The short-term outlook doesn't bode well for the GPU market. Hardware Unboxed recently announced that the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti graphics card may have just hit end-of-life status, since major board partners like Asus are officially marking them unavailable… indefinitely. Back in December, PCMag and other outlets reported that Nvidia could cut back production on its mid-range graphics cards – including the RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5060 Ti (16GB), and RTX 5070 – by up to 40% due to the DRAM shortage and Nvidia's AI data center focus. The popular take is that Nvidia deems that these GPUs have too much VRAM for their price point and they'd rather improve their profit margins elsewhere.
Fortunately, all is not lost. For the time being, you can actually get an Asus branded GeForce RTX 5070 12GB graphics card for below MSRP. If you're looking to upgrade your graphics card now, then your window may be closing to get one at a reasonable price. Even if the RTX 5070 continues production, I don't expect the price to stay this "low" forever.
Asus GeForce RTX 5070 Graphics Card for $539.99
The RTX 5070 performs on par with the previous generation RTX 4070 Super – which was already an excellent card for 1080p and 1440p gaming – but with DLSS4 and multi-frame generation. It's equipped with 12GB of GDDR7 VRAM which allows it to keep up with high-fps gaming at 1440p. You'll also be able to run most games in 4K as well, although depending on the game you may need to tweak your graphics settings. I myself gamed on an RTX 3080 (which is inferior to the 5070) in 4K for a long time without any real complaints until I finally upgraded this year.
The sad reality is, if you want a "budget" card for 4K gaming and you want to stick with the Nvidia brand, the RTX 5070 might now be your best option. If the RTX 5070 Ti has indeed been phased out, the next jump up would be the RTX 5080, which currently sells for an above-MSRP price of $1,300 and up.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
