Gamers be damned: RTX 5070 Ti reaches $1,000 as even AMD’s ”Value” RX 9070 XT surges 21% in price
The era of attainable desktop gaming PCs seems to have come to an end, with rising memory, storage, CPU, and GPU prices. Hardware Unboxed’s latest deep dive into AMD and Nvidia GPU prices proves that the RTX 5070 Ti, the RTX 5080, and the RTX 5090 are now out of reach of most gamers. The RTX 5070 Ti is now retailing at around $1,000, while the RTX 5080 and the RTX 5090 cost about $1,400 and $3,500 in the US, respectively.
The RTX 5070 Ti, which is suspected to have been severely supply-constrained, currently costs an average of 25% more in February 2026 than it did in November 2025 in the 10 regions that HU looked at. These figures stand at 25% and 32% for the RTX 5080 and the RTX 5090, respectively. The interesting thing here is that the RX 9070 XT, which directly competes with the RTX 5070 Ti, has only recorded an average price increase of 7% since November 2025 globally.
That said, in the US, the RX 9070 XT has reportedly seen a 21% price increase since November 2025. However, even with this price, the RX 9070 XT is currently much cheaper than the RTX 5070 Ti, as it costs around $700.
The same is true for the RX 9070. The RX 9070 price seems to have only gone up 7% globally and only 6% in the US. As a result, the RX 9070 is only around $20 more than its official MSRP. Over on Nvidia’s side, the RTX 5070 has reportedly seen a 15% price hike in the US since November 2025. But, since the RTX 5070 was cheaper than the $550 MSRP back in November, the card can still be had for $550.
Sadly, Nvidia seems to have heavily throttled the supply of the RTX 5070 Ti. This means that once old inventory runs out, every new RTX 5070 Ti restock will push the price of the board higher. While this sucks for gamers, this provides AMD with a clear opportunity to snag some much-needed market share.
Is the RX 9070 XT the currently best mid-range GPU to buy?
Leaving aside the RTX 5090, which has never been easy to buy for gamers, the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5080 price hikes present a prime opportunity for AMD to claw some market share away from Nvidia. As HU mentions, the rate at which the prices of the RTX 5070 Ti and the RTX 5080 have risen points to price gouging.
Whether through abundant supply or decreasing its own profit margins, AMD appears to have kept the prices of the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT largely in check. The GPUs, although now more expensive than a few months ago, are nowhere near as inflated as the RTX 5070 Ti and the RTX 5080.
So, if AMD can ensure that the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT are easier to buy, gamers looking for a mid-range GPU with 16 GB of VRAM at a reasonable price will have no choice but to get the RX 9070 or the RX 9070 XT. This will undoubtedly make the RX 9070 XT the best mid-range card to get, since it not only outperforms the RTX 5070 Ti, but it now costs considerably less.
Source(s)
Hardware Unboxed on YouTube, Teaser image source: Nvidia, Jp Valery on Unsplash, edited
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