AMD's RX 6950 XT, the purported upgrade to its flagship GPU, could command a hefty price tag if a new leak gets anywhere near the right stage.
There are some caveats here, unsurprisingly, and more than usual around a price leak, we'll get to that, but at first glance the RX 6950 XT has seen preliminary product listings. some Australian retailers, Megabuy and ITnest (as discovered by PC Gamer).
The damage the 6950 XT does to your wallet is said to be AU$3,240 (about $2,400, €1,800) at Megabuy, ouch!
Now note that the product listing actually says the graphics card is a "Gigabyte Radeon RX 6900 XT Gaming OC" which is the existing flagship, but the product code clearly says "GV-R695XTGAMING-OC-16GD ", referring to a 6950 XT model.
It's likely that someone made a mistake typing the full name, or used a pattern and didn't change that bit, though that could of course indicate that the entire list is in error. We can't rule that out anyway.
Note, however, that there is an existing listing for the Gigabyte 6900 XT Gaming OC, product code 'GV-R69XTGAMING OC-16GD', hence R69, not R695, and its price is much lower at AU$1949 (around €1 €450, €1100).
Also, as picked up by VideoCardz, Gigabyte recently registered product code GV-R695XTGAMING OC-16GD with the EEC (Eurasian Economic Commission), which is another check in the box of its likely authenticity, though none of this represents anything like a cast iron warranty, of course.
Analysis: Performance expectations will be high if there's anything to this leak
If true, that price would represent a huge jump over the cost of the 6900 XT: a 66% increase on the current flagship based on prices seen above on Megabuy. Now, obviously, we have to be careful with leaks like this, because the listed price could just be a placeholder, in other words, a guess.
However, if it's true or close to the mark, you can be sure that the performance boost provided by the 6950 XT over the current flagship will obviously be much more modest than the level of upside seen with prices.
Although if AMD trades around that kind of level, we should expect a healthy dose of additional frame rates from this GPU upgrade (remember to expect very fast throttling speeds from the 6950 XT going through the vineyard).
It's also worth keeping in mind that the Megabuy price of Gigabyte's RTX 3090 Ti cards is only slightly higher than the 6950 XT's purported price, so we certainly expect it to compete with Nvidia's new flagship. If that price is right, of course...
We'll see, and interestingly enough, the order delivery date is scheduled for 4 weeks from now, which roughly matches the latest rumored release date of mid-May for the RX 6950 XT (and the other two upgrades that are supposed to be due, namely the 6750 XT and 6650 XT).
The evidence is really piling up regarding this trio of RDNA 2 upgrades, and we've even been treated to photos of them: the graphics cards are sleek black editions.
It seems increasingly likely that this will be AMD's next step with its GPU release schedule, before launching an entirely new RDNA 3 lineup later in 2022 (and if the 6950 XT's price is high, it's sure to be even more tempting). be patient and wait for the next generation flagship for those who want a powerful card).
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