- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD -0.7%) launches the newest addition to the Radeon RX family of high-performance graphics cards, the RX 6700 XT. The new product is available March 18 with a SVP of $479.
- To maximize availability, AMD is launching both reference designs at AMD.com and AMD partner designs through a variety of retailers.There will be "significantly more GPUs available for sale at launch," according to a statement to The Verge.
- The GPU is built on the "Big Navi" RDNA2 architecture, which includes ray-tracing.
- Key specs: 40 compute units, up to 2424MHz game clock, 96MB infinity cache, 12GB GDDR6 memory, 230W board power, and AMD Smart Access Memory.
- The GPU competes with Nvidia's (NVDA -2.2%) mid-range Ampere-based cards. Nvidia's RTX 3060 graphics card went on sale last week.
- AMD also says it plans to refresh stock of the consistently out of stock RX 6000 GPUs and Ryzen 5000 CPUs weekly on its site with the products selling at their regular retail prices.
- In January, AMD reported Q4 beats that included strong Ryzen processor sales and a year-over-year and sequential growth for Radeon average selling prices.
- GPU supplies are currently strained by the global chip shortage, the pandemic-driven gaming boom, and cryptocurrency mining demand.
- Nvidia is releasing cryptocurrency mining processors that off GPU power without the "graphics" part to eliminate some of the cross-demand behind the shortages.