GeForce RTX 5070 Ti for $1000: Buyer manages to purchase AIB card before launch

According to a recent Reddit post, a buyer was able to purchase the upcoming Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti gaming GPU ahead of launch. The Asus Prime RTX 5070 Ti OC, to be specific, was bought by the OP well above MSRP, although the exact details have not been shared. Considering that the RTX 5070 Ti is set to officially launch on the 20th of February, this incident portrays yet again, that a good number of retailers care little for embargo dates.

We witnessed something similar with European retailer Proshop, who sold almost their entire stock of RTX 5090 GPUs to a scalper bot that was able to make the purchase even before the embargo lifted - with Proshop not bothering to cancel the orders. The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti card in question was sold to the Redditor two days before official launch, although some may argue that since drivers are not available, the card really isn't of much use to the buyer anyway. Going by other comments made by the poster, it appears that the card was bought for a cool $1250-$1350 after taxes.

That said, interested buyers who are planning to snag a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti card on the 20th will likely have to deal with exactly what we witnessed last month, with the launch of the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080. Rumors indicate that the supply for the RTX 5070 Ti is just as bad as that of its higher-tier siblings, leaving gamers at the behest of scalpers and pre-order queues. Considering that several RTX 5070 Ti cards have already been listed at MSRPs well above $800, it might be time to break open savings for those holding out to get a taste of mid-range Blackwell.

Going by the information we have gathered so far, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is likely to boast a 16-18% improvement in raw gaming performance over its predecessor. Whether that is a fair generational jump given the atrociously high pricing remains to be seen, especially with AMD all set to hit the scene with its somewhat more appropriately priced RDNA 4-based RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT cards sometime early next month.