Why is no one buying Radeon graphics cards?

AMD produces quite good video adapters, but they turn out to be unnecessary for most. This is evidenced by the overwhelming number of RTX / GTX graphics cards among users. Why is NVIDIA an absolute monopoly? What’s wrong with “red” video cards? To understand the essence of the problem, you will have to delve into history and analyze the market.

Historical digression

2010 is the golden age of home computing. Then you could buy a good video card for 100-150 dollars (Radeon HD 4770, HD 4850). The PC world was doing well. Good competition among both manufacturers, excellent products for little money, insane demand from buyers. AMD held 40%. NVIDIA still had an advantage, but not a significant one. Then both manufacturers offered + – the same level of performance. Rivals competed technologically side by side. Buyers really doubted which camp to join.

Graphics card market 2010–2014. Source: JON PEDDIE RESEARCH

It is not surprising. The successful HD 4000 series was flying off the shelves. Cheap, powerful and undemanding graphics cards have become hits. What is worth only the Radeon HD 4770 with a recommended price for the release of $ 99. It was not a budget model at all, but a gaming video card (a class above average). Subsequently, the company released the HD 5000, which also sold fairly well. The HD 6000 series “kneeled” a lot of the then power supplies. The hot and productive HD 6990 was still a worthy choice.

Well

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But that was not for long. A few years later, the company began to lose ground. One could notice an increase in the gap in terms of technology. By the time the Radeon RX 4xx series was released, things were going well. The Radeon RX 5xx has begun to bury the company in its grave. Hit Radeon RX 580 was sold for relatively little money. But technologically, it was one of the worst products the company has ever produced. This model was supposed to compete with the NVIDIA GTX 1070 and in real conditions became only an “analogue” of the GTX 1060. Gamers were increasingly buying “green” video cards. Their choice is quite understandable. Offering cheap video cards was not enough. Gamers wanted top performance, and the Radeon Vega 56/64 failed.

With the release of the Radeon RX 4xx/5xx, things went down for the company. Source: Businessquant

Has nothing changed? Why are people refusing to buy Radeon graphics cards in 2022? It’s all about the cost, or rather the ratio of price and performance.

A New Era of AMD Radeon

During the period of active “home” mining, most video cards with large amounts of memory never worked in gaming PCs. Almost no one has seen the Radeon RX 5xxx series among ordinary video game lovers. They were bought by the owners of farms to mine cryptocurrency.

Radeon RX 5500XT, 5600XT, 5700XT were really good compared to the then NVIDIA. After the not so successful RX 5xx, they would be an excellent replacement for the old line. But not destined. Radeon RX 6xxx was also used by the miners, and cheap models appeared too late.

The RX 6400 is a graphics card that consumes the power of NVIDIA GT office plugs and outperforms the GTX 1050 Ti. The narrow 64 bit bus and dependence on PCI-E 4.0 prevented this adapter from becoming popular. Most computer owners use PCI-E 3.0. Under such conditions, the video card loses the lion’s share of performance. This is the main reason why the typical gamer didn’t want to buy it. People chose NVIDIA GTX 1650, 1050Ti, GTX 1630 instead.

The RX 6500 XT also boasts good performance and minimal heat generation. The performance at 1W is very good. A compact, undemanding video chip on a modern architecture at a recommended price during the mining boom. But the problem is exactly the same as the RX6400. It was possible to get a more powerful GTX 1660 a little more expensive. And most importantly, without restrictions on the PCI-E version.

The RX 6600 (XT) sold poorly due to the availability of the RTX 2060/3050/3060 from NVIDIA. Gamers wanted features that AMD didn’t have. DLSS is certainly an excellent technology, significantly superior to the software “analogue” FSR. It made more sense to purchase an NVIDIA RTX for the same price. The price tag did not decrease, therefore people bypassed this model.

By the end of 2022, the Radeon RX 6600 has fallen significantly in price. Currently, they are a better buy than similar models from NVIDIA. But more on that below.

The RX 6700/6800 (XT) have strong competition from NVIDIA. Radeon’s raw performance is good, but with ray tracing and DLSS NVIDIA takes the lead. The prices have been high for a long time. No wonder gamers avoided them.

The RTX 3070 Ti shows significantly better performance than the RX 6800 XT. Source: Daniel Owen YT

The RX 6900 XT couldn’t compete with NVIDIA’s flagships for obvious reasons. Professionals working with 3D graphics won’t look in the direction of Radeon. It was also uninteresting to gamers for its cost.

Stores kept high price tags, so only miners bought them.

Discrete graphics card market 2021-2022. Source: wcftech

Are bad Radeons really so?

No, they are not bad, but they were not popular because of the pricing policy of the stores. The price tags for AMD video cards remained quite high during the 2020-2022 mining period. They have been non-competitive for gamers for a long time.

Reasons why users chose NVIDIA over Radeon:

• High-quality support for Raytracing technology;
• Hardware support for DLSS upscaling;
• Better performance in professional programs;

But now the situation has changed somewhat. Stores are dropping prices and this is becoming a key factor for gamers to choose. The RX 570/580 model, thanks to the price, became a hit at the time. For its price, it offered maximum performance. Modern AMD video cards are quite good video adapters, albeit without certain “chips”. Now it is better to choose “middle peasants” and top models.

The most profitable Radeon deals by the end of 2022:

RX 6600 UAH 13 000

RX 6650 XT 15 000 UAH

RX 6700 XT UAH 18,000

RX 6800 XT 25 000 UAH

RX 6900 XT 29 000 UAH

conclusions

AMD Radeon are not very popular, but still worthy graphics cards for PC video game lovers. The RX6600 (XT) demonstrates good performance for its price, while the RX6700 (XT) and 6800 (XT) are cheaper than their NVIDIA counterparts. Low demand for Radeon products has forced sellers to cut prices like never before. By the end of 2022, it became possible to upgrade with the help of the Reds.

Most importantly, they have become an attractive choice for their cost relative to competitors. Most dropped in price representatives of the middle and high class. In such circumstances, they are a rational choice. Even NVIDIA fans might wonder. With the RX 7xxx coming out, it’s a good time to buy the RX 6xxx. Especially if the stores offer good discounts.