AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT’s Very Wrong Pricing Editorial

Brent_Justice

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Introduction



What follows is an opinion piece, it is a short editorial based on our experience and performance of the new Radeon RX 6600 XT from AMD.  Our opinion is formed after fully testing the Radeon RX 6600 XT’s performance, and comparing video cards by official MSRP launch pricing.  Our metric, our yardstick, throughout this editorial will be based on the official MSRP. While we understand street prices will be different, we have to use a metric that is comparable, street prices are unpredictable and will change over time, the way to do that is to compare by the official MSRP.



Please check out our AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT Introduction article and our...
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I am guessing that down the line, once prices stabilize, then AMD will release a 24 CU RX 6600 for $280

And at beginning of next year, release a 4gb RX 6500 for ~ $140 to $180
 
This pricing discussion is interesting, but it feels wrong to base the discussion on bait and switch MSRPs. The point, it seems, is that you would have been happy had the MSRP been listed at $279, even if all the actual sale prices were in the 379-500 range. This is much like the unrealistically low 3060ti MSRP, even though you will never find a 3060ti within $200 of its MSRP.

Its not bad to have the discussion on MSRP on products even occationaly available at MSRP, but given today's reality, you should compare the MSRP 6600XT to current AIB prices, Ebay sales, and / or new egg shuffle combo prices of competing products. Today's actual price in the New Egg Shuffle of multiple 6600XTs is between $379 and $549, with most models being at or under $419. Yesterday's 3060 shuffle prices were, if I remember correctly, all over $550.

Edit to say, the way AMD could have really "won" this MSRP battle then, would be to put the MSRP at $179, but only release a couple dozen cards at that price and let the AiB Partners charge the 379-549n price. The press would have been all over AMD crushing it at MSRP, while the reality would be no different that what we see with Nvidia cards. I don't think we really want to encourage that behavior, but maybe that is the way to marketing success?
 
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Very good editorial and I agree with everything you said.

Bravo.
 
I get the sense that AMD has increased their MSRP for some of the cards in this generation (6600 XT, 6700 XT, and somewhat on the 6800) above the price points that they initially targeted due to the ongoing shortages. I think that NVIDIA has left their MSRPs alone (other than the 3080 Ti, which I suspect was bumped $200 prior to launch). Of course, I have no evidence to offer to prove my spidey sense on this one.

MSRP is purely an academic study at this point - actual street prices (other than the rare as hen's teeth NV/AMD built cards) have been all over the place. MSRP won't matter until retailers have their shelves stocked across the entire product line from both companies and prices return to the ballpark of MSRP. That's the point you'll see MSRP (and street price) adjustments made to be more competitive. We've still got a ways to go before then.
 
David_Schroth said:
I get the sense that AMD has increased their MSRP for some of the cards in this generation (6600 XT, 6700 XT, and somewhat on the 6800) above the price points that they initially targeted due to the ongoing shortages. I think that NVIDIA has left their MSRPs alone (other than the 3080 Ti, which I suspect was bumped $200 prior to launch). Of course, I have no evidence to offer to prove my spidey sense on this one.

MSRP is purely an academic study at this point - actual street prices (other than the rare as hen's teeth NV/AMD built cards) have been all over the place. MSRP won't matter until retailers have their shelves stocked across the entire product line from both companies and prices return to the ballpark of MSRP. That's the point you'll see MSRP (and street price) adjustments made to be more competitive. We've still got a ways to go before then.
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The msrp pricing of the 3080 & 3070 had seemed too good to be true for me.

I am guessing Nvidia pushed their cards one tier lower when they got wind of increased competitiveness from AMD

So the chip meant for 3080 ti was released as 3080 & likewise the 3070 has performance of 2080ti at half the price. Thats absurd & unrealistic !!!
 
To swing back around to MSRP vs Actual price, I had a window open to yesterday's New Egg Shuffle.

3060: MSI Gaming X Trio - 559.99
3060ti: MSI Gaming X - 733.98, combo'd with OLOy ram
3070: MSI Gaming Z Trio - 809.99
3070ti: MSI Gaming X Trio - 979.99

If you compare today's Shuffle lowest 6600XT Price ($379) to the $559 3060 or the $733 3060ti, the 6600XT is a bargain in comparison.
 
Even AT the MSRP is still too high, my point is, the MSRP itself is too high.

And my other main point is, the 1080p gaming card segment has been moved up in price, what used to be a sub-$300 market, is now a sub-$400 market. 1080p gaming, for some reason, has gotten more expensive, that just doesn't make sense IMO.

That's really the bigger issue I want to bring up here, how 1080p gaming and 1440p gaming segments have been moved up $80-$100 over the last several years.

I remember when $200 was the "sweet spot" AMD and NVIDIA wanted to target. Now? They are reluctant to release the low-end cards.
 
I think we are probably at the point where IGP can play most games at 1080, at least at some level. But I don't think we are at the point where IGP has eliminated the <$250 market. You have a very wide price gap and performance gap between a computer running on IGP and one on entry level DGP right now.
 
Brent_Justice said:
Even AT the MSRP is still too high, my point is, the MSRP itself is too high.

And my other main point is, the 1080p gaming card segment has been moved up in price, what used to be a sub-$300 market, is now a sub-$400 market. 1080p gaming, for some reason, has gotten more expensive, that just doesn't make sense IMO.

That's really the bigger issue I want to bring up here, how 1080p gaming and 1440p gaming segments have been moved up $80-$100 over the last several years.

I remember when $200 was the "sweet spot" AMD and NVIDIA wanted to target. Now? They are reluctant to release the low-end cards.
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Great, but it doesn't matter what the MSRP is when the actual baseline price is set by MH/s. AMD could set the MSRP at $50 and it would be meaningless.
 
Endgame said:
Great, but it doesn't matter what the MSRP is when the actual baseline price is set by MH/s. AMD could set the MSRP at $50 and it would be meaningless.
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Yeah but if they set the MSRP at $50 - everyone would be talking about what a great deal it was - if they could only get one.

Instead, we are talking about how the 3060Ti looks like a better deal - if we could only get one.

so when we do go out to look for video cards - now we have ingrained that the 3060Ti is a better deal, and we will go looking for that over a 6600. And when the street price for a 3060Ti is higher than a 6600 - we think “oh well, it’s a better deal so that’s ok”

not to mention all the folks that won’t differentiate between a 3060 and 3060Ti. Or that just buy nVidia without even looking at anything else.

this was a horrible move by AMD
 
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Endgame said:
Great, but it doesn't matter what the MSRP is when the actual baseline price is set by MH/s. AMD could set the MSRP at $50 and it would be meaningless.
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The precedent of MSRP set by AMD and NVIDIA does matter. In the case of AMD, they make and sell direct on their site the reference cards (except the 6600 XT, which is kinda my point.) The MSRP set is a reference board for manufacturers, it's a benchmark by which they set their prices. However, since the 6600 XT is a partner-only card, manufacturers can honestly set whatever pricing they want.

Even if you remove everything above, the fact is, the 5700 XT's was $399 and geared for the 1440p game experience, the 5600 XT was $279 and geared for the 1080p game experience, the 6600 XT's MSRP is $379 and geared for the 1080p game experience, you can at least compare them AMD MSRP to AMD MSRP. The 6600 XT is as fast as the 5700 XT, and only $20 less, what used to be sub $300 for 1080p, is now sub $400 for 1080p. /shrug
 
Brent_Justice said:
The precedent of MSRP set by AMD and NVIDIA does matter. In the case of AMD, they make and sell direct on their site the reference cards (except the 6600 XT, which is kinda my point.) The MSRP set is a reference board for manufacturers, it's a benchmark by which they set their prices. However, since the 6600 XT is a partner-only card, manufacturers can honestly set whatever pricing they want.

Even if you remove everything above, the fact is, the 5700 XT's was $399 and geared for the 1440p game experience, the 5600 XT was $279 and geared for the 1080p game experience, the 6600 XT's MSRP is $379 and geared for the 1080p game experience, you can at least compare them AMD MSRP to AMD MSRP. The 6600 XT is as fast as the 5700 XT, and only $20 less, what used to be sub $300 for 1080p, is now sub $400 for 1080p. /shrug
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In another year or so 1080p cards might be available for around $200 ?

https://www.hardwaretimes.com/lower...shes-of-rdna-2/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
 
Basing your entire article in MSRP is a MOO point. ? ?
 
BTW is it at all possible to get a RX6600XT anywhere near MSRP? at least you can get nvidia FE cards from best buy at MSRP if you ever find one.
 
Stoly said:
BTW is it at all possible to get a RX6600XT anywhere near MSRP? at least you can get nvidia FE cards from best buy at MSRP if you ever find one.
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There are currently at least 30 6600XTs available at my nearest microcenter. 25+ are Red Devils at $399, and the remainder seem to be the 549 Asus variants. First time I’ve seen a launch day card actually make it to be listed on the microcenter website since the 3090 launch (not that any 3090s made it, either, just saying when I started watching)

edit to say 399 seems like a pretty good deal compared to the other cards in stock. Below the 6600XT is a 1050ti for 299, and next card above it is a 6700XT for $829.
 
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