AMD’s RX 9070 XT may repeat a previous pricing mistake

By Monica J. White Published February 25, 2025

AMD is soon set to announce more details about the upcoming RX 9070 XT, which might end up rivaling some of the best graphics cards in the mainstream segment. More than the specs, the rumor mill has been buzzing with whispers about how much the GPU is going to cost. Today, a well-known leaker weighed in on the matter, and it seems like AMD may undercut Nvidia — but only just about.

According to David Huang on X (formerly Twitter), the card will cost $699. This was posted in response to another user, who guessed that it’d be priced at $649. According to VideoCardz, AMD claims to want to target a sub-$700 price range with its new flagship, which gives more weight to these rumors.

Assuming that the $699 turns out to be correct, this might put the RX 9070 XT in an interesting, albeit a bit dangerous, position in the market. Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti launched at $750, and the RTX 5070 will soon follow with a $550 price tag. Meanwhile, AMD’s RX 9070 XT is said to fall somewhere between those two GPUs in terms of performance, which makes a $700 price tag justifiable … but perhaps not ideal.

This strategy, meaning AMD dropping its price to be just slightly cheaper than Nvidia, was used in RDNA 3, but its success is debatable. AMD always ended up lowering the prices more over time, and the GPUs that offered great performance per dollar from the get-go were the ones that became fan favorites in the end.

Undercutting Nvidia just a little bit is a good thing, but may not be enough for people to turn toward AMD. Nvidia enjoys the perks of being the biggest fish in the GPU market, and many gamers default to Team Green whenever they’re buying a new card. AMD may need more than a $50 price cut to sway those gamers in its own direction.

Moreover, as is often the case with AMD, RDNA 4 may suffer from the fact that RDNA 3 cards are still so readily available, and at much lower prices than they used to be sold for, too. The RX 7900 XTX, the RX 7900 XT, and even the RX 7900 GRE may work as replacements for AMD’s new GPU, although the latter is said to be getting obliterated in benchmarks.

Of course, AMD may still win against Nvidia — even with a $700 flagship GPU. This is because both the RTX 5070 Ti and the RTX 5070 are likely to be overpriced or difficult to buy for a while to come. This is just one of the several issues faced by the RTX 50-series post-launch. If AMD can offer better availability and cards sold at MSRP, even a $700 price tag might do the trick.

While those Twitter insiders have previously shared accurate information about upcoming releases, it’s important to take it all with a grain of salt until we’re sure. It won’t be long now: AMD will reveal the card on February 28 during a special event.