AMD’s RX 7600 XT might be dead on arrival — but there’s a catch

By Jacob Roach Published February 16, 2024

The RX 7600 XT graphics card on a pink background. — Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

AMD’s new RX 7600 XT graphics card isn’t off to a great start, at least according to sales data shared by 3DCenter. The new video card launched on Wednesday alongside Nvidia’s RTX 4070 Ti Super, and even with a relatively poor reception, Nvidia sold nearly 10 times as many graphics cards as AMD did in a sampling at a German retailer.

There are a few caveats to that, however. 3DCenter takes data for the number of sales from Mindfactory, a German hardware retailer, 12 to 14 hours after release. According to the data, weaker GPUs like the RTX 4060 and RX 7600 sell considerably less than more powerful GPUs like the RTX 4070 Super and RX 7800 XT. It indicates some bias in this data, perhaps showing that this retailer caters to a crowd willing to spend more money on a graphics card.

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Nvidia typically leads AMD in overall sales, but that’s not exactly what we see play out here. According to the data, AMD’s RX 7800 XT sold around 400 units in the short window after release, and that’s one of the best-reviewed graphics cards of the year (read our RX 7800 XT review). By comparison, Nvidia’s competing RTX 4070 sold just over 300 units.

Although this data is just from one retailer and shows some clear leanings toward higher-end GPUs, it would make sense if the RX 7600 XT isn’t selling well. As you can read in our RX 7600 XT review, the card barely moves the performance needle compared to the base RX 7600, and it comes with a 22% price hike.

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The biggest claim to fame for the GPU is 16GB of VRAM, which is unheard of for a graphics card that costs $330. Unfortunately, that extra VRAM only makes a difference in a small subset of games like The Last of Us Part One, which hog an unnecessary amount of VRAM. In many titles, the RX 7600 XT offers identical performance to the RX 7600, which makes sense considering both graphics cards hold identical core counts.

As for Nvidia, the Mindfactory data shows the RTX 4070 Ti Super selling considerably less than the base RTX 4070 Ti, moving around 30% fewer units. This is likely due to the awkward position of this GPU compared to Nvidia’s upcoming RTX 4080 Super, which you can read about in our RTX 4070 Ti Super review.

The latest batch of graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia is an attempt to improve the designs we saw over the past year, fixing either specs or pricing issues. That could explain why we’re seeing lower sales overall — after all, PC gamers who wanted to upgrade this generation have likely already picked up a graphics card.

Former Lead Reporter, PC Hardware

Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from…

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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

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

Gigabyte's RX 9070 XT GPU.

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."

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.