Halloween isn’t far away now – it’s only a few weeks away before the spookiness abounds – but if you really want to get scared, this rumor about Nvidia’s possible pricing for RTX 5000 graphics cards is truly frightening.
What is nothing short of a shocking revelation – add spice, as with any leak – comes from Moore’s Law is Dead (MLID) on YouTube, but in fairness it also comes with a bag full of caveats, which we’ll get to later. soon.
But first, the rumors about the prices themselves, which apparently come from one of Nvidia’s best sources for Nvidia information.
These are all US prices – although they will theoretically be proportionate no matter where you live, plus the ever-present import fees and relevant taxes – and we’re told the RTX 5090 will land between $1,999 and $2,499. MLID further notes that there’s a good chance it will be closer to the latter than the best case scenario – yes, in a word.
With the RTX 5080, Nvidia is expected to cost $1,199 to $1,499, again with a higher chance of an asking price of $1,300 or more. And apparently when it comes to the RTX 5070 – which, according to other rumors today, MLID says it will have 12GB of VRAM – Nvidia could cost between $599 and $699.
We’ll be back to discuss those prices in a moment, but the leaker has a few other details to share, including that these graphics cards are scheduled to launch in early 2025, not late 2024 as some past rumors had indicated. Almost all signs at this stage point to a CES 2025 launch.
In terms of performance, MLID also adds that the RTX 5070 is expected to offer similar frame rates to the RTX 4070 Ti in terms of rasterization (non-ray tracing), perhaps a bit faster, and will only be meaningfully better than those of the last generation. model in ray tracing (where the new Blackwell GPU could be perhaps 10% to 20% faster). Remember, this is the regular 4070 Ti version, not the Ti Super.
Analysis: Let Nvidia know: If this rumor is true, it is so, so wrong
This rumor further adds to the disappointment surrounding the RTX 5070’s specs, adds to the 12GB VRAM speculation, and suggests a price-performance ratio that is painful to say the least.
The best-case scenario for the RTX 5070 seems to be a graphics card that’s clearly short on VRAM, not offering much above the RTX 4070 Ti in many games, yet still carrying the flag for exorbitant pricing to match the RTX 4070 in that regard. The latest GPU also came in at $599, a 20% price increase compared to the RTX 3070 at launch – and Nvidia could push it even a hundred dollars further up the price ladder with the 5070.
The RTX 5090 being north of two grand – perhaps a long distance north – is another terrifying prospect, and one that could guarantee Blackwell GPUs an icy reception (or even a downright icy reception). Ditto for the RTX 5080 with its 16GB of VRAM, although we’ve heard predictions before that this could tip $1,200.
Okay, so let’s put on the brakes for a moment. As MLID makes clear, these are just prices that Nvidia is (supposedly) considering at the moment, and they are far from set in stone. Indeed, the leaker raises the prospect that some of this contemplation could be wrapped up in the expectation that these prices will leak, in order to gauge the reaction.
Does Nvidia really have to guess what the response to these Blackwell price rumors might be? As MLID notes, the feedback from retail partners is that these theoretical price points are nothing short of disastrous.
So what can we do in this situation? Well, it’s clear: everyone should go to their favorite social media or forums and express their feelings. We can only hope that Nvidia will listen and perhaps change things up.
To us, the rumors about the RTX 5070’s performance and pricing don’t make sense in their current form – so we’re hoping this turns out very differently.
Unfortunately, we can’t actually believe the RTX 5090 speculation – especially since Nvidia can afford to charge a huge premium for these types of flagship graphics cards.
Since the focus of the GB202 chip is on heavyweight AI GPUs, where the real gains lie, Team Green doesn’t want to make that many Blackwell GeForce flagships anyway. Considering that pricing them stratospherically is a no-brainer, because there will be a hardened core of enthusiast buyers who will snap up these graphics cards at all costs (within some sort of vague, remotely healthy ceiling – and Nvidia is pushing it should be said with 2.5K). But if the price is like this, the graphics card should be a Blackwell RTX Titan, instead of a 5090.
Broadening our perspective, perhaps one of the biggest problems with all of this may be that if Nvidia’s pricing extends along the lines suggested here, it leaves a whole lot of room for AMD to be less price competitive with RDNA 4 -graphics. cards when they arrive in early 2025 as well. It takes all the heat out of that battle, and in this case everyone loses (or looks to Intel Battlemage for salvation: a somewhat lost hope perhaps, especially since the 2nd generation of Arc may only be at budget level (not that this sector of the GPU market could not use the help, we might add).