Eagle-eyed tech enthusiasts may have noticed that certain brands were a little more common than others during the launch of AMD's new RX 9070 series graphics cards, the RX 9070 & RX 9070 XT. A new leak has shed light on why this might be.

Board Channels is a useful source of information on new and upcoming PC components. It is a Chinese forum used by the board partners for the likes of Nvidia, Intel, and AMD. As such, the information obtained from there tends to be fairly accurate, though that’s not to say it will be guaranteed.

AMD introduces two-tier system for AMD GPU partners

According to a post on Boards Channels and reported by VideoCardz, AMD has introduced a two-tier system for the allocation of its GPU chips. The first group is said to be ‘Core AMD board partners' and receive the majority of GPU chips. The post specifies that ‘thousands of units' are going to these first-tier partners. Second tier, or ‘non-core AMD partners' are said to be allocated fewer GPU chips.

The post goes on to say that regional distributors in China are receiving very limited stock, and this shortage is likely to continue into the near future. AMD has already promised to replenish stock as quickly as possible following “phenomenal” demand.

This two-tier system explains why the majority of reviews of the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT cards were for ASUS, Sapphire, and PowerColor since those cards are more readily available. For reference, we reviewed the ASUS Prime RX 9070 XT OC.

During a round table discussion in Akihabara, Japan, AMD’s Japan’s Marketing Manager, Yoshiaki Sato said that AMD: “Wasn't used to selling graphics cards.” Representatives from board partners also lamented that there were not enough GPU chips available. If the supply of GPU chips is limited, then AMD would clearly need to find some way of allocating them. In this case, the First-tier partners mostly seem to have a greater number of models available when compared to the second-tier partners.

As usual, since this is a leak and not an official announcement, it should be taken with a grain of salt.

About the Author

Rebecca Hills-Duty

Writing and journalism experience at VRFocus, UploadVR, The Escapist, HTC, PC Gamer, Tech Radar+ and Dexerto. Can sometimes be found playing with retro tech.