I just watched the RTX 5070 effectively sell out before it even launched

The RTX 5070 should have launched at 9am ET today, but it almost feels like supplies of the Nvidia GeForce GPU didn't exist in the first place. I practically watched retailers switch their listings from "coming soon" to "out of stock" as soon as the clock struck, and I'm frankly confused.

If, like me, you went hunting for RTX 5070 stock today, you will have been greeted with the same disappointment at the likes of Newegg, Best Buy, and Amazon. Even monstrously priced custom models failed to show up at 9am, which is weird since I don't know why anyone would pay the same price for the card as the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. Yes, I know it's entirely likely that resellers managed to snap up all the GPUs first, but even that doesn't make much sense in my head.

So, what now? Well, as much as I think the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 is actually a solid mid-range GPU, I'd suggest looking at where to buy RX 9070 series graphics cards instead. AMD has priced its RDNA 4 GPUs pretty competitively, with the non-Ti matching the 5070's $549 MSRP and the RX 9070 Ti targeting at $599 MSRP. There's still a good chance those two options will suffer the same fate as the green team's stock tomorrow, but if it can remain available even for just a few minutes, it'll claim launch victory over the GeForce GPUs.

Should you wait for the RTX 5070?

You'll technically have a second chance to grab the RTX 5070 since the Founders Edition will show up later in the month at an unspecified date. However, you might be sitting wondering if you should even bother waiting for the mid-range GPU to become available again. I'm a big believer in not holding off too long to upgrade your PC if it's getting in the way of you hitting your Steam backlog, and while the new card can pull off tremendous 4K tricks using AI upscaling, it's not the only option on the market.

First and foremost, I'd focus on seeing whether the RX 9070 is worth picking up. AMD's mid-range GPU duo are looking pretty promising since they target a 4K gaming experience for under $600, but I'll need to benchmark both graphics cards myself before I can pass a verdict. Nevertheless, a 16GB GPU for under $600 that can boost fps with Frame Generation and promises UHD performance sounds pretty great on paper, and it'll be a no brainer if it's actually available at launch.

If we end up in a scenario where jumping on the next-gen bandwagon is impossible, there are a couple of GPUs I'd consider instead of the RTX 5070. The first is the Radeon RX 7800 XT since it's one of the few mid-range cards that starts at $499 and provides admirable 4K results. The only issue there is that it's also largely out of stock, but I'm hoping some cards slip onto the scene while everyone tries to track down new stock.

The other contender is naturally the RTX 4070 Super. Ideally, this would be the GPU I'd be telling everyone to jump on if the RTX 5070 remains out of stock long term, but guess what? Even the Lovelace model is MIA. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the graphics card scene is going through another shortage crisis, only this time I'm not sure what the underlying issue actually is.

My TLDR is effectively this - if you can grab a last-gen graphics card like the RTX 4070 Super or RX 7800 XT right now at MSRP, do it. Otherwise, you'll really have no choice but to wait for the RTX 5070 unless you're willing to switch to an entry-level GPU instead, but even the wonderfully affordable Intel Arc B580 is $379 at Newegg right now, $130 more than MSRP.

Hopefully, none of you out there have a rig right now with a graphics card on the blink. If your older RTX 20-series card is still working, I'd keep it from retirement right now. I mean, I've still got an GTX 970 that can technically run Baldur's Gate 3 at 1080p, so when there's a will to play PC games, there's a janky old way.

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