AMD graphics cards could face another price hike and a bigger push for 8GB GPU sales

[midian182]

Rumor mill: The memory crisis is causing more depressing news for PC gamers. AMD graphics cards could soon become more expensive as a result of a second price increase by board partners. Moreover, it's claimed that 8GB Radeon GPUs will receive higher sales priority.

Following a reported 5 – 10% increase in pricing last month, AMD board partners are expected to introduce a second hike this month or in March. It's unclear how large this new increase will be, but any price hike by AIB partners will make RX 9000-series graphics cards even more expensive.

The claim comes from Board Channels, which can be hit and miss when it comes to reports like these, so take it with a grain of salt. However, the enormous impact the memory crisis is having on component prices shows no signs of easing.

The Board Channels post adds that the second price increase will bring AMD's cards closer in price to comparable Nvidia models. It also notes that the original hike spurred distributors to stock up.

Right now, in-stock RTX 5060 Ti cards range from $519 to $1,059 on Newegg. In-stock RX 9060 XT 16GB models, meanwhile, start at $329 and reach $887. Should the claims prove true, AMD's models will be priced a lot closer to Nvidia's.

A separate Board Channels post states that AMD will be prioritizing selling more 8GB GPUs, which covers both current RDNA 4 and previous generations of cards with that memory configuration. Particular emphasis will be placed on the RX 9060 XT 8GB and the RDNA 3-powered RX 7650 GRE.

We slammed the RX 9060 XT 8GB in our review, giving it a score of just 40 due to the limited performance of its smaller VRAM size. We rated the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB even lower. News that these cards could be given a higher sales priority isn't going to be welcomed by anyone.

Both AMD and Nvidia tried to justify releasing 8GB cards last year. Nvidia said they were mostly for non-Western markets, especially Asia. AMD Frank Azor wrote that the majority of gamers still play at 1080p and that worldwide, the most popular genre of game is esports.

The final part of the post claims that for 16GB models, the focus will remain on the RX 9060 XT 16GB and RX 9070 XT series. Meanwhile, production of the RX 9070 – the first RDNA 4 card to enter the Steam survey – and RX 9070 GRE will be significantly reduced.

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AMD graphics cards could face another price hike and a bigger push for 8GB GPU sales

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Its already hit. The asus 9070xt went from $720 to $800 today.

 

[yRaz]

Oh no. Maybe developers will have to learn how to make games. I hate to say this, but the memory shortage is going to last atleast 3 years and it'll be a year after that before memory starts to make its way back into the consumer market. So instead of devs mass producing games on UE5 with AI, they might have to actually work to make something that runs well and looks good.

Devs didn't use the increase in hardware specs available to them to make better games, as has been the trend throughout history. What happened is that they used the increase in hardware specs to cut development costs previously used for optimization. The same thing would happen if suddenly 90% of the market were on 16GB GPUs.

All you need for evidence of this is the fact that the AAA games market is floundering, hasn't made a profit in years and all the good games in 2025 were either indie titles or smaller developers.

Don't get mad at the GPU memory specs, get mad at the devs for wasting the hardware resources when they became available and our time.

 

[themastergoose]

Scan and Overclockers here in the UK have already adjusted prices. There's only 1-2 entry level 9070 XT's at under £649. Most fall into the £700-750 range. MSRP was £559 but I've never seem them hit that. All SKU's of the 9070 and 9060 series seem stocked across both companies.

Contrast that to the RTX 5070 Ti that is not only largely out of stock, you also can't get it for under £1000 at the same sites. It's MSRP was £729.

What a depressing situation all around.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Unsurprising. Luckily, your gaming rig today works just as well as three months ago when prices were sane.

 

[vvtunes]

2015 called, it wants its 8gb graphics cards back.

 

[yRaz]

2015 called, it wants its 8gb graphics cards back.

GPUs with more than 6GB of VRAM in 2015 were considered exotic and the equivalent of the 90 series today, even being used mostly as workstation GPUs. Even the 980ti, realistically the best GPU available that wasn't a work station card available in 2015, was a 6GB GPU. There weren't really consumer GPUs even available with more than 8GB of VRAM until the 1080ti came out in 2017.

And considering how short people's memory's are at this point, they didn't ad that much VRAM because games needed it at the time, they were limited by the size of the chips and the only way to add a wider memory bus was to just add more chips.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

GPUs with more than 6GB of VRAM in 2015 were considered exotic and the equivalent of the 90 series today, even being used mostly as workstation GPUs. Even the 980ti, realistically the best GPU available that wasn't a work station card available in 2015, was a 6GB GPU. There weren't really consumer GPUs even available with more than 8GB of VRAM until the 1080ti came out in 2017.

And considering how short people's memory's are at this point, they didn't ad that much VRAM because games needed it at the time, they were limited by the size of the chips and the only way to add a wider memory bus was to just add more chips.

The 290x had 8GB options in 2014. And those plus the 390x were readily available for $2-300 once the crypto bubble popped. The standard model had 4GB on a 512 bit bus.

The RX 480 and 470 both offered 8GB options in 2016.

 

[Melkor Unlimited]

The 290x had 8GB options in 2014. And those plus the 390x were readily available for $2-300 once the crypto bubble popped. The standard model had 4GB on a 512 bit bus.

The RX 480 and 470 both offered 8GB options in 2016.

Even the low end RX 5500XT was offered with 8GB.
Bought one before Crypto. Last one available for sane price.

 

[Melkor Unlimited]

My nearest e-shop prices converted to USD without VAT as for Feb 04

$599 - 9070 XT MSRP
$700 - 9070 XT XFX Swift
$735 - 9070 XT Sapphire Pulse
$800 - 9070 XT Gigabyte Gaming OC 16G
$878 - 9070 XT Gigabyte Aorus

$749 - 5070 Ti MSRP
$999 - 5080 MSRP
$1006 - 5070 Ti Gigabyte Windforce SFF
$1123 - 5070 Ti Gigabyte Gaming OC 16G
$1171 - 5070 Ti Gigabyte Aorus

 

[Dr Roboto]

I am really kicking myself for not buying a GPU during the Black Friday sales this past holiday. I was so close to pulling the trigger, but then I was like I don't really need one. I can wait for another year and prices will be even better. What an ***** I was.

 

[scoffer]

There's absolutely no "could" about it.