AMD has finally unveiled the Radeon RX 7000. The announcement makes MeinMMO editor Benedikt Schlotmann hopeful that gaming will remain affordable. Because the prices of the new cards seem more reasonable.
So far, both AMD and Nvidia have presented their new graphics cards for PC gamers. And both are vying for potential customers who are to purchase the new hardware:
- Nvidia has kicked off with the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080. And so far, it looks like Nvidia will retain the crown for the fastest graphics card in 2022.
- AMD has followed suit with the introduction of the RX 7900 XTX and the RX 7900 XT. With this, they aim to compete with the competition.
Who is writing this?
For MeinMMO, I have been testing hardware for our readers since 2019 and writing about hardware. I have been assembling gaming PCs for friends and family for several years and also optimize my own system.
Benedikt Schlotmann
Hardware Editor MeinMMO
Nvidia believes: Graphics cards will not get cheaper
Where do these high prices come from? After Nvidia unveiled the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090, there was a lot of criticism regarding the high prices for the new hardware. On the occasion of the big unveiling of the RTX 4000, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang spoke with people and was also asked about the prices. He explained that graphics cards will not get cheaper, as Moore’s Law is dead and graphics cards will not get cheaper.
Moore’s Law states that the complexity and performance of circuits can double at minimal cost. Simply put, you get more performance without having to pay much more. So, more performance for less money.
According to Nvidia, that is not the case anymore. Graphics cards simply have to become more expensive: after all, effort, development time, and components go into the models, and that also costs money. However, you would also get great products for that.
Why is price a problem? About 20% of our readers on MeinMMO are willing to spend more than 1000 euros on a graphics card. And that is mainly because the prices for hardware have been too high for months. The majority of our users are not willing to pay more than 800 euros for a graphics card.
AMD announces RX 7000 and that gives me hope
What has AMD announced now? AMD unveiled two new graphics cards on November 3, 2022: The RX 7900 XTX and the RX 7900 XT. Moreover, they also revealed the prices for the new Radeon GPUs:
- The RX 7900 XTX is expected to start at 999 US dollars.
- The RX 7900 XT is expected to cost 899 US dollars at launch.
In Germany, prices with taxes and inflation are likely to be higher. But this places these graphics cards within the price range I would expect for high-end graphics cards. Just as it has been the case with a GeForce RTX 3080 or a Radeon RX 6900 XT.
Why does this give me hope? These prices for AMD’s high-end offerings make me hopeful that gaming will remain affordable in the future as well. Because the presented graphics cards are the high-end products for 4K and 8K. I am more interested in mid-range cards. These are graphics cards like a potential RX 7700 XT, which targets gamers who want to play in Full HD at 165 Hz or in WQHD.
If AMD sets the price for high-end at 999 US dollars, then further graphics cards should be priced beneath that. Here, I hope that I won’t have to spend more than 500 to 600 euros in the future if I want to “keep up” with other gamers. And I don’t have to invest more than 1000 euros, as Nvidia expects from me to utilize current features like DLSS 3.0.
And I am someone who is willing to forgo features if I can save several hundred euros. Even though Nvidia’s DLSS is incredibly good and AMD lags significantly behind Nvidia in ray tracing performance, that does not lead me to pay 400 euros more.
What else speaks in favor? AMD is currently showing a rather friendly pricing policy. AMD has lowered the prices for many RX 6000 series cards, and currently, I can even buy a Radeon RX 6950 XT, the current top model from AMD, for under 800 euros. Anyone who has not bought a graphics card yet could at least find something among the previous 6000 models.
Poor availability could thwart my plans
What could dampen my hopes? Poor availability, greedy scalpers, or a new mining boom: These are all accompanying issues that seem to bring every console and graphics card release to a halt.
In the worst case, the new Radeon graphics cards are hardly available, and I would have to pay thousands of euros on eBay for a single graphics card once again. What good is a price-performance tip if the graphics cards are nowhere to be found? With the RTX 4090, there are once again these eBay problems with excessively priced scalping offers.
So, it is now a matter of waiting. By December 13, 2022, we will know more, as this is the official release of the graphics cards. If you want to get more information about AMD’s and Nvidia’s new graphics cards, then check here:
What you must know about the next generation of graphics cards before you buy a new one
