AMD begins to phase out some current-generation products RX 7000 Series The GPU will launch next year with the rumored RX 8000 series. adjuster’s report Several AMD add-on board partners confirmed that mid- to high-end RX 7900 GRE has been declared “discontinued” and is no longer in production.
We can confirm this: the RX 7900 GRE has been discontinued by all US dealers. Tweakers confirmed that this is also the case overseas, with one exception. If you really want one, the only way to get one right now is to buy second hand or overpriced new on eBay.
Tweakers reported that AMD’s partners did not disclose the reason for the unexpected discontinuation of RX 7900 GRE, so why AMD decided to discontinue this GPU so early remains a mystery.
We have some theories; however, there’s a good chance that production of AMD’s flagship Navi 31 chips (which power the entire RX 7900 series) has gotten better over the past two years. If true, this would allow AMD to reduce supply of highly defective Navi 31 chips to just enough to run in the RX 7900 GRE. There’s no reason for AMD to use a perfectly healthy Navi 31 chip with the RX 7900 GRE when it can RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XTwhich is a more expensive premium card than the GRE variant.
The good news is that AMD doesn’t really need the RX 7900 GRE to be competitive in the mid-range market. When AMD decided to release the GPU globally (removing its China exclusivity), the RX 7900 GRE filled a relatively small gap in the $500-$600 price range. Although the RX 7900 GRE shares the same Navi 31 chip as AMD’s flagship RX 7900 XTX, its performance is very similar to the Navi 32-based chip RX7800XTit’s almost a sidestage option compared to the 7800 XT. in our 1440p rasterization benchmarkwe found that the average performance difference between the two GPUs was less than 9%.
The price drop of the RX 7000 series makes the RX 7900 GRE even less relevant. The RX 7800 XT is $100 less than the original MSRP, and the faster RX 7900 XT is only $100 more than the original MSRP. So while AMD may not have a proven alternative at the $550 mark, it does have two very competitive GPUs priced at $100 above or below that price point.