AMD Radeon RX 9070-series launch day live: The promise of a ton of reference priced stock is a tantalising one but likely won’t last long

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 MSRPNewegg: No card listings yetAmazon: Keep your eyes peeled for RX 9070 XT listings, but unlikely at launchB&H Photo: No cards listed so far

US RX 9070 retailers:

Best Buy: Only one out of four cards listed at MSRPNewegg: No card listings yetAmazon: Probably not the place for launch day cards, but Amazon will eventually see stockB&H Photo: No cards listed so far

UK RX 9070 XT retailers:

Scan: Wide selection of cards listedOverclockers: At least four MSRP options among the many availableCCL: 25 different cards available soonAmazon: Keep your eyes peeled for the RX 9070 XT, though look elsewhere at launchCurrys: No cards listed as yetEbuyer: Sapphire, Gigabyte, and XFX RX 9070 XT cards

UK RX 9070 retailers:

Scan: Lots of different cards listed, so surely many at MSRPOverclockers: Ten cards listed and three of them at the base priceCCL: 14 different cards available soonAmazon: There are unlikely to be cards here at launch, but always a good place to check later onCurrys: No cards listed as yetEbuyer: 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…

(Image credit: Overclockers)

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.

(Image credit: Newegg)

Nothing on Newegg yet…

(Image credit: Best Buy)

What is this, a UK-only launch? Looking ‘sold out’ at Best Buy

(Image credit: Overclockers)

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.

(Image credit: Asus, Gigabyte, B&H Photo)

(Image credit: Sapphire, PowerColor, AsRock, Overclockers UK)

Tell you what though, before Overclockers got overloaded, there was definitely a lot of interest in these cards (assuming the ‘viewed’ numbers are correct). Compared to the RTX 5070 interest yesterday, anyway… Says it all, really, doesn’t it?

(Image credit: XFX, Best Buy)

I did actually see this one in stock, briefly, so the stock definitely did exist.

It’s funny, this launch seems similar to the RTX 50-series launches in terms of stock-outs. But consider the apparent difference in interest…

Still, would’ve been nice to have a healthy overabundance of 9070 stock. Launch day though, innit.

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

Novatech, my old friend, to the rescue…

Here we are.

We’re definitely seeing some higher prices, though, as well as MSRP.

Just as a quick reminder, the RX 9070 XT is great at overclocking, as our Dave discovered in his review. This means even a cheaper MSRP card should be able to overclock close to the performance of more expensive ones… assuming the cooling is at least half decent.

So, as with the RTX 5070, the cheaper models really are the ones to go for, IMO. Check out Dave’s charts above and you’ll see.

(Image credit: Cloudflare)

I am in a queue to visit Overclockers UK. How dare you, Cloudflare.

(Image credit: XFX)

This $650 XFX one is in-stock at Best Buy, gogogogo

As a brief interlude, here’s some of our Dave’s fine words re the Asus RX 9070 XT Prime OC:

“This is the sort of generational improvement we’ve been craving; actual rendering performance dropping down a full GPU tier, and not just being propped up by (admittedly very effective) frame generation trickery.”

And:

“Compared with the similarly priced RTX 5070, you’re looking at a card that is over 20% faster on average.”

No surprise it’s selling out and overloading retailer servers, then…

Scan rn:

(Image credit: Scan)

There are still some going at Ebuyer for our UK fellows:

(Image credit: Ebuyer)

(Image credit: PowerColor, Sapphire, Newegg)

Newegg’s RX 9070 and 9070 XT cards are finally up!

And they’re even in stock.

A tactical delay from the retailer? Who cares, more cards, woop!

Again, though, the ones in stock are looking like ones well above MSRP.

That’s true over on some UK retailers, too. Ebuyer and CCL have some more expensive ones in stock.

(Image credit: Gigabyte, Asus, Currys)

Currys’ cards are listed but out of stock.

(Image credit: Overclockers)

Overclockers UK really wasn’t joking with its Bloomin Globule of stock (or whatever it called it). Noice.

Explains why the servers are overloading, too. Did AMD give 2/3 of its stock to OCUK?

Here’s the link… if you can get through.

Remember the disappointment back at CES when AMD unveiled approximately nothing about these cards? And now look at us, sat here refreshing retailer pages like rabid dogs.

You ever zoom out for a moment and look at what you’re doing and recognise what peculiar creatures we human beings are?

Anyway, back to those shiny spinny electrical components we’ve all been waiting for.

(Image credit: XFX, Newegg)

Still in stock, but for $850… I’m not so sure…

(Image credit: XFX, Newegg)

A little better for $770. That’s still almost $200 more than the reference MSRP, though. And that’s the same core and boost clock as others.

(Image credit: Overclockers UK)

Overclockers really is killin’ it. Seems like no difference in stock from 15 minutes ago.

Strategic server overloads, maybe? (I kid, I kid.)

All but the most expensive cards are now out of stock at Newegg

(Image credit: Newegg)

The like to comment ratio here 👀

People aren’t too happy about the server issues it seems!

An MSRP 9070 in stock at Best Buy! Here it is.

(Image credit: XFX, Best Buy)

Here are the four cards in stock at Newegg:

XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9070 OC – $650XFX Quicksilver AMD Radeon RX 9070XT – $770XFX Mercury AMD Radeon RX 9070XT OC – $820XFX Mercury AMD Radeon RX 9070XT OC – $850

And here are the Best Buy cards still in stock:

…………

Yep, that’s right: zilch.

My Overclockers UK visit now tells me “we were unable to estimate the wait time”.

What use is a Blorgazoid Congomerate of RX 9070 XTs if nobody can hit the buy button?

(Image credit: Overclockers UK)

What’s this, a rare Amazon card listing?

Yes, you heard me, a launch day in-stock Amazon listing.

(Image credit: PowerColor, Amazon)

(Image credit: Newegg)

Don’t forget to get your shuffle boots on, either, if you want to try for a card from Newegg.

This is where you give your email and are in with a chance of being selected to get a good deal on a product or a combo. Tbh though the main benefit is it gives you a better chance of actually grabbing some stock.

I hate to call it too early, so I’ll keep my eye out, but for folks across the pond in the US, it’s not looking to great on the stock front.

I’ve been refreshing Newegg and Best Buy for a little while and it’s all out of stock.

GPU launch days in a nutshell…

For UK peeps, though, here are some RX 9070 cards in-stock at Ebuyer:

Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 9070 PULSE – £600Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 9070 PURE – £630Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 9070 NITRO+ – £660

It looks like CCL has a bunch of stock here still, too, for UK folks. Though all the products say “This item has very limited stock.”

Scan’s listings are all out of stock.

And Overclockers… yeah… still not letting me in.