Not this again — AMD’s RX 9070 XT may cost up to $250 more than MSRP

By Willow Roberts Published March 6, 2025

Gigabyte's RX 9070 XT GPU. — AMD had a lot of cards at CES 2025, but they've not gone on sale almost two months later. TechPowerUp / Gigabyte

AMD is joining the battle against some of Nvidia’s best graphics cards. The RX 9070 XT and its non-XT counterpart should now (hopefully) start flooding the shelves, and gamers are hoping to see them at their recommended list price (MSRP). Unfortunately, some models may cost up to $250 more from the get-go, which is similar to all of Nvidia’s recent RTX 50-series releases where the GPUs cost much more than they should.

Although the cards aren’t technically up for sale just yet, Best Buy seems to have plenty of RX 9070 XT and non-XT models listed — they’re just marked as “coming soon.”

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The good news is that there are several models listed at MSRP, which means $599 for the 9070 XT and $549 for the RX 9070. The bad news? Some cards are really pushing the price up by a whole lot.

Xfx radeon RX 9070 pricing screenshot. — BestBuy

Take the XFX Mercury AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT OC, for example. This is an overclocked card, and it comes in white, which often adds a bit of a premium to the price tag. Still, the GPU is listed at $849, which adds a whopping $250 to the MSRP.

Meanwhile, the RX 9070 non-XT has some pretty pricey models up for grabs, too. The most expensive one I could find costs $669, which is less of an increase, but still a huge markup.

AMD hasn’t made its own versions of these cards (known as Made By AMD, or MBA), but it promised that it’d work with its partners to ensure wide availability. Let’s hope that this availability extends to not just expensive overclocked models but also their more affordable counterparts sold at MSRP.

Getting the pricing right is going to be key in AMD’s competition against rival Nvidia. At $600, the RX 9070 XT is affordable — after all, it can reportedly rival Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti, which starts at $750. However, bring that price up to $850 and it’s a whole different ball game.

Computing Writer

Willow Roberts has been a Computing Writer at Digital Trends for a year and has been writing for about a decade. She has a…

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Computing

AMD’s RX 9070 XT could soon cost a lot more than it does now

An Asus RX 9070 XT TUF GPU.

After the way Nvidia's RTX 50-series ended up being called a "paper launch," many breathed a sigh of relief when AMD's RX 9000 series appeared on the shelves in much larger quantities. However, once this initial shipment is sold, AMD could face the same problem as the rest of the best graphics cards: Price hikes, price hikes everywhere.

The cards officially hit the shelves yesterday, and many were spotted far above the recommended list price (MSRP), with some overclocked models priced at up to $250 more than the $600 starting price. However, AMD spoke several times about working with its partners to ensure wide availability at MSRP, and indeed, many retailers had some models up for sale. Those MSRP cards were only around for a short time, though, and they might never come back, according to retailers.

Computing

An AMD RX 9060 XT with 16GB would ruin Nvidia’s second-hand market

Several AMD RX 9000 series graphics cards.

I know, I know we're all hopped up about the RX 9070 XT and 9070 launch -- I know I am. But looking beyond the potential big win AMD is on for with its first RDNA4 graphics cards, I'm also particularly excited about the potential for the rumored 9060 XT. Not because it'll be cheaper again -- it will be -- but because it might have up to 16GB of VRAM. That's going to wreck Nvidia's long-term second-hand card market, which could have a much greater impact on AMD's market share over the long term.

It's all just rumors for now, and some of my colleagues are much less excited by this than I am, but I think there's some real potential here for this little card to be a game changer.
Hitting the VRAM wall
Video memory, or VRAM, has been a front-and centre feature of graphics card spec sheets for generations, but it's started to matter a lot more in recent years. While flagship graphics cards have exploded in their VRAM quantities, with the 5090 now offering 32GB, most mainstream cards have been getting by with less. It was only a couple of generations ago that the flagship RTX 3080 only had 10GB of VRAM, and outside of the top few models, you'll still see 12GB, 10GB, or even 8GB.

Computing

AMD’s latest GPUs may have an unexpected motherboard problem

AMD Radeon RX 9070 GPUs from different brands

Component companies are constantly upgrading their protocols and AMD is no different. The brand, known for its graphics cards, is transitioning its latest 9000 series GPUs to the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware standard. This means shifting away from the pre-boot BIOS setup that has been the customary way of performing various system tasks for many years.

PC World noted that many computer enthusiasts may believe that UEFI and pre-boot BIOS are interchangeable. However, AMD detailed in support documentation that it is moving forward with UEFI as its sole firmware standard for graphics cards including the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT, for several reasons. These include improved security, interoperability for different interfaces, swift firmware updates, support for large hard drives, support for new PC hardware, Windows Secure Boot compatibility, as well as faster shutdown, startup, sleep, and resume times.