AMD's impressive new cards are out today, and have had since January to shore up stock in the channel, and we'll be keeping an eye on how that pans out.
Jump straight to the section you want…
1. Quick links
2. Card performance
3. Purchasing tips
4. Live updates
The brand new AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 cards launch today, March 6, at 6am PT/9am EST/2pm GMT. And there ought to be both a healthy selection of stock available and a corresponding level of demand, too.
In our AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT review we’ve been extolling the virtues of the new RDNA4 graphics card, and its price tag which has been designed specifically to take the fight to Nvidia when it comes to the cost of modern graphics cards. This is a mid-range GPU with the performance to take on the green team’s RTX 5070 Ti cards, but with the same sort of initial price as the RTX 5070.
AMD has also evolved the performance of ray tracing within its new GPUs, which has massively closed the gap on Nvidia in one of the few places where the GeForce cards completely held the ground. It’s still ahead, but the RX 9070 XT is far closer than we’ve ever seen AMD before.
It’s also got a new FSR 4 upscaler, which on first looks seems like a winner. It’s now using machine learning for its upscaling algorithms, trained on its own Instinct range of datacenter cards, and seems to be a far more stable visual experience than FSR3. It is, however, restricted to these new cards, which means you’re going to have to get in line to buy one if you want to get in on the new version of FSR.
But price is going to be a big thing for this launch. I only had final pricing on the cards I was reviewing minutes before the embargo lifted, and they were fluctuating around a lot before then. For what it’s worth, I believe there will be a fair number of MSRP cards around the $599 | $549 prices for the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 respectively.
Though I don’t expect them to remain that way much after launch. I’ve already heard from one manufacturer at least that they’re treating them as launch prices, and will be hiking the prices up after today. So, my advice would be to get in on an MSRP card as soon as possible.
Also, because the high-end OC cards aren’t hugely worth the massive outlay they will no doubt be asking for. My reference Asus Prime RX 9070 XT could essentially match the overclocked performance of the far more expensive XFX Merc RX 9070 XT I’ve also benchmarked.
Quick retailer links
US RX 9070 XT retailers:
- Best Buy: Just five cards listed and only one at MSRP
- Newegg: No card listings yet
- Amazon: Keep your eyes peeled for RX 9070 XT listings, but unlikely at launch
- B&H Photo: No cards listed so far
US RX 9070 retailers:
- Best Buy: Only one out of four cards listed at MSRP
- Newegg: No card listings yet
- Amazon: Probably not the place for launch day cards, but Amazon will eventually see stock
- B&H Photo: No cards listed so far
UK RX 9070 XT retailers:
- Scan: Wide selection of cards listed
- Overclockers: At least four MSRP options among the many available
- CCL: 25 different cards available soon
- Amazon: Keep your eyes peeled for the RX 9070 XT, though look elsewhere at launch
- Currys: No cards listed as yet
- Ebuyer: Sapphire, Gigabyte, and XFX RX 9070 XT cards
UK RX 9070 retailers:
- Scan: Lots of different cards listed, so surely many at MSRP
- Overclockers: Ten cards listed and three of them at the base price
- CCL: 14 different cards available soon
- Amazon: There are unlikely to be cards here at launch, but always a good place to check later on
- Currys: No cards listed as yet
- Ebuyer: Seven cards listed from Sapphire, XFX, and Gigabyte
AMD Radeon RX 9070 benchmarks
Tips and tricks
- Set up user accounts at large retailers ahead of time.
- Don’t refresh too often, you might get blocked by automated systems. Try to be patient if pages load slowly.
- Hedge your bets with various retailers—keeping an eye on only one retailer can cause disappointment.
- Don’t give up on Best Buy (and others)—in recent years Best Buy has gradually rolled out supply, meaning there’s sometimes still a chance to score a card after the launch hour.
- Sign up for stock alerts ahead of time—some retailers (Micro Center) demand it.
- Keep an eye on stock lottery programs, such as the Newegg Shuffle.
- If you don’t score one this time, don’t fret. Considering the poor response to this card, prices may come down in the future, and there’s always AMD’s launch later in the week.
Live updates
And with that, I hand the reins of this particular GPU-searching horse over to my colleague, Jacob, who’s getting on the hunt as he did so successfully (or not as it was a hellscape) with the RTX 5070 launch yesterday.
Jacob F here!
Here we jolly well go then, just a few minutes to launch. Hopefully there’s more stock for these cards than there was for the RTX 5070 yesterday…
RX 9070s in stock already on Overclcokers? Don’t mind if I do!
Perhaps it’s to do with the ‘Borg Cube’ of stock Overclockers UK has…
Ding ding! Launch time, let’s see what we’ve got then.
Remember, this is a reasonably priced card that could actually challenge Nvidia’s dominance. No biggie or anything.
Nothing on Newegg yet…
What is this, a UK-only launch? Looking ‘sold out’ at Best Buy
Overclockers UK is overloaded, it seems…
B&H Photo’s cards, as with the RTX 5070 yesterday, seem to all be available only for those who registered interest beforehand to be put on the waiting list.
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