GeForce RTX 5070 Gets A Head Start At Retail Vs Radeon RX 9070 But Will It Matter?
The next GPU to land at retail will be NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070, with reviews going live today (including our own). While you can draw your own conclusions as to its balance between value and performance, I am more interested in what the availability will be like, along with actual street pricing. The GeForce RTX 5070 has an MSRP of $549, and a launch date of March 5, 2025. Notably, AMD is launching its $549 RX 9070 and $599 RX 9070 XT one day after (Thursday, March 6th).
If we analyze the GeForce RTX 50 series launches thus far, inventory levels have been too low to quench the thirst of gamers looking to upgrade their GPU. I was at Micro Center for the GeForce RTX 5080/5090 launch, and the one I went to only received a paltry four GeForce RTX 5090 models while attracting a over 130 gamers waiting in line at open. By contrast, the same store had over 150 GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs at launch and a similar sized line, meaning more gamers got access to the previous generation GPU on day one.
The GeForce RTX 5070 is a different class of GPU, obviously, and much lower in price, which also means a larger audience to purchase it. While we do not know exact numbers for inventory yet, Micro Center sent out an e-mail about the GPU and it included the words "Limited inventory available."
If we analyze the GeForce RTX 50 series launches thus far, inventory levels have been too low to quench the thirst of gamers looking to upgrade their GPU. I was at Micro Center for the GeForce RTX 5080/5090 launch, and the one I went to only received a paltry four GeForce RTX 5090 models while attracting a over 130 gamers waiting in line at open. By contrast, the same store had over 150 GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs at launch and a similar sized line, meaning more gamers got access to the previous generation GPU on day one.
The GeForce RTX 5070 is a different class of GPU, obviously, and much lower in price, which also means a larger audience to purchase it. While we do not know exact numbers for inventory yet, Micro Center sent out an e-mail about the GPU and it included the words "Limited inventory available."
A potential limited inventory of the RTX 5070 may be a point that AMD can capitalize on. It won't matter if the RTX 5070 launches a day earlier, if gamers are unable to purchase it in the quantities that the market demands. AMD slow played the launch of its Radeon RX 9070 series based on RDNA 4, but even though it's arriving a day later than the RTX 5070, there might not be much of an advantage for NVIDIA there. It just all depends on inventory levels.
We would hope AMD's March 6th release (versus potentially launching it much sooner, perhaps as early as CES) means it's been able to stockpile a more significant number of GPUs, which would translate to plenty of sales on the street. The one-two punch combo here would be if NVIDIA has low inventory, and gamers aren't impressed by the RTX 5070's performance-to-dollar ratio. AMD's 16GB of VRAM overshadows the 12GB in the RTX 5070, albeit it's utilizing GDDR6 memory chips instead of faster GDDR7 VRAM.
Rasterized performance should be solid on the AMD GPUs, but they will likely miss the same level of performance in ray tracing. While AMD's RDNA 4 has FSR 4, less games are supported than NVIDIA's more mature DLSS 4 which has been in greater use. The keys here will be street pricing, availability, and stability of drivers in the early days of both GPUs. Only then will we be able to truly crown a mid-range winner of this generation.
We would hope AMD's March 6th release (versus potentially launching it much sooner, perhaps as early as CES) means it's been able to stockpile a more significant number of GPUs, which would translate to plenty of sales on the street. The one-two punch combo here would be if NVIDIA has low inventory, and gamers aren't impressed by the RTX 5070's performance-to-dollar ratio. AMD's 16GB of VRAM overshadows the 12GB in the RTX 5070, albeit it's utilizing GDDR6 memory chips instead of faster GDDR7 VRAM.
Rasterized performance should be solid on the AMD GPUs, but they will likely miss the same level of performance in ray tracing. While AMD's RDNA 4 has FSR 4, less games are supported than NVIDIA's more mature DLSS 4 which has been in greater use. The keys here will be street pricing, availability, and stability of drivers in the early days of both GPUs. Only then will we be able to truly crown a mid-range winner of this generation.
