One thing which gets the tech crowd excited is the announcement of new graphics cards from Nvidia, and this year will see the release of many new graphic cards models based on Nvidia’s graphics chips.
And PC gaming enthusiasts have been picking up these new graphics cards like crazy, as the new GeForce RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 flew of the proverbial shelves shortly after release. The GeForce RTX 3090 is the top of the range card of the new Ampere family and retails for as much as $1500 US dollars, yet it sold out within minutes at places such as Newegg.com, as was recently reported on Forbes.
However, it seems Nvidia has taken note of this, and to avoid the situation repeating itself, will be delaying the launch of its eagerly anticipated GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card until late October as the company recently announced on its website (via videocardz.com).
“We’ve heard from many of you that there should be more cards available on launch day. To help make that happen, we are updating the availability date to Thursday, October 29th”, said the company in its statement.
And there’s likely to be plenty of demand for the RTX 3070, a card Nvidia has said will offer “incredible performance and features”, and for a much more reasonable price than the RTX 3090 and RTX 3080. Actually, the RTX 3070 will retail for $499 US dollars, which for some might be loose change compared to what the RTX 3090 costs for instance.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 also appears to be quite a performer, as according to Nvidia’s own testing the card is neck and neck with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, while it’s also about 60 % faster than the previous generation’s RTX 2070.
This sure makes the RTX 3070 an exciting piece of hardware (if Nvidia’s figures are confirmed by third-party testing, that is), but gamers on a tighter budget might be able to get an even better deal this year.
You see, it is rumored that Nvidia is also planning to release a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti sometime this year, and that this would be announced at the end of October. However, the fact that the RTX 3070’s release date has been pushed back might mean Nvidia might delay the RTX 3060 Ti’s announcement too.
The RTX 3060 Ti is a slightly cut down version of the RTX 3070 – it has fewer CUDA cores (which are individual processors which take care of graphics tasks), 5,888 vs 4,864 in the RTX 3060 Ti – but does have the same amount of memory (8 GB), which runs at the same speed.
It could be an even better deal than the RTX 3070, and a particularly good one if Nvidia is able to price it at about $350 US dollars, but it’s still a matter of wait and see now that the RTX 3070 has been delayed.
Meanwhile, AMD is also getting ready to launch a next-gen line-up of graphics cards. The likes of the upcoming Radeon RX 6500XT could pose a serious threat for Nvidia at the mid-range, but the more competitive AMD’s line-up is, the better things will be for consumers in the end, with more models to choose from and better deals as the holiday season approaches.
These are exciting times if you’re in the market for a new graphics card then, so it would surely be a great thing if Nvidia’s upcoming GeForce cards truly live up to the hype and offer a great next-gen gaming experience to all those who choose to upgrade this year.
GeForce series 30 graphics cards (Nvidia Corporation)