Some dedicated AIB partners have told Igor Wallossek that AMD is reportedly skipping the Radeon 7700 XT, for now. This news comes as some retailers have told the tech reviewer that they are seeing consumers focusing on either buying flagship offerings such as NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090 or going the opposite direction seeking the lowest-priced cards they can find leaving the mid-tier cards largely sitting on the shelf. In turn, it has been speculated by these partners that AMD’s plan is to put a greater focus on the more affordable entry-level tier segment instead. These board partners have told Igor that they already have market-ready Radeon RX 7600 models ready to show at the upcoming Computex event.
From Igor’s Lab:
“What I can confirm, however, is that individual (!) AMD board partners will show a Radeon RX 7600 as a finished product at Computex, while other partners, who use both AMD and NVIDIA chips, are first exercising wait-and-see restraint. To paraphrase politely. The statement that you don’t want to produce anything just to satisfy production and where you don’t see any chances of profits then hurts a bit. There is no price basis for a Radeon RX 7700 XT at the moment because you could even slip into the loss zone because the target group shifts and the price shouldn’t fit anymore.”
The Low-to-Mid-Tier Battleground
Meanwhile, partners that produce graphics cards for both AMD and NVIDIA are said to using a wait-and-see strategy to see how the market fares. NVIDIA recently released its GeForce RTX 4070, and Igor also confirmed that the RTX 4060 Ti will launch in May/June, but while the RTX 4070 has received favorable reviews many have criticized its price. This also happened with the RTX 4080. The Radeon RX 7700 XT is believed to be a more direct competitor to the GeForce RTX 4070 but as many retailers continue to see newly launched NVIDIA cards sit on shelves it is believed that AMD would rather not risk lost profits in competing at a price point that consumers are not showing interest in.
“One thing has also become clear in the last few months: New graphics cards are no longer sold only by performance classes, but primarily by price classes.”
-Igor Wallossek
Additionally, the AMD RX6800 XT and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3070 have both come up as contenders for competing with the RTX 4070 (Brent Justice recently published a very informative performance comparison review between the RX6800 XT and RTX 4070 which can be found here) and consumers are waiting to see if NVIDIA will drop the price, beyond a previously mentioned rebate to its partners. This too would affect a pricing strategy from AMD for anything it plans to offer in the same, or lower, segment and why the board partners have said that AMD is reportedly skipping the RX 7700 XT for now.
Intel is competing
One last detail, as many consumers have hoped for, is that the newest player in the discreet GPU market, Intel, is making waves with its Arc line of graphics cards. From driver updates to more games receiving support for XeSS, the Intel Arc A750, at $250 (sometimes less if found on sale), has been getting a lot more attention lately. It and the Arc A770 are poised to compete in the low-to-mid tier segment where AMD and NIVIDA may have to adjust their own strategies in order to keep their respective market shares, especially as Intel continues to show how these cards have more untapped performance potential.