AMD’s official statement on RX Vega64 pricing answers absolutely nothing

Yesterday, a lot of concerns surrounding AMD’s RX Vega64 pricing came to a head when new details surrounding AMD’s pricing strategy came to light. Right now, multiple sources are claiming that AMD’s previously announced $499 price tag was only ever intended to be applied to a small amount of ‘launch’ cards. Now today, AMD has finally responded to requests for comment and unfortunately, the company’s carefully crafted PR speech hasn’t really given us any answers.

For those who missed the update to our original story earlier this afternoon, you can read AMD’s full response below:

“Radeon RX Vega64 demand continues to exceed expectations. AMD is working closely with its partners to address this demand. Our initial launch quantities included standalone Radeon RX Vega64 at SEP of $499, Radeon RX Vega64 Black Packs at SEP of $599, and Radeon RX Vega64 Aqua Packs at SEP of $699. We are working with our partners to restock all SKUs of Radeon RX Vega64 including the standalone cards and Gamer Packs over the next few weeks, and you should expect quantities of Vega to start arriving in the coming days.”

This is a carefully crafted statement that can be interpreted in multiple ways, with much of it being ambiguous in order to avoid saying anything definitive.

So what can we take away from this statement? Well in my opinion, the main focus should be on the third sentence as this is where things start to get dicey.

“Our initial launch quantities included standalone Radeon RX Vega64 at SEP of $499, Radeon RX Vega64 Black Packs at SEP of $599, and Radeon RX Vega64 Aqua Packs at SEP of $699.”

This is AMD stating specifically that “initial launch quantities” of Vega64 did include cards at $499, $599 and $699 price points. However, it does not confirm that AMD will continue to use this pricing going forward. It simply states that at launch, those prices existed.

The very next sentence says: “We are working with our partners to restock all SKUs of Radeon RX Vega64, including standalone cards and Gamer Packs over the next few weeks”.

This is not AMD saying that GPUs will be back in stock at their original price points, it is merely AMD saying that GPUs will be back in stock. It appears to be intentionally ambiguous, which ultimately means that this statement provided us with no real, definitive answers.

KitGuru Says: Given the amount of questions raised by yesterday’s chat with Overclockers UK Andrew Gibson, this statement is disappointing. I honestly hope that this isn't going to be AMD's final word on the matter. 

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