AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series Prices Drop: RDNA 4 Finally More Affordable

The Radeon RX 9070 XT and other cards in AMD’s RDNA 4 series are experiencing price reductions, particularly in Japan, bringing them closer to pricing levels seen before a surge in costs late last year. This shift comes as demand for RDNA 4 appears to be softening, potentially due to earlier price increases, while Nvidia’s RTX 50 series has not seen similar relief.

VRAM Shortages and Market Response

Both AMD’s Radeon RX 9000 series and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 50 series have been impacted by a broader shortage of video RAM (VRAM), a critical component in modern graphics cards. However, the response from consumers has differed significantly. According to reports, AMD’s decision to raise prices on the RX 9000 series, despite the VRAM constraints, led to a noticeable drop in sales as buyers opted to wait for more affordable options. This contrasts with the RTX 50 series, where prices for mid-range and budget cards have reportedly edged up, suggesting a different dynamic in consumer willingness to pay.

The price increases for the Radeon RX 9000 series began to creep up in late November and early December 2025, peaking at the end of January 2026. In some regions, the price jump reached 30 to 40 percent. The Japanese market proved particularly sensitive to these increases, with GPU sales declining as prices rose. This prompted AMD to adjust its strategy and begin offering stock at lower prices to regain market share.

Price Trajectory of the RX 9070 XT

The Radeon RX 9070 XT, AMD’s flagship RDNA 4 offering, saw a particularly dramatic price swing. In January 2026, the card reached nearly 140,000 Yen (approximately €768 or US$876). This represented a 30 to 35 percent increase compared to November 2025 levels. However, February brought a reversal of this trend, with prices beginning to fall. As of recent data, the average price for the RX 9070 XT now sits around 109,000 Yen (€598 or US$682), a 22 percent decrease since January and a 19 percent month-on-month drop. Some retailers are even offering the card for less than 100,000 Yen (€548), undercutting prices seen during a recent spring sale.

The price reductions aren’t limited to the RX 9070 XT. The Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9060 XT are also seeing price drops, and the overall AMD average has declined sharply over the past two months. This illustrates the impact of consumer behavior on pricing dynamics – when buyers are unwilling to pay inflated prices, manufacturers are forced to adjust.

RDNA 4 Architecture and Competition

The Radeon RX 9070 XT utilizes AMD’s RDNA 4 architecture, a significant upgrade over the previous generation. GamersNexus’s review from March 6, 2025, details the card’s specifications, including 64 compute units (CUs) and 16 GB of GDDR6 memory. While RDNA 4 has improved ray tracing performance, it often still lags behind Nvidia’s offerings in this area. The review also notes that the RX 9070 XT often performs comparably to Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti, and sometimes even the RTX 4080 Super, in rasterized gaming (without ray tracing).

The RTX 5070, Nvidia’s mid-range offering, has an MSRP of $549, but finding it at that price point has proven hard for consumers, particularly in the US. Tom’s Hardware’s face-off between the RTX 5070 and RX 9070 highlights the competitive landscape, noting that the RTX 5070 shares many characteristics with its predecessor, the RTX 4070, including bus width and memory capacity, but benefits from an upgrade to faster GDDR7 memory and Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture.

Broader Market Trends and Implications

The current situation underscores the sensitivity of the GPU market to pricing and supply. The VRAM shortage created a bottleneck, but the response from consumers demonstrates that price elasticity remains a powerful force. AMD’s willingness to adjust prices in response to declining demand has been rewarded with a potential resurgence in sales, while Nvidia appears to be maintaining higher prices, potentially limiting its market reach.

The reported outperformance of the Radeon RX 9070 XT over the entire RTX 50 series on a popular German retailer, Mindfactory, as noted in a Reddit post from November 26, 2025, suggests a potential shift in consumer preference towards AMD, at least in certain regions. However, it’s important to note that Mindfactory has a history of favoring AMD products, which could skew the results.

What’s Next for GPU Pricing?

The trajectory of GPU prices will likely depend on several factors, including the resolution of the VRAM shortage, the release of new graphics cards (such as the RX 9060 series and a wider availability of the RTX 5060 at MSRP), and overall market demand. Continued monitoring of pricing trends in key markets like Japan will provide valuable insights into the evolving dynamics of the GPU landscape. Further price adjustments from both AMD and Nvidia are anticipated as they compete for market share in the coming months.