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Custom RX 7000 graphics cards from third-party card makers will launch later than the reference boards, and can be quite expensive to boot, if the latest from the GPU vine is to be believed.
video cardz (opens in new tab) reports that the Board Channels forum (in China) claims that the only RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX graphics cards initially appearing on AMD’s launch day (December 13) will be the reference boards.
Those are the ones built to AMD’s own reference specs, but there will also be models with more powerful configurations – higher clocks, better cooling – as usual. However, the final third-party variants won’t debut until a week or two after the reference boards are pushed onto the shelves. That would point to a late December sale date for these custom boards (and maybe things will even be pushed back to early 2023, as late December is a bit of an odd place timing wise).
Disturbingly, the Chinese source – treat all this with great caution as with any speculation – goes on to claim that custom boards can be “much more expensive” compared to the original reference models.
Analysis: A tricky situation for AMD?
Such advanced custom graphics cards of course have increased clocks, as mentioned, and often better quality components, cooling solutions and so on to maintain the temperatures that those faster clocks can keep in check. In short, it’s no surprise that more powerful models of the 7900 XT and XTX will be more expensive, which is entirely to be expected.
However, what’s a bit concerning here is the way things are presented as being much more expensive, and that sounds ominous. Are we going to see the same for AMD’s new RDNA 3 GPUs, just as the RTX 4080 has become very competitively priced with some third-party variants compared to the MSRP?
That seems to be the suggestion, which would be disappointing – as we very much hope that AMD keeps its RX 7900 variants relatively affordable, at least compared to Nvidia’s RTX 4080. (Remember, Team Red isn’t going to try and compete with the RTX 4090, but rather with the 4080 – that’s evident from what we’ve seen from AMD’s press materials and positioning).
There’s another key element here, and that’s the kind of volume that AMD and its card-making partners will be amassing in the initial RDNA 3 launch. That’s obviously critical to pricing, as if the stock isn’t plentiful and sells out quickly, well, it becomes a vicious cycle because cards will then sell even faster as scalpers set up their price incentives and buy stocks to resell.
According to the Board Channels source, the supply of RDNA 3 graphics cards is initially expected to be “sufficient”, but that’s a tough assessment at this stage, and one we’d take with a handful of salt.
AMD and its cardmakers could be in an awkward position when it comes to assessing stock, as Nvidia has been selling expensive Lovelace GPUs for a while now, particularly moving many units from the RTX 4090. (And to a lesser extent, the RTX 4080, too, although given its relative price to the 4090, that GPU has been received in a much less enthusiastic way, shall we say).
Pricey graphics cards are quite a niche proposition – especially when there’s a cost-of-living crisis in full swing, complete with skyrocketing energy bills – so is there any danger to AMD that Nvidia has already eaten too much of this pie? Remember that while the RX 7900 XT and XTX are certainly cheaper than Nvidia’s RTX 4080, they are still expensive boards – reference or not. And perhaps this kind of thinking is fueling concerns at AMD that the company doesn’t want to push too many RDNA 3 stocks initially.
This is pure speculation, of course, but that could tie into the rationale for delaying custom third-party models until a little later and spreading supply to perhaps better meet expected out-of-the-gate demand.
Overall, it’s clear enough that AMD has some tough trade-offs to make and several possible considerations to balance. So it’s not inconceivable that there might be a last minute schedule change going on behind the scenes as Team Red looks at Nvidia’s sales sheet with Lovelace – which is apparently about 160,000 units and counting for the RTX 4090 and 4080 – and tries to figure it out to come up with the best approach for launching strategy and volume.