MSI Delays Custom AMD 7900 Graphics Cards Until They Can Truly Be Custom

Following the official release of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 series of graphics cards earlier this week, while we have seen a number of custom models get either released or announced, outside of reference designs (ie. pretty much lifting the example set by AMD’s in-house model) we’ve seen very little in terms of full-blown truly custom GPUs, and from MSI… Nothing at all so far.

So, it does perhaps beg the question as to where MSI actually are with this GPU? – Well, following a series of Twitter posts, while the AIB partner has confirmed that custom 7900’s are on the way, it appears that sources believe that won’t actually hit the market until some point in Q1 2023. – In other words, while you shouldn’t expect these models any time soon, there might be an excellent reason for it!

MSI Confirms AMD 7900 GPUs Are Coming – Just Not When!

According to a separate leak source, it has been said that rather than simply creating a ‘reference’ version of the 7900 XT or 7900 XTX, MSI has instead chosen to wait until they can bring truly customised models to the market. In other words, think in the remits of overclocking, higher base/boost clock speeds, and, in very basic terms, designs which should notably exceed the base level of performance.

When will this happen though? Well, while Q1 2023 could potentially mean the first couple of weeks of January, the overall ethos I seem to take away from this is that they will likely not be ready with their 7900 series of GPUs until some point around either February or March.

What Do We Think?

The decision for MSI to wait until they’ve completed development on truly custom models is probably a smart one. – Reference designs do, of course, help overall availability and price competitiveness, but in terms of performance, they do all generally tend to perform, give or take, about on par with each other. And, most notably, not much better than AMD’s own base design.

Given how excellent that AMD reference model is though, it’ll undoubtedly be interesting to see what AIB partners can do when they push the boat fully out here. Albeit, don’t expect these models to be anywhere near as affordable as the $899/$999 MSRP.

What do you think? Are you planning on getting an AMD 7900 GPU? If so, which model? The 7900 XT or the 7900 XTX? – Let us know in the comments!