Nvidia’s RTX 5070 launched this morning, and to our surprise, we actually had several chances to buy the PC graphics card — but not at the $549 pricing.
Instead, the units we found available required that we pay more at $649, $699 and even $719. “Not even the scalpers want this,” joked one user in a Discord chat devoted to buying GPUs.
In our case, we spotted Best Buy opening sales for a single RTX 5070 model at about 6:03 am PST. We immediately pounced, hit the add to cart button, and began waiting through the retailer’s digital queue.
(Best Buy)
Our past attempts to snag an RTX 5090, 5080 and 5070 Ti through Best Buy have all failed. But today, we were surprised to see the retailer give us the chance to buy an MSI-branded RTX 5070 model. For the first time, we were able to reach the final stage of Best Buy’s checkout process to buy an RTX 5000 card.
The only problem is that the RTX 5070 model up for order cost $649 — or $100 more than we’d like to pay for. We canceled our order, only to see the product as sold out. But what’s funny is that Best Buy’s site made the model available again at around 6:43am.
(Best Buy)
Once again, we hit add to cart, and were eventually given another chance to buy the card. Meanwhile, other RTX 5070 models, including those at the $549 price, were immediately listed as sold out on Best Buy’s site. The Founders Edition RTX 5070 also wasn’t available; Nvidia has delayed its release to later this month.
(Best Buy)
We also had chances to buy other RTX 5070 models through MSI’s online store and Zotac’s online store early Wednesday morning. But like before, the vendors were asking us to pay $719 or $699. The cards seemed to remain in stock for a solid 15 to 20 minutes before they too became sold out.
(MSI)
(Zotac)
However, all other attempts to buy the RTX 5070 at the more reasonable $549 price came up empty. Like Best Buy, Newegg listed most models as sold out. But the retailer is offering two RTX 5070 models at the $549 price—though only through its lottery system, the Newegg Shuffle.
The sales suggest the RTX 5070 is facing less than demand, although supplies remain low. One Micro Center store in Maryland has been spotted carrying only 32 units of the RTX 5070 on launch day while another location has 62 available, according to Reddit users. Meanwhile, Central Computers in the San Francisco Bay area had none on launch day. But despite the lower demand, a few scalpers are already trying to resell the RTX 5070 on eBay for between $1,000 to $1,150.
Overall, the low availability and high pricing for the RTX 5000 cards has disappointed many PC builders. But it’s possible that rival AMD will try to swoop in and fill the gap. Tomorrow, the company is launching the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT, starting for $549 and $599, respectively. One vendor has even posted a photo of dozens of Radeon 9070XT units at a warehouse, suggesting stock might be plentiful.
Get Our Best Stories!
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links.
By clicking the button, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our
Terms of Use and
Privacy Policy.
You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.
About Michael Kan
Senior Reporter
