Nvidia’s RTX 4070 Super just came out yesterday, but day one sales may not have been what Team Green wanted to see, we’re told.
Moore’s Law is Dead (MLID) on YouTube chewed on the topic of the initial reaction to the first new Super refresh (two more are coming), and the feedback from the leaker’s sources is quite negative.
MLID cites no fewer than six sources (among retailers and distributors) to give us an idea of interest and sales levels for the RTX 4070 Super (along with others who didn’t want to be quoted).
The consensus? That sales of this graphics card were relatively lackluster on its first day of release, while inventory remained strong even with the MSRP models often being quite sold out on launch day. So that wasn’t quite the case with the RTX 4070 Super, and even on the Nvidia site the Founders Edition model wasn’t sold out.
At the time of writing, looking at Newegg for example, RTX 4070 Super stock still appears to be plentiful, with no out-of-stock models available – and both variants at MSRP are still on sale too.
Additionally, the RTX 4070 Super stock is rumored to be a little lighter than expected – and only “decent” stock levels were expected in the first place by MLID’s various insiders. This means that not only is stock still on the shelves – at recommended retail price – but it is also accompanied by thinner shipments on the ground than expected.
Some quotes from MLID’s sources include that the RTX 4070 Super launch inventory is about half of what the RTX 4070 saw at release, and that sales of the new Super are “very low” and that only MSRP models really sell.
Other sources commenting on the sales are even more strongly on the negative side, with one person claiming the sales are a “disaster” for the first day, and another observing that the RTX 4070 Super numbers were actually worse than the RTX 4080 sales on launch day (yes – ouch) .
The source who made the disaster comment was from a graphics card manufacturer and also expressed some frustration over the fact that Nvidia told him to push custom models that cost more than the recommended retail price, while Team Green bought its Founders Edition for the recommended price directly from sells his own company. website.
Analysis: Why the lack of interest? Let’s be careful here…
So, what’s going on with the RTX 4070 Super? Well, first of all, we have to keep in mind that this is just talk. However, it’s pretty consistent chatter that we largely agree on, so these are most certainly worrying rumors. And as mentioned, the shares remain visibly strong for the time being (especially in the US), so there is clearly not a huge demand, that’s for sure.
The second thing to keep in mind is that this is just the first day we’re talking about. Let’s give this graphics card a try, shall we? Furthermore, January is traditionally a time when people may be struggling financially more than normal (until the first pay packet arrives).
It’s entirely possible that momentum for the RTX 4070 Super will increase. Indeed, as MLID points out, the standard RTX 4070 was a bit slow out of the gate, but it sold very well (and sits nicely on our list of the best graphics cards, where it has now been succeeded by the 4070 Super, we should add). That could happen again here, but there are concerns even at this early stage about the RTX 4070 Super’s apparent slowness.
Exploring the reasons why PC gamers might not be thrilled with Nvidia’s new graphics card, there’s a recurring theme around complaints online, which is that in 2024, 12GB seems like an even shakier fit than it did with last year’s RTX 4070.
What many gamers wanted was an upgrade to 16 GB, and the price of the RTX 4070 Super, which is in the upper mid-range, really leaves a bad taste in some people’s tastes, considering the 12 GB of video memory. It lacks future-proofing, and as we highlight in our Founders Edition review, the VRAM hinders this graphics card’s potential when it comes to 4K gaming.
What brings this all together in terms of value is that AMD’s RX 7800 XT is now available for around $500 in the US (again on Newegg), so it’s clearly a hundred dollars cheaper than the RTX 4070 Super. Quite simply, that AMD graphics card makes more sense as a value proposition at this point (assuming you don’t care about ray tracing, that is, where Nvidia reigns as the undisputed champion, of course).
Of course, we’ll just have to keep an eye on Nvidia’s RTX 4070 Super sales, but we’re already wondering if the prices will need to be adjusted in the future. Is that something Team Green wants to look at if this is how things play out?
Well, we can only guess, but MLID also comes up with a worrying suggestion that future shipments of the RTX 4070 Super may be more focused on custom models above MSRP – just another nagging doubt to add to the pile here to add for this updated GPU. Another option could be to push the RTX 4070 Ti Super harder instead, with its 16GB of VRAM. (That GPU will likely have a lot less inventory initially when it comes out, as per previous MLID rumors – allowing existing RTX 4070 Ti inventory to be cleared out).