Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

It turns out AMD isn’t cutting GPU prices after all

Nearly two weeks ago, AMD published a chart showing price cuts to every card in its RX 6000 range, following the controversy surrounding the RTX 4090’s absurdly high price tag. It turns out those price cuts aren’t official — they’re just what AMD’s graphics cards are currently selling for on Newegg.

The chart (below) clarifies that the prices were gathered from Newegg, but it still suggests that AMD was cutting the official list price of its GPUs. That’s what we originally published on September 22, and we weren’t alone. TechPowerUp proclaimed “AMD cuts MSRPs of Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards,” while Wccftech reported “official price cuts.” PCMag also ran the story, though it has since updated the article with a statement from AMD.

AMD graphics cards prices versus Nvidia.
AMD/TechPowerUp

An AMD spokesperson shared the same statement with Digital Trends: “To clarify, AMD has not reduced the price/MSRP of the Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards. The chart we provided, which is included in the article, simply listed the latest USD etail prices at Newegg as of September 15, 2022.”

Recommended Videos

Although AMD never claimed it was reducing the official list price, it’s not hard to see why so many publications ran with that story. Toward the end of August, reports started circulating that AMD and Nvidia partners were readying to cut GPU prices. Nvidia already had a round of price cuts in July, and given the excess supply of graphics cards coming out of the GPU shortage, additional price cuts were in order.

In addition, the chart came two days after AMD announced it would launch its RX 7000 graphics cards on November 3. As a new generation approaches, we typically see price cuts on the previous generation to make way for the new GPUs on store shelves. Combined with Nvidia’s price cuts, several reports of excess inventory, and a downward trend for GPU prices overall, it’s easy to see how so many publications got the impression that AMD was reducing official list prices.

AMD RX 6950 XT graphics card on a pink background.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

AMD’s original chart still holds up, short of the RX 6750 XT ($50 more expensive now) and the RX 6700 XT ($30 more expensive now).

Clearly, this was a large misunderstanding, but the main issue is that it’s a misunderstanding that was able to circulate for nearly two weeks. We didn’t get word from AMD until October 3, which is the same day that PCMag updated its story with the statement from AMD.

Although prices are mostly up to retailers anyway, the list price still sets expectations for general pricing and performance. This is a common criticism of Nvidia with cards like the RTX 3080, which is only now starting to sell for the list price Nvidia announced two years ago.

GPU prices are on a downward trend, so it’s no surprise that AMD’s graphics cards are selling for less than list price now. Regardless, it’s important to know that those price shifts come from a lack of demand, not a decision from the top of AMD.

Jacob Roach
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from…
We might get a new Steam Deck next month — and Valve isn’t making it
The Steam Deck OLED on a pink background.

I expected to see some new handheld gaming PCs this year at CES, but it looks like something even more exciting is in store. AMD and Lenovo are hosting an event during the week of the show, and it'll have two special guests in attendance: Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais and Microsoft's Jason Ronald.

I'll be attending the event on January 7, about which Sean Hollister over at The Verge initially shared out the details. There are a couple of reasons why this event could be significant. First, Valve. Since the launch of the Asus ROG Ally, there have been a handful of these types of events featuring spokespeople from AMD, Microsoft, and the company making a handheld -- Lenovo or Asus. Valve hasn't ever been in attendance, and considering Valve makes the Linux-based Steam Deck, it would be odd for the company to have a presence.

Read more
No, the Nvidia App isn’t killing your PC’s performance
The Nvidia app on the Windows desktop.

When I heard that the new Nvidia App could reduce performance by up to 15%, I was shocked. If this is the first you're hearing about it, I'm sure you're shocked, too. The news stems from Sebastian Castellanos, who posted on X about a big performance drop with the Nvidia App installed in both Black Myth: Wukong and The Talos Principle 2. Some news outlets ran with the claim, including Tom's Hardware and Dark Side of Gaming, showing original testing that backed up the performance loss.

The only problem? The Nvidia App isn't to blame.

Read more
AMD is finally turning the corner with FSR 3
An AMD graphics card sitting on a pink background.

I've been very critical of AMD's FSR 3 in the past. It's not that the tool is bad -- in fact, I think it's excellent -- but for a long time, it just wasn't available in a wide swath of games. That's changing. Over the past year, AMD has broadened support for its upscaling and frame generation tech massively, and it's continued to refine the upscaling algorithm that makes up the core of FSR. I'm sure you, like myself, have settled into assumptions about what FSR is capable of and where it's available, but as we close out the year, it's high time to challenge those assumptions.

It's no secret that Nvidia's DLSS 3 is a core component of some of the best graphics cards you can buy, and AMD's FSR 3.1, although impressive, doesn't reach the heights of Nvidia's AI-driven tech. That hasn't changed, and I'm not sure it ever will. But based on the FSR 3.1 implementations I'm seeing today, AMD is offering a tool that useful in a ton of situations.
What changed?

Read more