Thinking of buying an Nvidia GPU? Rumors of price hikes for RTX 4070 and beyond mean you might want to act fast

Nvidia’s current-generation graphics cards could soon be relatively scarce in the mid-range and above, as rumors are now swirling of potential changes for RTX 4000 GPUs ahead of the launch of the next-gen Blackwell – and one potential change in particular comes to the RTX 4070.

We should stress that this is all speculation, starting with the last bit about the RTX 4070, according to the Chinese tech site Bank lifeNvidia could potentially switch from GDDR6X video memory to slightly slower GDDR6 modules with this Lovelace graphics card.

PC gamer saw this reported on X by leaker Harukaze5719, while Benchlife cited a report from the Board Channels forum indicating that Nvidia has a problem with a shortage of GDDR6X VRAM.

So when it comes to the RTX 4070 and beyond, these graphics cards will see lower production due to the VRAM shortage. The report notes that supply of the RTX 4070 and 4080 models, plus the RTX 4090, could be scarcer in August 2024 than it was in July.

Benchlife then concludes that Nvidia may be prioritizing its remaining GDDR6X reserves for Lovelace graphics cards over the RTX 4070, and could switch to straight GDDR6 for the RTX 4070 as an alternative tactic.

In addition, we also have a report from a Taiwanese news channel, UDNwho claims that Nvidia is about to drastically cut production of current-gen GPUs (as indicated by TweakTown).

In concrete terms, this could mean a 30% to 50% drop in inventory rolling off the assembly lines for the RTX 4070 and beyond (4080, 4090), which if realized at the more extreme end of that spectrum would clearly make big waves in terms of supplies of this current generation of graphics cards. This is reportedly supposed to happen in August, which lines up with the rumor that was aired on the Board Channels.

Analysis: Buy GeForce Now – Don’t Wait Any Longer?

It’s clear that there’s some ongoing chatter about scaling back production levels for Lovelace GPUs, and it’s equally clear that this makes some sense for Blackwell’s launch. Especially if the RTX 5080 and 5090 GPUs are coming out later this year (although the rumor mill hasn’t seemed so sure about that of late).

While we can accept the general premise here – Nvidia will always phase out a generation when the next one comes out – we wouldn’t read much into the specific rumor about the RTX 4070 being downgraded to GDDR6 video RAM. Yes, this would also make sense to give breathing room to populate the higher-end Lovelace GPUs with GDDR6X, if there really is a shortage, but the way Benchlife is reporting this makes it seem like pure theory-mongering. (As far as we can tell from the translated article, which always makes the nuances of a report harder to discern).

If we consider the possibility of this happening, what would it mean for the RTX 4070? Well, it would be a bit slower, though where its performance would end up would depend on what other changes Nvidia decides to implement in its theoretical new spin on this mid-range graphics card. Cutting VRAM performance, if anything, wouldn’t have that much of an impact, to be honest, but it would obviously mean the RTX 4070 would be a bit slower overall.

Would this slightly slower model then be cheaper than the current RTX 4070, since GDDR6 RAM is certainly cheaper and would reduce material costs (production costs)? Well, we find that unlikely, as with stocks of all Lovelace graphics cards dwindling, there’s not much room for price drops we imagine. In fact, we might even see price increases at retailers as these current-gen GPUs become scarcer.

So if you want an RTX 4070, or a higher-end Lovelace GPU, now might be the time to make the move. Especially in the case of the former, as the RTX 5070 is likely still a ways off, with only the RTX 5090 and 5080 in the near future, in theory.

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