Even AMD is surprised by how fast it’s gaining on Nvidia
AMD's most recent GPU launch was widely successful, pushing the company to new heights in terms of market share in Japan.
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AMD
AMD’s RX 9000 series quickly joined the ranks of the best graphics cards, and it appears that its success came as a surprise to everyone — yes, even AMD itself. At a recent roundtable in Japan, the company revealed that its market share skyrocketed recently, reaching a whopping 45% in Japan. Although this refers to Japan, it’s easy to imagine that AMD is gaining on Nvidia globally, too, although there are a few things to consider here.
AMD’s Yoshiaki Sato and Saki Suzuki shared a couple of updates during a Team AMD Roundtable held in Japan, which was later shared by ASCII. AMD was joined on stage by representatives of its many board partners, including ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, PowerColor, and Sapphire. AMD’s add-in board partners (AIBs) reportedly shared that they wanted to make and sell more Radeon graphics cards, but were being held back due to a lack of GPUs. To this, AMD’s Sato replied: “AMD isn’t used to selling [this many] graphics cards.”
This got a laugh from the audience, and I admit, I chuckled, too. It’s a candid response that shows that AMD maybe hasn’t predicted just how much gamers would be willing to embrace its new GPUs.
ASCIIThat 45% market share in Japan is a success, but AMD isn’t resting on its laurels. Sato said that the 45% figure is a “peak” for AMD, but one of its board partners chimed in with: “No, we’re below the majority. We’re the opposition party, so let’s aim for 70%,” which prompted another representative to say: “We’ve never been the ruling party!”
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AMD is well aware of its market share compared to its rival, Nvidia. Worldwide figures usually pin AMD at anywhere between 10% and 18% of the GPU market. However, we might see an increase considering that AMD’s RX 9070 GPUs are flying off the shelves … but that might put a stop to its market share gains, too.
Although AMD was able to deliver more stock than Nvidia’s RTX 50-series (which is sometimes referred to as a “paper launch“), the GPUs are largely sold out at many U.S. retailers. When they’re back in stock, they might be more expensive — and that’ll put an end to AMD’s performance-per-dollar argument. Let’s hope that the company can find a middle ground with its board partners and deliver more cards to gamers at MSRP, or at least close to it. It’s clear that the market is finally open to it.
Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…
AMD’s RX 9070 XT could soon cost a lot more than it does now
After the way Nvidia's RTX 50-series ended up being called a "paper launch," many breathed a sigh of relief when AMD's RX 9000 series appeared on the shelves in much larger quantities. However, once this initial shipment is sold, AMD could face the same problem as the rest of the best graphics cards: Price hikes, price hikes everywhere.
The cards officially hit the shelves yesterday, and many were spotted far above the recommended list price (MSRP), with some overclocked models priced at up to $250 more than the $600 starting price. However, AMD spoke several times about working with its partners to ensure wide availability at MSRP, and indeed, many retailers had some models up for sale. Those MSRP cards were only around for a short time, though, and they might never come back, according to retailers.
Not this again — AMD’s RX 9070 XT may cost up to $250 more than MSRP
AMD is joining the battle against some of Nvidia's best graphics cards. The RX 9070 XT and its non-XT counterpart should now (hopefully) start flooding the shelves, and gamers are hoping to see them at their recommended list price (MSRP). Unfortunately, some models may cost up to $250 more from the get-go, which is similar to all of Nvidia's recent RTX 50-series releases where the GPUs cost much more than they should.
Although the cards aren't technically up for sale just yet, Best Buy seems to have plenty of RX 9070 XT and non-XT models listed -- they're just marked as "coming soon."
An AMD RX 9060 XT with 16GB would ruin Nvidia’s second-hand market
I know, I know we're all hopped up about the RX 9070 XT and 9070 launch -- I know I am. But looking beyond the potential big win AMD is on for with its first RDNA4 graphics cards, I'm also particularly excited about the potential for the rumored 9060 XT. Not because it'll be cheaper again -- it will be -- but because it might have up to 16GB of VRAM. That's going to wreck Nvidia's long-term second-hand card market, which could have a much greater impact on AMD's market share over the long term.
It's all just rumors for now, and some of my colleagues are much less excited by this than I am, but I think there's some real potential here for this little card to be a game changer.
Hitting the VRAM wall
Video memory, or VRAM, has been a front-and centre feature of graphics card spec sheets for generations, but it's started to matter a lot more in recent years. While flagship graphics cards have exploded in their VRAM quantities, with the 5090 now offering 32GB, most mainstream cards have been getting by with less. It was only a couple of generations ago that the flagship RTX 3080 only had 10GB of VRAM, and outside of the top few models, you'll still see 12GB, 10GB, or even 8GB.
