The landscape for graphics card deals has become increasingly challenging, with many options far exceeding their suggested retail prices. Amidst this scarcity, the XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GRE, available at Best Buy for $550, stands out as a rare sight holding firm to its original launch price.
This stability at MSRP is particularly noteworthy when contrasted with other offerings. For instance, an RTX 5060 Ti has been spotted at nearly the price of an RTX 5070 Ti, and even an 8GB model of the RTX 5060 Ti is priced $100 over MSRP. These higher prices are attributed to the ongoing memory crisis impacting graphics cards, especially those from Nvidia.
While the RX 9070 GRE has seen price drops to $500 in recent weeks from other manufacturers like Asus and Gigabyte, these deals have since expired, and those cards are now priced above the GRE's typical asking price. Currently, the XFX RX 9070 GRE at $550 represents the most reasonable option available.
The RX 9070 GRE is a capable graphics card, featuring 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM, which should be sufficient for current gaming demands. In performance benchmarks, the RX 9070 GRE performs well, often rivaling the RTX 5060 Ti and coming close to the RTX 5070, especially when using upscaling technologies. For example, in Black Myth Wukong at 1440p High settings with upscaling, the RX 9070 GRE achieved 95 Average FPS, closely followed by the RTX 5070 at 107 FPS, while the RTX 5060 Ti managed 86 FPS.
Compared to the RX 9070, which has the same theoretical MSRP but currently retails for around $700, the RX 9070 GRE offers a more accessible entry point. The scarcity of GPUs at sensible prices continues to be a significant issue for PC gamers. Whether prices will stabilize or decrease in the future remains uncertain, but for now, the RX 9070 GRE at MSRP is a welcome exception in a market dominated by inflated costs.