AMD’s RDNA 3 graphics cards are on the way, and we’ve learned about prices for several XFX third-party models via Amazon listings, which have now been pulled down — though before they’re highlighted on Twitter.
Regular hardware leaker @momomo_us shared a product listing for the XFX Speedster Merc 310 version of the RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT via tweet (courtesy of graphics card (opens in a new tab)).
The 7900 XTX is AMD’s next-generation flagship, and according to the price tag on Amazon, the Speedster Merc version of the XFX retails for $1,100 in the US, a hundred dollars more than the reference board. The 7900 XT card sells for $979, which is $80 more than the US MSRP of the reference model.
As mentioned, these prices no longer appear on the corresponding product pages on Amazon, so someone discovered the leaked information and removed it.
For the uninitiated, a reference build of a graphics card — which is the most basic incarnation of a motherboard built to AMD’s default specs — will always be cheaper than a custom build with more powerful clocks and better components (plus more effective cooling), so they will obviously be more expensive.
Of course as you’d expect for the extra spending they run a bit faster though the difference is usually not that big (they can probably be overclocked a step further than the vanilla boards, mind you, for those enthusiasts working on this Pursue).
Analysis: Suggesting the price might be just right (or at least not wrong)
The key point to note here is that the XFX Speedster Merc 310 is not 10% more expensive than the reference model (actually 9% more expensive than the 7900 XT).
This is a far cry from the worrying rumors that have aired recently that AMD’s custom third-party RDNA 3 card offerings will be a lot of More expensive than the reference avatars (and they’re also likely to make up the bulk of the inventory early on).
A 10% markup seems reasonable for this XFX model, especially considering that the Speedster Merc is the graphics card maker’s high-end variant, and it’s one of the models that rumor makers are worried about being overpriced (the RTX 4080 style, in other words).
Naturally, we don’t know if these prices will prove to be correct, so we should handle this spillover with caution, as pre-release prices may be placeholders. Though Amazon is a more trustworthy source for such leaks than some of the smaller European retailers who often set prices up front, especially considering we’re only a few days away from the launch of the RDNA 3 graphics cards.
If this is indeed true, then Nvidia will have more reason to lower the price of the RTX 4080, which has also been rumored recently to be a reality. Team Green may need to stay competitive with its rivals and push RTX 4080 sales down, we also talked about the possible need to lower the asking price of the 4080 to give the rumored RTX 4070 Ti a competitive pricing headroom at the right level (A rather tricky pricing conundrum we discuss in detail here).