards from day one. The RX 9070 XT had an announced MSRP of $599.99, but I’ve been monitoring retailers since the minute they went live, and most were listing at well above that now that the base units are sold out essentially. Now bear in mind, this was happening around the world. In the EU, in the UK, and America, where things could be even more expensive once you factor in tariffs, all having a big part to play. Meanwhile, the standard RX 9070 came in at $549.99 MSRP, but actual shelf prices again were much higher, assuming you can even find it in stock to begin with.
Bait and Switch
But here’s where things get really interesting – and honestly quite concerning. What we’re witnessing is nothing short of a classic bait-and-switch. For months, AMD has been heavily marketing these upcoming cards with their attractive MSRP price points, getting everyone excited about the value proposition of RDNA4, even before they’d announced actual pricing. Their entire marketing campaign centered around how gamers would finally be able to access next-gen performance at reasonable prices without even telling you specs, pricing or anything, and it worked.
MSRP
However, the prices that were close to MSRP are only available for a very limited number of cards. We’re talking just a few hundred units across all major retailers. In fact, several stores already sold through their allocation of these “first wave” cards within minutes of launch, and prices immediately started climbing. What’s become clear is that retailers received substantial stock beyond these “first wave” units – For example, retailers had around 2,000 units from Sapphire, 1,000 from PowerColor, 1000 from Gigabyte, and another 1,000 from ASRock – but only a tiny fraction of those were ever intended to sell at the advertised price. This is textbook bait-and-switch: lure consumers in with attractive MSRP pricing that’s heavily advertised, generate buzz and positive reviews based on that pricing, then quietly raise prices once the initial batch sells out.
Ready to ship to happy customers pic.twitter.com/ih1rdend8S
— Adrian Thompson (@SAPPHIRE_Adrian) March 4, 2025
It’s particularly frustrating because publicly available information from retailers confirms this strategy. Multiple retailers have publicly stated that “MSRP is capped at a quantity of a few hundred, so prices will jump once those are sold through.” Others have acknowledged they already have second shipments waiting in warehouses that they cannot sell at the recommended retail price.
Tomorrow the @AMDRadeon RX 9070 & 9070 XT go on sale worldwide!
— Frank Azor (@AzorFrank) March 6, 2025
Huge thanks to everyone everywhere that brought these products to life including our incredible partners and the community that keeps inspiring us. Your support, feedback, and passion fuel everything we do.
This…
Nvidia RTX 5000 Series
Now, let’s compare this to what’s happening with NVIDIA’s RTX 50 series. Their lineup starts with the RTX 5070 at $549, followed by the 5070 Ti at $749, the 5080 at $999, and the flagship 5090 at that eye-watering $1,999 price point. At first glance, AMD’s pricing seems more competitive, especially in the mid-range, with the RX 9070 XT undercutting the RTX 5070 Ti by around $150 at MSRP.
But here’s the reality check about availability – both companies have had significant supply issues, but with very different consumer expectations. With AMD, their entire marketing campaign centered around accessibility and reasonable pricing. They positioned themselves as the “people’s choice” with widely available cards at friendly price points. What we got instead was a limited batch of cards at MSRP that sold out within minutes, followed by plenty of stock at inflated prices. If you missed that initial batch when it came out, you’re now likely paying $700, or higher for a 9070 XT, which suddenly makes it much less of a value proposition.
NVIDIA’s stock situation is also dire – with some stores receiving as few as 15-20 RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 cards for launch day. But here’s the critical difference: nobody is surprised by this. NVIDIA has conditioned the market over several generations to expect limited availability at launch. They didn’t build their marketing around promises of wide availability, albeit, I don’t think anyone anticipated just how awful supply would be from both vendors.
Now what gets really interesting with NVIDIA is when we look at the bigger picture. Take a look at NVIDIA’s latest quarterly earnings. In Q4 of fiscal year 2025, NVIDIA reported total revenue of $39.3 billion. But here’s the kicker – only $2.5 billion of that came from gaming. That’s just 6.4% of their total revenue! Meanwhile, their data center business brought in a staggering $35.6 billion – over 90% of their revenue.
Let that sink in for a moment. The consumer GPU market that we all obsess over represents just a tiny fraction of NVIDIA’s business. When you look at these numbers, it becomes painfully obvious why NVIDIA might not be particularly concerned about gaming GPU availability or pricing. Their focus has clearly shifted to where the real money is – AI and data center solutions.
Consumer Vs Enterprise
With gross profits of $28.7 billion and net profits of $22.1 billion, NVIDIA is swimming in cash from their enterprise customers. When you’re making that kind of money from data centers, why would you prioritise manufacturing capacity for gaming cards that generate comparatively minimal revenue? The enterprise sector is willing to pay whatever NVIDIA asks, without blinking, because AI computing is driving their businesses forward in new, big ways.
This financial reality explains a lot about the current supply situation with RTX 50 series cards. There have been reports of multiple issues with the consumer RTX cards, including missing ROPs (Render Output Units) in some samples and quality control problems that have led to connectors setting alight as we discussed previously. But instead of addressing these issues head-on and ensuring adequate supply for gamers, NVIDIA appears to be allocating most of their chip production to enterprise products.
Why would NVIDIA care about gaming GPU availability when their data center revenue has grown 16% quarter-over-quarter to $35.6 billion, while gaming is just $2.5 billion? Their margins are astronomical – 73% gross margin and 56% net margin. This means that for every dollar of revenue, they’re keeping 56 cents as pure profit. These are the kinds of numbers that make Wall Street drool and shareholders celebrate, but sadly they don’t translate to consumer-friendly pricing or availability.
The unfortunate reality is that both AMD and NVIDIA have recognized that artificial scarcity creates higher prices and better margins. When NVIDIA can sell every AI chip they produce to data centers at premium prices, manufacturing capacity will naturally be allocated away from gaming products. Similarly, when AMD can sell limited quantities of cards at MSRP to generate positive reviews, then sell the bulk of their stock at higher prices, they maximize their profits while still maintaining the illusion of consumer-friendliness.
Value
So, what’s the verdict after seeing the actual launch play out? Is either company actually offering good value with these new cards? Based on what we’ve seen in the past few weeks, I’d say the situation is even worse than we anticipated.
If you were one of the lucky few who managed to snag an RX 9070 XT at or near its $599 MSRP in those first few hours, congratulations – you got decent value. But for everyone else looking at these cards today, you’re facing prices that are already $60-100 above MSRP, which substantially erodes AMD’s value proposition. At $650-700, the 9070 XT is suddenly much closer to the $749 RTX 5070 Ti, which offers better ray tracing, DLSS 4, and superior content creation features. Now obviously, that’s MSRP pricing, but in a saturated market with crazy pricing, it’s difficult to justify the slightly cheaper one for less features.
What’s particularly disappointing is how blatant this limited MSRP availability strategy has become, especially after AMD spent months heavily advertising these “reasonable prices” as a key selling point for RDNA4. Their entire marketing campaign leading up to launch emphasised affordability and value, with prominent banner ads claiming “we are for gamers.” They repeatedly hammered home the message that RDNA4 would bring high-performance gaming to the masses at reasonable price points.
Instead, what they’ve delivered is merely the illusion of value, actually providing it to only a small fraction of buyers who happened to be refreshing store pages at the exact moment of launch, or worse, scalpers who managed to buy it immediately before any actual person could react. This deliberate misdirection feels especially manipulative given how central the pricing narrative was to their pre-launch marketing.
What Should You Do?
For those of you who missed the launch window and are still considering an upgrade, my advice would be this: set realistic expectations about pricing. The RX 9070 XT at $650-700 is a very different value proposition than at $599. Take a breath, reassess whether the card still represents good value at current market pricing, and consider whether the RTX 5070 or 5070 Ti might actually be better options when factoring in the complete package of performance, features, and software support and I never thought I’d be saying that about the RTX 5070, because I already mentioned how bad that is in terms of value, but in relative terms, compared to AMD, it changes things up.
Should You Wait?
If you’re not in a rush, it might be worth waiting a few weeks to see if AMD can improve the stock situation at proper MSRP pricing. We’ve seen with previous launches that prices sometimes improve after the initial launch frenzy dies down, though based on what retailers have said about their inventory allocation instructions, I wouldn’t count on a significant improvement this time around.
Demand today for our new @amdradeon cards has been phenomenal. We are working with our AIBs to replenish stock at our partners ASAP in the coming days and weeks. MSRP pricing (excluding region specific tariffs and/or taxes) will continue to be encouraged beyond today so don't… pic.twitter.com/8VxGioMkev
— Frank Azor (@AzorFrank) March 6, 2025
What we witnessed with this was unfortunately the new normal in the GPU market – artificially limited stock at advertised prices, followed by significant markups once that stock depletes. It’s a strategy that benefits manufacturers and retailers at the expense of consumers, and until we as a community push back by refusing to pay these inflated prices, it’s likely to continue.
The market reality in 2025 is that GPU prices aren’t what they appear on paper. MSRP has become almost meaningless – it’s more of a marketing tool than an actual price you can expect to pay unless you’re camping out on store websites the moment cards go live. That $599 RX 9070 XT might as well be a limited edition collector’s item for how few people actually managed to purchase one at that price.
Price Vs Performance
That said, if we look at performance per dollar even at current market prices, this generation does offer improvements over the last, even accounting for the price increases. The RX 9070 XT delivers significantly better performance in things like ray tracing than any RDNA3 GPU did at a similar price point adjusted for inflation. The same goes for NVIDIA’s lineup compared to their RTX 4000 series counterparts. We’re just paying more for that performance than the announced MSRPs would suggest.
So, that’s the current state of the GPU market after NVIDIA and AMD’s launches. Neither company is offering exceptional value across the board, but there are pockets of decent value if you can get the right card at the right price – though those opportunities were fleeting at best. The RX 9070 XT at MSRP would have been one such pocket, but at current market prices, the waters are much murkier and then the 9070 non-XT, well that’s already bad at MSRP pricing, so anything above and beyond is frankly, even worse.
Your Thoughts?
So what do you think about how this launch played out? Were you one of the lucky few who managed to snag a card at MSRP, or are you now looking at inflated prices and reconsidering your options? Let us know in the comments section below.
