AMD’s new refreshed RDNA 2 GPUs – a trio of slightly faster spins on existing Big Navi models – are in plentiful stock in the US (and seeing decent levels in other regions), with the graphics cards being pegged firmly at Team Red’s recommended pricing.
That’s the observation of one of the regular hardware leakers who chips in via Twitter, Greymon55, who tweeted in reference to these new 6x50 XT models (meaning the pepped-up flagship 6950 XT, plus the 6750 XT and 6650 XT).
Observed for some time and found that 6x50XT is in good stock and sold strictly according to MSRP. This is a good trend.May 17, 2022
Availability and pricing for these RDNA 2 offerings does seem to be pitched as Greymon55 asserts, or at least that’s what we found after having a quick comb through price tags ourselves – and clearly this is indeed a good trend.
For example, over at Newegg (at the time of writing), there are two 6950 XT models available at MSRP in the US ($1,099), and a couple of 6750 XT products at the recommended price ($549) with some others only a smidge over that (with third-party cards, we can always expect the fancier ones to command a premium, of course).
In the case of the lowest-end 6650 XT, the same is true with a pair of models at MSRP ($399 in this case), and again, there are other products which aren’t much more ($20 or $30 over, an extra outlay which you won’t lose much sleep over).
In the UK, we found one RX 6950 XT (at eBuyer) pitched at just a touch under MSRP, and one at Scan just a smidge over (which is a deal for today only, so grab that GPU quick if you fancy it), along with a few others elsewhere which are a little more expensive (again, you’ll obviously pay more for a faster liquid-cooled 6950 XT).
There are a number of 6750 XT models floating around in the UK for just over MSRP (by about £20 or so, not much in other words), and at OCUK we found one 6650 XT pitched at only a tenner over MSRP, with other variants elsewhere putting on a touch more of a premium at £30 or thereabouts – but many are in the right ballpark.
Other regions will hopefully be seeing a similar state of affairs, but of course that’s not guaranteed (going by one of the replies to Greymon’s tweet, Australia is not doing so handily with the new RDNA 2 GPUs).
Analysis: AMD digging deep to compete with Nvidia RTX 3000
All of this is more welcome news following the general trend of late where graphics card prices have already begun to come down and normalize towards MSRP levels. We can hope that we’ve seen the last of hugely inflated GPU pricing given that stock availability is predicted to improve further as we head into the second half of 2022.
AMD does seem to be going on something of an offensive to grab back some GPU turf, trying to drive forward with these new RDNA 2 launches. As we saw yesterday, Frank Azor, the company’s Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions and Marketing, has been busy telling us just how much better Big Navi is compared to RTX 3000 in terms of performance per dollar (and per Watt).
Maybe it isn’t surprising that AMD feels the need to push for some more traction in the race against Nvidia, considering a recent report which pointed out just how much Team Green dominates the best-selling GPU charts at Newegg in the US.
So, have the new RDNA 2 cards made any impact on those Newegg charts? The answer is no, not yet, as it remains the case that Nvidia completely dominates, with no less than 48 of the top 50 GPUs. Yes, that’s right: AMD only has two graphics cards in that entire top 50, placed at numbers 18 (an RX 6600 product) and 46 (an RX 6700 XT).
Still, we have to give things time, but AMD is also apparently slipping in the battle being fought via the rumor mill in terms of next-gen GPUs, with one leaker saying they’re rather ‘disappointed’ with how RDNA 3 is shaping up compared to RTX 4000 (which purportedly won’t be nearly as power-hungry as was previously thought).
At any rate, it’s good to see Team Red feeling compelled to be more competitive, and hitting MSRP with its new products, with further price drops perhaps in the pipeline (it could still pay to wait for a while yet to see what happens with pricing longer-term, unless you absolutely must have a new GPU right now).
