MSI Doesn't Plan Radeon RX 9000 Series GPUs, Skips AMD RDNA 4 Generation Entirely

[Dr. Dro]

MSI has been building motherboards and video cards for HP and Dell for decades. My experience being limited to products available in the US.

Not only HP and Dell, I know of a lot of system integrators that use MSI for manufacturing, they are a big OEM alright no question about it. From what I know, the OEM they used for the 30 series FE was Foxconn, but I've read nothing on Ada and Blackwell. Wouldn't be surprised if it was still them, though. For most "reference"/bulk cards they definitely come from Palit.

 

[watzupken]

Personally, I think MSI's decision is likely a result of preferential treatment by Nvidia for AIBs that boycott other competitors. It is not new news especially it is very obvious that big AIB partners like Asus and Gigabyte that produces AMD GPUs are not allowed to design any flagship models specifically for AMD. Flagship models are reserved only for Nvidia, to make a clear distinction. Seeking preferential treatment in times like this where Nvidia is artificially creating shortage is very important because that allows MSI to ask for a ridiculous margin and buyers will still be willing to pay.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Personally, I think MSI's decision is likely a result of preferential treatment by Nvidia for AIBs that boycott other competitors. It is not new news especially it is very obvious that big AIB partners like Asus and Gigabyte that produces AMD GPUs are not allowed to design any flagship models specifically for AMD. Flagship models are reserved only for Nvidia, to make a clear distinction. Seeking preferential treatment in times like this where Nvidia is artificially creating shortage is very important because that allows MSI to ask for a ridiculous margin and buyers will still be willing to pay.

There is no evidence for this accusation and there has never been, if anything, this simply spite from AMD fans. The reason that they don't make hyper premium AMD GPUs is because there is no market. You either have a low MSRP, value-oriented product like the current crop of Radeon cards, or you have an exotic ultra high end product. The AMD exclusive AIBs like Sapphire and TUL do it because they don't sell anything else and these are already enough to service the extremely small niche that purchases such a GPU (and again, from the value perspective, they are poor purchases).

While high-end Nvidia cards remain in the lead for performance and feature set (which they do even after the 9070 XT), with drivers that are proven to be completely problem-free in the general mindshare, you won't see something like a ROG Astral Radeon, simply because one does not need to exist and AIBs have no interest in using high-end branding on a product which doesn't have the chops for it. Developing custom designs for flagship cards is costly and they will have no return on their investment, simply because AMD buyers tend to be of the value conscious sort and they are very much unwilling to purchase expensive, "overpriced" products.

IF, and only if AMD closes the feature set gap and earns back mindshare, with UDNA you may see something being cooked, but even then, earning the customers' and then the industry's trust is something AMD has yet to do. It will be the hardest thing they've ever done.

 

[JustBenching]

Personally, I think MSI's decision is likely a result of preferential treatment by Nvidia for AIBs that boycott other competitors.

And here we go again. Then surely sapphire , xfx and the rest that don't make any nvidia gpus are obviously amd forcing them to boycott their competitors, right?

 

[Dwarden]

They are getting what they asked for in Nvidia's hands.

MSI CEO Charles Chiang has died | PC Gamer

MSI has become a mess since the mysterious death of its CEO.

he was CEO for less than year and turning the company around , it was mysterious and since that death , MSI became mess

 

[Gameslove]

I think they planned a RX 9070 XT 24 GB VRAM (or 32 GB VRAM), and canceled it...
MSI can do the GPU with more VRAM, in the story of 2013 released a Nvidia GT 760 with 4 GB VRAM, instead other partners released only 2 GB.

 

[PassportBro]

Ι almost never bother to post anymore but this guy just broke the nVIDIOmeter.

"with drivers that are proven to be completely problem-free in the general|

NVIDIA drivers 572.16 broke most if not all Blackwell GPUs causing black screens but they even managed to cause severe issues to as much as 4 gens of GPUs back (or more, who knows?). My own 1080 artifacted hard after I installed drivers 572.16 and the issue was only resolved after I installed the new nVIDIA hotfix drivers.

"with drivers that are proven to be completely problem-free in the general mindshare"

Haha this guy is funny.

"and they are very much unwilling to purchase expensive, "overpriced" products."

In Brazil your compatriots can buy 2 or 3 Fiat automobiles for the price of a 5090. Do you think that you are like the only guy who has ever lived in Brazil? We Americans frequently visit.

"earning the customers' and then the industry's trust"

AMD has already gained the trust of the customer base. Mountains of AMD GPUs have been sold already to the woe of Userbenchmark.com, et al, as I am sure you know.

 

[eidairaman1]

Bit saddened tbh, I've historically had quite the amount of MSI cards.
With how nonpresent they've been in the 7000 series I'd argue they left quite some time ago.
Would've actually coughed up some additional money for a 9070XT lightning, but I think that ship has sailed.

They haven't been present since before they developed the RX 5700 Evoke.

This smells like Nvidia has a hand in this decision. What MSI has been doing is obviously snubbing AMD.

They chose exclusivity to be favored by nVidia, so who needs those for AMD GPUs? They made awfully bad designs for the last gens of AMD GPUs they offered compared to nVidia iterations after all.

You don't have to be a god to know why companies with limited capital focus on specific products to mitigate risks and don't venture out against fierce competition. Meanwhile, Nvidia's dirt continues to come to light, so let's learn something:

NVIDIA board partners focus on OC Models as GPU and VRAM make up 80% of costs - VideoCardz.com

Reviewer has a comparison of 28 RTX 5080 graphics cards Normally, in our roundups, we include one or two reviews from each media outlet at launch. Some reviewers have better industry contacts, allowing them to collect more cards for testing. Hardly anyone can compete with TechPowerUp, which...

videocardz.com

It is a self-made problem for MSI. Radeon buyers are negative on MSI because the quality of their products was not up to par, thus probably not worth it for MSI to continue in this market. If MSI put more effort in, it would have been worth it so really the fault is solely with MSI if they couldn't make profits from AMD cards.

I sense schilling going on here. the only reason is profit margins, Nvidia partners have smaller margins vs AMD partners, but likely work out even in the end because of retain price differences.

If anyone has anti-competitive practices its nvidia. GPP redux.

It doesn't cost any R&D when you're reusing parts from previous gen AMD GPU's

Anywho who cares if MSI don't want to build AMD GPU's anymore they weren't doing a great job of it to start with so I don't think it's really any loss to consumers between Asus Asrock Powercolor Sapphire and XFX there's plenty of choice for us (and I spose Yeston if you like the waifu bs)

I can see that someday soon MSI will become the next EVGA like victim of nGreedia

MSI never had the best AMD cards, they were lower quality AND higher priced. You want a decent low priced AMD card, ASUS is a better choice than MSI. You want a "higher quality" card, Sapphire is better than MSI.

MSI got stuck in a bad market niche and they could not (or would not) compete out of that niche.

The best Card MSI had was the Radeon R9 290X Lightning, after that with gpp they went to shit.

 

[Visible Noise]

Asus is the largest AIB, all it takes is some simple googling.

Still waiting for that list of OEMs that use Asus GPUs.

 

[Veseleil]

Good grief.

 

[Eliad Buchnik]

Here is an unpopular opinion - MSI in last generation probably did not sell that much AMD GPUs as market share is slim and there are a lot of competition, seeing that AMD has no highend competitor this gen, they decided skip AMD this generation maybe several more generations. People need to understand this is all business, companies are motivated by making money, if MSI wasn't selling AMD cards that well, those are wasted resources that could be allocated for products that do sell. They are not fanboys they make decisions but what makes them money, and their assement is there won't be much money from AMD GPUs this gen - was it right/wrong decision remains to be seen.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I think they planned a RX 9070 XT 24 GB VRAM (or 32 GB VRAM), and canceled it...
MSI can do the GPU with more VRAM, in the story of 2013 released a Nvidia GT 760 with 4 GB VRAM, instead other partners released only 2 GB.

No, they did not. A 32 GB workstation version will likely release, but AMD never meant to compete with the Nvidia high end this generation. Interestingly enough, they probably could have, considered the 9070 XT is a pretty good product in its own right.

Here is an unpopular opinion - MSI in last generation probably did not sell that much AMD GPUs as market share is slim and there are a lot of competition, seeing that AMD has no highend competitor this gen, they decided skip AMD this generation maybe several more generations. People need to understand this is all business, companies are motivated by making money, if MSI wasn't selling AMD cards that well, those are wasted resources that could be allocated for products that do sell. They are not fanboys they make decisions but what makes them money, and their assement is there won't be much money from AMD GPUs this gen - was it right/wrong decision remains to be seen.

Not exactly an unpopular opinion, it's pretty much what happened, and MSIs RDNA 3 designs were quite lackluster, they simply reused the cooling solutions from Ada and even Ampere cards. They weren't top sellers or the most desirable models by any stretch.

Ι almost never bother to post anymore but this guy just broke the nVIDIOmeter.

"with drivers that are proven to be completely problem-free in the general|

NVIDIA drivers 572.16 broke most if not all Blackwell GPUs causing black screens but they even managed to cause severe issues to as much as 4 gens of GPUs back (or more, who knows?). My own 1080 artifacted hard after I installed drivers 572.16 and the issue was only resolved after I installed the new nVIDIA hotfix drivers.

"with drivers that are proven to be completely problem-free in the general mindshare"

Haha this guy is funny.

"and they are very much unwilling to purchase expensive, "overpriced" products."

In Brazil your compatriots can buy 2 or 3 Fiat automobiles for the price of a 5090. Do you think that you are like the only guy who has ever lived in Brazil? We Americans frequently visit.

"earning the customers' and then the industry's trust"

AMD has already gained the trust of the customer base. Mountains of AMD GPUs have been sold already to the woe of Userbenchmark.com, et al, as I am sure you know.

Hilarious, it's like I struck a nerve. Too bad that the only counter you can come back with can be reduced to "you're Brazilian, shut up".

The best Card MSI had was the Radeon R9 290X Lightning, after that with gpp they went to shit.

The GPP never went into effect. It's not some anti-competitive nonsense from more than a decade ago that the consumers utterly rejected that caused any of AMD's woes for the past few generations, nor is it the reason AIBs simply didn't feel like releasing premium designs based on GPUs that can be called anything but premium - by their makers' own definition. But you know that, don't you?

 

[AusWolf]

Most Radeon people would rather skip MSI for their graphics cards as well.

Yep. Good riddance.

 

[JustBenching]

The GPP never went into effect. It's not some anti-competitive nonsense from more than a decade ago that the consumers utterly rejected that caused any of AMD's woes for the past few generations, nor is it the reason AIBs simply didn't feel like releasing premium designs based on GPUs that can be called anything but premium - by their makers' own definition. But you know that, don't you?

I liked gpp actually, it offers product differentation which is lovely. We technically had gpp in mobos back in the day and nobody complained (remember the crosshair mobos that were amd exclusive?), it's just that the moment nvidia is mentioned in anything we get an outcry. They could discover the cure for cancer and people will still complain about it.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I liked gpp actually, it offers product differentation which is lovely. We technically had gpp in mobos back in the day and nobody complained (remember the crosshair mobos that were amd exclusive?), it's just that the moment nvidia is mentioned in anything we get an outcry. They could discover the cure for cancer and people will still complain about it.

Not sure about that. The GPP as NV presented it was very much anti-competitive, because it clearly segmented products and divided manufacturers' lines between a premium option (NV's product) and something else, effectively giving them exclusivity to the established names and forcing manufacturers to create entirely new lines for competitors, lines that could never be positioned at the same tier as their products. It also indirectly gave Nvidia leverage to directly punish partners which didn't prioritize their product. All in all, it was a terrible idea on paper and in practice, even if at some point they might have had good intentions (something I consider unlikely).

However, the GPP is a what if scenario. It never went into enforcement or effect, and I'm sure that Nvidia looked at bad press, asked their lawyers who told them this was a bad idea and they backed off. Scott Herkelman's tweet as linked above is obviously intended to cover base for the company he works for. There were other reasons for RDNA 3's sales to pale against Ada's, and even then AMD got a tailwind now with the latest AI boom, allowing them to sell their 7900 XTX's at full price due to strong demand instead of phasing them out in clearance sales.

Anyone crying GPP in 2025 is out of their mind, it's an incredibly dishonest argument and in my eyes no different from someone trying to argue that the RX 9070 XT is bad because back in 2000 or whatever, ATI cheated at Quake 3. Same level of utter bird brain argument. End of the day, people just don't want to be told what they don't want to hear, which is why AMD fans take offense at even painfully obvious things like: a ultra high end AIB design for a midrange card from the underdog brand makes no sense (which is what I said and apparently, something that warrants that thinly veiled racism and to call me an Nvidia diehard). Sure, I love spending a yearly budget on my GPU because the competitor's card, despite being lauded as amazing, didn't exactly outperform the one I got 2 years ago. Love it. Ugh.

 

[Caring1]

MSI is probably kicking itself for this dumb decision.

 

[blinnbanir]

MSI is probably kicking itself for this dumb decision.

It is anecdotal but they cancelled their 5070 Livestream and did not tell anyone. Then they did the 9950X3D 4 hours later than usual during the Champions League knockout phase. They also announced that Weekly live streams would be no more. MSI obviously likes to pick sides. Just look at the Claw.

 

[blinnbanir]

This thread is so much like how the conversation used to be about Intel vs AMD. I just read a title on Videocardz that says AMD GPUs have 45% market share in Japan. I did not read it but the 9000 seems to have been a success for AMD. Especially since there is no Nvidia stock to speak of. Maybe the conversation will end up the same. It seems a little insane to have such a hatred for a Company that you would want them to be no more. To include users is well childish.

 

[ThomasK]

Just hit it, you'll be spared.

 

[GhostRyder]

Not sure about that. The GPP as NV presented it was very much anti-competitive, because it clearly segmented products and divided manufacturers' lines between a premium option (NV's product) and something else, effectively giving them exclusivity to the established names and forcing manufacturers to create entirely new lines for competitors, lines that could never be positioned at the same tier as their products. It also indirectly gave Nvidia leverage to directly punish partners which didn't prioritize their product. All in all, it was a terrible idea on paper and in practice, even if at some point they might have had good intentions (something I consider unlikely).

However, the GPP is a what if scenario. It never went into enforcement or effect, and I'm sure that Nvidia looked at bad press, asked their lawyers who told them this was a bad idea and they backed off. Scott Herkelman's tweet as linked above is obviously intended to cover base for the company he works for. There were other reasons for RDNA 3's sales to pale against Ada's, and even then AMD got a tailwind now with the latest AI boom, allowing them to sell their 7900 XTX's at full price due to strong demand instead of phasing them out in clearance sales.

Anyone crying GPP in 2025 is out of their mind, it's an incredibly dishonest argument and in my eyes no different from someone trying to argue that the RX 9070 XT is bad because back in 2000 or whatever, ATI cheated at Quake 3. Same level of utter bird brain argument. End of the day, people just don't want to be told what they don't want to hear, which is why AMD fans take offense at even painfully obvious things like: a ultra high end AIB design for a midrange card from the underdog brand makes no sense (which is what I said and apparently, something that warrants that thinly veiled racism and to call me an Nvidia diehard). Sure, I love spending a yearly budget on my GPU because the competitor's card, despite being lauded as amazing, didn't exactly outperform the one I got 2 years ago. Love it. Ugh.

I am sorry but you are assuming they care, Intel didn't and that conversation back then was much the same. Not saying that they are doing GPP, just saying it would not surprise me. Plus it also matters if they actually get caught/what the punishment is going to be versus the benefits. Intel did that calculation and got a slap on the wrist for their transgressions. Still not sure I believe that's what's going on, but I am saying there are some weird things going on but it could very well be not lucrative for them to design better AMD cards.

It isn't a conspiracy, MSI AMD cards sucked so no one bought them.
MSI skipping the AMD 9000 series is a dumb mistake now with no supply of Nvidia 50 series cards. The rumor is some AIB's are in trouble because they don't have any 50 series cards to sell.

EVGA got screwed over badly with the RTX 30 series and having no room for margins at all, they got out at the right time with the 40 series melting power cables.

I think the EVGA issue was more timing than anything else. I believe that is at least what they said, they got the cards so late they had to design/develop the GPU boards and cooler in a short amount of time which cost alot of money and was hurting their margins. Could be misremembering, but I believe that was what the articles said back then after talking with EVGA.

Anyway, there are other OEM's to fill in the gaps. Not really thinking this is a loss for them overall.

 

[RandallFlagg]

You can't have your cake and eat it too. I know you want to, but you can't. AMD's anti competitive practices drives aibs away. God knows what they offer to powercolor sapphire etc to only make amd cards.

I don't usually have an opinion on the Nvidia vs AMD as I'm totally agnostic about the subject (I'm not on CPUs). But after seeing those comments in this thread, a little bit later I stumbled onto this about AMD having 'tiers' for their AIB partners. If you're not in the right tier, you don't get the chips.

AMD Has Reportedly Enforced a "Biased Distribution" of the RX 9070 Series Among AIBs; ASUS, XFX & PowerColor Receive a Much Higher Allocation

Well, it seems like the distribution of AMD's RX 9070 GPUs among board partners might be biased, as Team Red divided AIBs into two groups.

wccftech.com

 

[wNotyarD]

I don't usually have an opinion on the Nvidia vs AMD as I'm totally agnostic about the subject (I'm not on CPUs). But after seeing those comments in this thread, a little bit later I stumbled onto this about AMD having 'tiers' for their AIB partners. If you're not in the right tier, you don't get the chips.

AMD Has Reportedly Enforced a "Biased Distribution" of the RX 9070 Series Among AIBs; ASUS, XFX & PowerColor Receive a Much Higher Allocation

Well, it seems like the distribution of AMD's RX 9070 GPUs among board partners might be biased, as Team Red divided AIBs into two groups.

wccftech.com

I mean, I'd see as logical to prioritize the partners who prioritize you, and take the effort to aggregate value to your brand. E.g. Sapphire, PowerColor and XFX.
And that makes me question how would ASUS be on the first echelon after a second straight generation without ROG (which is their premier line) designs.

 

[Hecate91]

I am sorry but you are assuming they care, Intel didn't and that conversation back then was much the same. Not saying that they are doing GPP, just saying it would not surprise me. Plus it also matters if they actually get caught/what the punishment is going to be versus the benefits. Intel did that calculation and got a slap on the wrist for their transgressions. Still not sure I believe that's what's going on, but I am saying there are some weird things going on but it could very well be not lucrative for them to design better AMD cards.

I don't doubt GPP is going on. Nvidia tried to pull something similar to Intel selling defective 13th & 14th gen cpu's, Nvidia with the missing ROPs, Nvidia knew the whole time and I wouldn't doubt the closest Nvidia partners went along with it, or had to risking not getting any GPU supply at all. The rumor is some Nvidia AIBs are in trouble because they don't have enough supply to maintain any profit.

I think the EVGA issue was more timing than anything else. I believe that is at least what they said, they got the cards so late they had to design/develop the GPU boards and cooler in a short amount of time which cost alot of money and was hurting their margins. Could be misremembering, but I believe that was what the articles said back then after talking with EVGA.

Anyway, there are other OEM's to fill in the gaps. Not really thinking this is a loss for them overall.

I agree it could've been timing, but the fact AIB's dont have much time to design a cooler and board is a terrible anti-competitive tactic, and apparently the same happened with the RTX 50 series which is probably why cards some cards are so buggy and have badly optimized fan profiles.
Other OEM's may have filled in the gap, Nvidia definitely doesn't care, but it's still a loss for the customers who valued EVGA for what they offered over other AIB's.

AMD having 'tiers' for their AIB partners. If you're not in the right tier, you don't get the chips.

Except Nvidia probably does exactly the same thing, though I can understand AMD prioritizing for the brands people are buying the most, rather than sending chips to AIBs for cards to sit on shevles.
However I don't see why they're prioritizing Asus over Asrock, besides wanting to sell to a brand that spends more on advertising.

 

[mkppo]

A bit of a troll feeding frenzy, lots of dubious claims, no sources for a lot of stuff and yet troll feeding ensues. Anyway, a couple of things:

GPP was terrible, and nvidia backed out due to bad press. But if you think they stopped doing anything of the sort you're sorely mistaken. It's just that at the time of GPP's 'launch', AMD were fiercely competitive and faster at times. A few years later when AMD were penny pinching and nvidia had the lead, they could do a few things they wanted to in GPP while not stating it as such. Win win.

Also, MSI bailed out because they made shit AMD cards and gave very little effort. They expected people to still keep buying them but when there are actually good AIB's making cards no one resorted to buying MSI. They made AMD look bad instead and can f right off, it's better for everyone.

 

[RandallFlagg]

I mean, I'd see as logical to prioritize the partners who prioritize you, and take the effort to aggregate value to your brand. E.g. Sapphire, PowerColor and XFX.
And that makes me question how would ASUS be on the first echelon after a second straight generation without ROG (which is their premier line) designs.

Of course it is. I think in any line of business, whether you are selling GPUs or CPUs or concrete, you're going to do good by the partners who do good by you. That could be anything from giving them more supply like now, to providing more technical resources. or perhaps just the 'best' technical resources. Maybe even special volume discounts, for volumes that nobody else can even get.

The only possible revelation here is for those who for whatever reason or motivation seem to think that AMD does not act like the others.