Well, recent graphics card launches have highlighted one fact: MSRP prices are nothing more than a bad joke. Indeed, on NVIDIA’s side, we saw partners like ASUS and MSI increase the prices of their entry-level series shortly after the launch of the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5080/5090. On AMD’s side, the situation is similar.
MSRP: temporary prices to lure customers?
This news doesn’t come out of the blue, as Overclockers.co.uk and Inet share a similar observation: the MSRPs only concerned the first batches of AMD cards. In both cases, we learn that due to the lack of a reference card, the RX 9070 (XT) Pulse, Reaper and Prime were launched at AMD’s recommended retail price… But only temporarily. Yes, only the first batch of these cards was sold at MSRP… Subsequent batches will be more expensive.
In short, all this is denting consumer confidence in manufacturers. If even recommended retail prices no longer mean anything, what can we trust? It’s hard to say, but in the meantime, one thing’s for sure: you’re going to have to put some money on your credit card.
For the moment, if there is little or no hope of seeing cards meet the announced prices, we’ll have to see what happens in the long term. At the moment, NVIDIA has no stock available, and AMD has a similar situation. As supply increases, we can expect prices to ease, which is not currently the case.
As for the recommended retail price, it remains to be seen whether this will become a new standard, which we do not expect. In the meantime, these launches have only served as one-off promotions to attract customers.
