During Gamescom 2023, the curtain was finally pulled back on the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT, with both graphics cards set to launch imminently. As expected, AIBs like Gigabyte and ASUS will be releasing their own custom coolers for the AMD GPUs, but MSI, however, is conspicuously absent from the roster.
It’s not the first time MSI has declined to participate in AMD GPU launches. While it offered its own Ventus model of the AMD Radeon RX 7600, MSI didn’t develop an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT straight off the bat, instead waiting a few months to release its own iteration. The reason for MSI’s antipathy towards AMD graphics cards isn’t clear, but there’s no doubt it seems keener on Nvidia’s GeForce pixel pushers.
Luckily for AMD, other add in board partners have seen fit to invest in the Navi 32 GPUs from the off, albeit with seemingly dampened enthusiasm. Asus, for example, has revealed three custom models across both the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT, four fewer than it created for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070.
Of course, MSI being absent from the list of launch partners for the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT release date doesn’t mean the Taiwanese company won’t eventually get in on the action.