AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT’s Very Wrong Pricing Editorial

[serpretetsky]

The MSRP may not affect anything on the street, but it still very much affects our perception of the product. And the message AMD just sent here is "Get out your wallet, this is about to get a lot more expensive"

Yes it seems that many people receive this message. Some, however do not. For me this seems more like a bit of honesty from AMD to the state of the market, while other card launches are trying to get good reviews based on an imaginary number.

Another question: does MSRP reflect how much AMD charges for their chips to video card manufacturers?

 

[Stoly]

Yes it seems that many people receive this message. Some, however do not. For me this seems more like a bit of honesty from AMD to the state of the market, while other card launches are trying to get good reviews based on an imaginary number.

Another question: does MSRP reflect how much AMD charges for their chips to video card manufacturers?

Not really but I would assume there's a correllation.

 

[Endgame]

My big point is that AMD missed a golden opportunity here, and Brent's point is that AMD not only missed an opportunity but went a step further and just shot themselves in the foot.

The MSRP may not affect anything on the street, but it still very much affects our perception of the product. And the message AMD just sent here is "Get out your wallet, this is about to get a lot more expensive"

I think you might have the completely wrong idea in actual effect? I believe the higher MSRP has been the best thing possible in the current environment. I just checked the local Microcenter again (online, don't have time to driver over to check in person), and I still see 3 different models of 6600XT in stock, with at least 28 cards, and likely more, available.

Had MSRP been lower and actual initial prices been lower such that release prices were, say, 249, all cards would be sold out. They wouldn't have even made it to the end of the day release day, and would all be on ebay (of course they are some on ebay now at 599 buy it now). At the current price, it seems that they are not valuable to Miners, and scalpers don't seem to think they can make any money on them. This means real, honest to god gamers, can walk in and buy a card if they want one.

The legitimate on the shelf, walk in and buy one choices are now:
$299 - 1050ti
$399 - 6600XT
$829 - 6700XT
$1659 - 6800XT
$1999 - 6900XT

Nvidia 3000 cards might as well not exist - not available at any price in store. You can try your luck on the new egg shuffle (and probably get a "we're sorry" email back for your entry for a 649 3060ti), or head over to ebay and "buy it now" a 3060 for $949.

IMO, the editorial should have focused on

1) stock - if it isn't in stock in a store at all, anywhere, it fails recommendation. It might as well be a Bitchin Fast 3d 2000 if you can't buy it anywhere.
2) In case of situation 1, lowest "buy it now" ebay price is used for product actual price. This can be revised when product is available in a store
3) When product is available in store, but not at MSRP, lowest actual in store price is used, such as AIB price.
4) MSRP

 

[Brian_B]

If they are still in stock at $399… it’s great they are available, but it means even the scalpers aren’t touching them…

 

[Endgame]

If they are still in stock at $399… it’s great they are available, but it means even the scalpers aren’t touching them…

That’s the benefit of the high MSRP, right? No room for the scalpers to make any money. If the scalpers don’t buy them out, there are cards available for gamers to buy. I don’t actually know the performance profile of a 1050ti off hand, but I’m going to guess $100 more for a 6600XT is a pretty good upgrade?

edit to answer my own question.

the 6600XT is an upgrade over the 5700XT per the review here. Per the Anandtech bench, the 5700xt is 2 to 4 times faster than the 1050ti.

GPU 2019 Benchmarks - Compare Products on AnandTech

GPU 2019 benchmarks: Compare two products side-by-side or see a cascading list of product ratings along with our annotations.

www.anandtech.com

The 6600XT should be 2.5 to 5x faster than the 1050ti.

So, given a world where the baseline nib video card is a 1050ti for 299, the 6600XT is an amazing deal for 399.

 

[Brent_Justice]

the 6600XT is an upgrade over the 5700XT per the review here.

I do not think so. It's RX 5700 XT performance for roughly the same cost. The only advantage it has the capability to run Ray Tracing, and even then that varies greatly on the game, in some games it's still useless unless you run low game settings.

If you have a 5700 XT, keep it for now, the 6600 XT is not an upgrade from it.

 

[Endgame]

I do not think so. It's RX 5700 XT performance for roughly the same cost. The only advantage it has the capability to run Ray Tracing, and even then that varies greatly on the game, in some games it's still useless unless you run low game settings.

If you have a 5700 XT, keep it for now, the 6600 XT is not an upgrade from it.

Perhaps it’s better said that the 6600XT is faster than the 5700XT. In your review there is only 1 test where the 5700xt is faster. Generally the 6600XT is 5-10% faster.

One of my buddies is looking to upgrade his Kid’s 670 to something newer. I offered to drive over to micro center and buy him something in stock. Given the options I listed above (1050ti at 299, 6600XT at 399 or 6700XT at 829), which card is the best value? I would love to get a 3060ti, but they are vapor, short of $900 ish eBay listings.

 

[Brian_B]

Perhaps it’s better said that the 6600XT is faster than the 5700XT. In your review there is only 1 test where the 5700xt is faster. Generally the 6600XT is 5-10% faster.

One of my buddies is looking to upgrade his Kid’s 670 to something newer. I offered to drive over to micro center and buy him something in stock. Given the options I listed above (1050ti at 299, 6600XT at 399 or 6700XT at 829), which card is the best value? I would love to get a 3060ti, but they are vapor, short of $900 ish eBay listings.

Well... I would say "best value of these options" doesn't equate to "good value".

None of those are particularly appealing options. If that was all you had to chose from and you absolutely had to pick from one of those 3, I agree, the 6700 is the least bad of those options. But don't mistake that for me thinking it's a great option, or even a good one. The environment we are in and all, I do understand you often have to settle for what you can get. But that doesn't mean I have to like it though. If the 670 still works ok, maybe it rides it out a bit further and see if some prices shake out a bit more.

After all, if the 6700 didn't instantly sell out to scalpers, maybe there is hope. Although I haven't seen one in stock, and apparently MC is the only place that had them in.

 

[Endgame]

The 670 works fine. I told him his best bet is probably to wait it out - the discounted driver support isn’t a big deal to be honest. I’m on the EVGA wait list for all the cards, and I enter the shuffle for basically any non bundled 3080 / 3080tis - if one falls in my lap I’ll offer it to him and if he isn’t interested, I’ll probably upgrade the 1080ti in one of my boxes. I’ll give him the option buy the 1080ti at a reasonable price.

 

[Marees]

Hardware Unboxed (@HardwareUnboxed) Tweeted:

AMD promised lots of RX 6600 XT graphics cards at the MSRP. Did that actually happen, what will pricing be in the future, and does that change our opinion on the GPU?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1427223649384288258

 

[Endgame]

So, what do they have to say? I’m not watching a YouTube video for what could have been written in 5 lines of text. I swear, someone could probably make a living just summing up all these crappy YouTube reviews.

locally, microcenter sold out of 6600XTs yesterday. The question is, how long will it take them to restock?

 

[Auer]

So, what do they have to say? I’m not watching a YouTube video for what could have been written in 5 lines of text. I swear, someone could probably make a living just summing up all these crappy YouTube reviews.

locally, microcenter sold out of 6600XTs yesterday. The question is, how long will it take them to restock?

Basically WeLoveAMD Unboxed didnt love this one.

 

[Marees]

So, what do they have to say? I’m not watching a YouTube video for what could have been written in 5 lines of text. I swear, someone could probably make a living just summing up all these crappy YouTube reviews.

locally, microcenter sold out of 6600XTs yesterday. The question is, how long will it take them to restock?

TLDR:

The 6600XTs were intially in stock at msrp

But now they are 20% above.

On one hand, They are still best deal available today but the base priced models are not coming back in stock. So going forward the 6600xt is likely to cost 20% above launch msrp

On other hand, For a card marketed at 1080p this is poor value. 1080p card owners usually have a budget $200 to $300. So they should continue to wait out this launch & upgrade only if they are in desperate situation

 

[Marees]

TLDR:

The 6600XTs were intially in stock at msrp

But now they are 20% above.

On one hand, They are still best deal available today but the base priced models are not coming back in stock. So going forward the 6600xt is likely to cost 20% above launch msrp

On other hand, For a card marketed at 1080p this is poor value. 1080p card owners usually have a budget $200 to $300. So they should continue to wait out this launch & upgrade only if they are in desperate situation

Link to the article version of the video

Where the 6600 XT ends up is basically being the least worst option, rather than a “best” value sort of product.

https://www.techspot.com/news/90801-pricing-availability-update-radeon-rx-6600-xt-how.html

 

[serpretetsky]

From techspot:

the RX 6600 XT needs to be priced at no more than $300 MSRP, ideally slightly lower, and then with the current ~20% price inflation, an actual retail price of $360 would be easier to digest.

That's not how market price correction works. You can set the MSRP to $1. The cards will still be selling for $500 ...

The sentiment is that these “MSRP” cards were effectively a promotional price for launch day.

A promotional price that needs to be even lower. Got it. /s

 

[Endgame]

So, what do they have to say? I’m not watching a YouTube video for what could have been written in 5 lines of text. I swear, someone could probably make a living just summing up all these crappy YouTube reviews.

locally, microcenter sold out of 6600XTs yesterday. The question is, how long will it take them to restock?

Well, no restock of 6600XTs, but microcenter did get a batch of Asus 1050tis in for 189. Not sure if the $100 price drop from the last batch of 1050tis is coincidence, or if it’s related to the 6600XT launch, but at least that is heading the right direction.