If the latest rumors are accurate, the Radeon RX 7900 series launch might not be smooth for AMD. According to various sources, AMD’s next-gen products that are vying for a spot on the list of best graphics cards may be facing supply and packaging issues specific to the Chinese market. We’ve reached out to AMD for comment.
Chinese hardware leaker ECSM_Official (opens in new tab) When MEGA size GPU (opens in new tab) We believe the reference Radeon RX 7900 series graphics card will not be available in mainland China initially due to import restrictions. The reason is that the packaging states that the product is “Made in Taiwan”. This is reportedly a violation of China’s labeling requirements for imports from Taiwan. As a result, according to one leaker, AMD should prepare a new package for the reference of their Radeon RX 7900 series SKUs for China.
This isn’t the first time China has cracked down on disguising the origin of computer hardware. Earlier this year, Corsair admitted that some of its branded products sold in China had printing errors.
On the other hand, German publications Igor’s laboratory (opens in new tab) claims to have learned that around 10,000 reference Radeon RX 7900 series graphics cards will be available in the EMEA region, with around 3,000 units allocated to Germany. The outlet’s sources claim that driver and his BIOS issues are plaguing AMD’s upcoming graphics cards. According to the publication, one of his “big exclusive partners” won’t ship the product until after the official launch, so the product won’t hit stores until a week later. Another anonymous vendor allegedly claims that the graphics card probably won’t arrive until January 2023, he said.
On the other hand, there are also discussions. board channel (opens in new tab) Some factories have been forced to close due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. However, several affected factories have recently reopened, reportedly involving shipments of the Radeon RX 7900 series.
A number of manufacturers have announced custom RDNA 3 graphics cards, but only a few may actually launch on December 13th. The Radeon RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX will retail for $899 and $999 respectively. Assuming RDNA 3 is competitive and AMD has plenty in stock, Nvidia could be in trouble.
A recent rumor, also originating from the Board Channel forums, claims that Nvidia may drop the price of the GeForce RTX 4080 in mid-December. The purported reason is to improve the GeForce RTX 4080’s price-performance ratio and stimulate sales, rather than fearing an RDNA 3 launch. The GeForce RTX 4080 hasn’t sold very well, so the price cut will definitely boost sales during the holiday season and help fend off RDNA 3.
