Tomorrow marks the official unveiling of the latest GPU, although eager buyers will have to wait until late March to get their hands on the Founders Edition.
### NVIDIA Pushes Back the Retail Launch of RTX 5070 FE to Later This Month
NVIDIA has postponed the retail release of its GeForce RTX 5070 FE GPU. While this information hasn’t been directly confirmed by NVIDIA, Andreas Schilling revealed that the update came via an email from the company. The review embargo for the RTX 5070 was lifted only recently, with plans for the retail launch originally set for tomorrow.
According to Schilling, an editor at Hardware Luxx, NVIDIA communicated this change just a few hours ahead of the review embargo lift, which means the Founders Edition of the GeForce RTX 5070 will be hard to find on release day. It’s unclear if this delay also impacts the retail availability of AIB versions. Given recent reports about the GPU’s limited supply, it’s unlikely to be widely accessible any time soon.
Thinking of snagging a GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition tomorrow? Think again. NVIDIA updated us 2 1/2 hours before the review went live:
“The RTX 5070 Founders Edition will be available later in March.” pic.twitter.com/8BntkzNc7T
— Andreas Schilling 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@aschilling) March 4, 2025
It’s possible this delay might lead to another so-called “paper launch,” similar to what happened with the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and the RTX 5070 Ti. Reviews for the GeForce RTX 5070 are already out and note that its performance is comparable to the RTX 4070 Super. It doesn’t deliver a major leap in performance over its predecessors, but at a price of $549, it still presents a decent deal given its slight performance edge over the RTX 4070 Super.
If you’re unable to find the RTX 5070 at its suggested retail price, delaying your purchase might be wise, especially with the imminent arrival of the Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070. These new competitors are set to launch on March 6, with reviews expected a day earlier. They come with price tags of $599 for the XT and $549 for the non-XT version, positioning the RX 9070 in direct competition with the RTX 5070.
The reasons behind the RTX 5070’s limited availability remain unclear. There were murmurs of a performance-reducing bug and potential chip supply issues several weeks back, but NVIDIA hasn’t officially commented on these issues.
Despite the delay in the Founders Edition release, there’s hope that the AIB custom versions will hit shelves in various regions around the globe. Just yesterday, the GPU was spotted on sale at retailers like B&H Photo Video, priced at $549 for both base and OC models. However, if the AIB versions push past the $600 mark, it might be wise to hold off unless there’s no other similarly powerful GPU option available in your area.
