Nvidia moves RTX 3070 launch to October 29

[Shawn Knight]

In brief: The graphics specialist conceded that the news would no doubt disappoint some eager to purchase an RTX 3070 as soon as possible, but added that the shift will help global partners get more graphics cards into the hands of gamers on launch day. With any luck, the measures will be effective in curbing shortages and reduce the likelihood that scalpers get their hands on cards first.

Availability of Nvidia’s RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 has been hampered by numerous, well-documented issues – so much so that Nvidia is taking action now in hopes of preventing a similar outcome when the RTX 3070 arrives.

Nvidia said in a recent announcement said that in order to ensure there are more cards available on launch day, they are moving the release date to October 29. The GPU was originally scheduled to drop on October 15, so we are dealing with a delay of two weeks.

Nvidia’s RTX 3070 starts at $499 and promises to deliver similar or even better performance than the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, and is said to be around 60 percent faster on average than the RTX 2070.

In the interim, you can check out our latest feature on ray tracing and DLSS with the RTX 3080. We’ve also got full reviews on the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 should you be considering either of those for a future investment.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/86960-nvidia-delays-rtx-3070-launch-two-weeks-shore.html

 

[Kazkas]

Really? As if additional 2w will solve production and delivery problems (so same for 3080, right?)... and WHAT a COINCIDENCE that it’s the next day after AMD annouces RNDA2....

 

[jonny888]

Really? As if additional 2w will solve production and delivery problems (so same for 3080, right?)... and WHAT a COINCIDENCE that it’s the next day after AMD annouces RNDA2....

Well, 2 extra weeks could help produce some extra cards before launch. It certainly won't hurt.
But yes, I suspect you've hit the nail on the head with it being a planned delay to keep some media attention on nVidia after the AMD launch.

 

[Goat11]

This is a joke! With the current production pipeline that can't deliver anything close to market demand, they are giving themselves 2 more weeks to be prepared... HA!
I was a sure 3080 purchaser before I saw how nVidia taking a greedy dump on its fans. It seems like they are selling all their stock to scalpers... (yea, bots... ok, whatever) and leave us gamers with nothing... I guess my money goes to AMD this gen. Their offerings seem very promising. Maybe it won't be as good in ray tracing, but at least I won't need an air-conditioner for my computer.

 

[Squid Surprise]

This is a joke! With the current production pipeline that can't deliver anything close to market demand, they are giving themselves 2 more weeks to be prepared... HA!
I was a sure 3080 purchaser before I saw how nVidia taking a greedy dump on its fans. It seems like they are selling all their stock to scalpers... (yea, bots... ok, whatever) and leave us gamers with nothing... I guess my money goes to AMD this gen. Their offerings seem very promising. Maybe it won't be as good in ray tracing, but at least I won't need an air-conditioner for my computer.

It continues to amaze me that something like this would influence anyone to purchase - or not to purchase - any given card...

Logically, you simply find what you need, and purchase the cheapest card that delivers... I guess both Nvidia and AMD are happy that people aren't logical!

 

[Vulcanproject]

This is a joke! With the current production pipeline that can't deliver anything close to market demand, they are giving themselves 2 more weeks to be prepared... HA!
I was a sure 3080 purchaser before I saw how nVidia taking a greedy dump on its fans. It seems like they are selling all their stock to scalpers... (yea, bots... ok, whatever) and leave us gamers with nothing... I guess my money goes to AMD this gen. Their offerings seem very promising. Maybe it won't be as good in ray tracing, but at least I won't need an air-conditioner for my computer.

I don't get these posts to be honest. Nvidia should have had better anti bot measures in place on their own website but I don't see them trying to control market demand by drip feeding the cards nor jacking up the prices. They can't win.

They are surely pushing them out as fast as they can before AMD can even be an option. They are high margin parts and want to sell a bunch of them before Big Navi's interference. They aren't De Beers. There is definitely going to be limited stock soon after launch as has virtually always been the case of new GPUs that offer big performance leaps, they end up in high demand. I waited two months to get a GTX10 card in 2016.

You can't get what you want right this second now on launch day? That's life, they don't owe you anything. Surely you'll survive waiting another month or two for stock from another retailer, they didn't misplace your cancer drug or whatever. This model will be around for at least a year before it is replaced in this lineup.

Don't join the waiting list to order a newly anticipated car model will ya? You might explode from the wait.

 

[Bulllee]

Perfect timing for me.My 1070 is going into a mining PC I'm building for the grandkids Christmas present.(Minecraft that is.)So plenty of time to compare the new cards.
Fools rush in etc.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Those 3070s are gonna be snapped up almost immediately.

 

[brucek]

What might be significant about two weeks may be less about the extra manufacturing, and more about cargo vessel arrival times. If it makes the difference between having a relative handful of units they were willing to pay air freight for for "release date" bragging rights, vs. having the real inventory that was coming via ocean freight, it could be substantial.

With luck scalpers may be a little more hesitant here. The 3070 buyers by definition aren't the "give me the top card at any price" type to start with. And as scalpers try raise the price towards $699, they would be asking their potential customers to choose between a 3070 now and a 3080 or the potential AMD competitor whenever real volume appears. Hopefully they'd find that a tougher selling proposition than the 3080 scalpers have.

As for those "not understanding" how someone who can't find an Nvidia card to purchase, who is angry at having been put through a frustrating and unsuccessful purchase competition vs. bots instead of a simple wait list, and who is hearing that the competition might be much more efficient at near-similar performance (with extra vram to boot) may very well end up purchasing that competition because it is possible and convenient to do so, I don't see what's not to understand.

 

[Evernessince]

Really? As if additional 2w will solve production and delivery problems (so same for 3080, right?)... and WHAT a COINCIDENCE that it’s the next day after AMD annouces RNDA2....

It's not hard to see why either, the numbers point to RDNA2 being at the very least competitive.

Nvidia is making sure it has leeway to make changes. I fairly certain this isn't about stock.

By not talking AMD has put more pressure on Nvidia than it has ever before.

 

[Endymio]

It's not hard to see why either, the numbers point to RDNA2 being at the very least competitive.

Yes, Also TSMC's N7+ > Samsung's N8. For once I am in agreement with Evernessince. Hell hath truly frozen over.

 

[brucek]

Nvidia is making sure it has leeway to make changes

What leeway are they buying themselves? 3070 specs and pricing are already announced, and most of the 3070 units to be sold on 10/29 will already be out of Nvidia's control by the time of AMD's announcement on 10/28.

I guess they could lower the price. But if they fear they might have to do that, you'd think they'd want to sell the early units at the higher prices first.

 

[Evernessince]

What leeway are they buying themselves? 3070 specs and pricing are already announced, and most of the 3070 units to be sold on 10/29 will already be out of Nvidia's control by the time of AMD's announcement on 10/28.

I guess they could lower the price. But if they fear they might have to do that, you'd think they'd want to sell the early units at the higher prices first.

It's a lot easier to change prices or potentially send updated BIOS with higher clocks before cards are in customer hands. Remember with RDNA1 when AMD jebaited Nvidia by announcing one price and then lowering it before release? This move allows Nvidia to be in a position to do that more easily.

 

[Squid Surprise]

What leeway are they buying themselves? 3070 specs and pricing are already announced, and most of the 3070 units to be sold on 10/29 will already be out of Nvidia's control by the time of AMD's announcement on 10/28.

I guess they could lower the price. But if they fear they might have to do that, you'd think they'd want to sell the early units at the higher prices first.

They've got Ti versions of all their cards waiting in the wings... Let's say AMD's cards are a bust - as in, not competitive with anything Nvidia currently has... then all Nvidia has to do is release the 3070...

But... let's say that AMD has a card that slots in between the 3070 and 3080 - and price it cheaper than the 3070 is going to be... Well, now Nvidia has the chance to lower the price on the 3070 - and release the 3070Ti for the same price as AMD's offering - or a bit pricier depending on actual performance (or perceived performance).

Does this make sense?

As for selling the 3070 as fast as possible, THEN lowering the price once AMD releases... that would make this "bot fiasco" pale in comparison when it comes to public image...

 

[Bulllee]

It's not hard to see why either, the numbers point to RDNA2 being at the very least competitive.

Nvidia is making sure it has leeway to make changes. I fairly certain this isn't about stock.

By not talking AMD has put more pressure on Nvidia than it has ever before.

I'm sure AMD did talk about getting the gear out there on time...if so the ship should be loading now!

 

[brucek]

I trust you guys may very well understand something better than I do, this is not my area of expertise, but this does not feel intuitively right to me.

Is it really feasible to update the BIOS on units that are already in the back rooms of individual stores that are set to go on sale the next morning?

If they want to lower the price of the 3070, can't they do that anytime, even if it has already been for sale? And if they want to cut the past buyers in on the new lower price, couldn't they offer a retroactive rebate?

As to Ti versions in the wings, yes of course, but don't they have those with or without having moved the initial release date?

I do see them wanting to have something to brag about on the 29th to get something in the news cycle after AMD's launch... if they could respond to positive coverage of AMD's announcement with "we just sold out an impressive quantity of 3070s" that would be a lot better than having nothing to say... plus I really do think they are getting hammered by pissed off no-luck-buyers in a way that is more intense than prior generations and realizing it is starting to become the dominant news coverage of them and wanting to change that...

 

[Goat11]

It continues to amaze me that something like this would influence anyone to purchase - or not to purchase - any given card...

Logically, you simply find what you need, and purchase the cheapest card that delivers... I guess both Nvidia and AMD are happy that people aren't logical!

I just don't like the way nVidia treats its prospects and current users. They rushed the launch, they didn't produced enough cards, the published MSRP is currently MIA... so yea, should I go and purchase anyway? no thanks! especially when AMD cards seem to be more appealing to me if they really do draw less power than the 30xx series. So yea, I am completely silly here in my reasoning...

 

[Goat11]

I don't get these posts to be honest. Nvidia should have had better anti bot measures in place on their own website but I don't see them trying to control market demand by drip feeding the cards nor jacking up the prices. They can't win.

How about... I know this is going to sounds like a crazy idea... but how about STOCK THEM CARDS UP before rushing out to the market to tell us all how great they are? Or another silly idea - send you AIBs the chips at least 6 months before lunch (and not 2 months before) so they can be prepared as well? Nah, that's just silly talk!

Do you need the /s to understand the sarcasm?

nVidia steps from launch until now are all trying to 'control the market'.

 

[Vulcanproject]

How about... I know this is going to sounds like a crazy idea... but how about STOCK THEM CARDS UP before rushing out to the market to tell us all how great they are? Or another silly idea - send you AIBs the chips at least 6 months before lunch (and not 2 months before) so they can be prepared as well? Nah, that's just silly talk!

Do you need the /s to understand the sarcasm?

nVidia steps from launch until now are all trying to 'control the market'.

Sarcasm doesn't work if it isn't well thought out.

How about understanding that for the 6 months any chip maker stocks up a very expensive to design and produce product it could catastrophically lose value overnight. Sitting on shelves bleeding value. Losing the company money.

This is the tech industry. It moves quickly. Nvidia could shift a million GPUs in the hyped pre Christmas three month period from September launch until November at $699 apiece. Then this year, AMD launch something in November that forces Nvidia to lower the price of their GPU by $50 to OEMs. Just $50.

Now figure out how much potential profit that would have cost Nvidia if they sat on the stockpile they had for those three months. Let alone six. 1 million sales. $50 less. A hypothetical example, but my point is clear.

Don't run a business in a sector with a potentially rapidly changing environment that's all I would say. You wouldn't cope. There are countless examples of generally quite good tech products just missing their market by a couple months and flopping because of it. Launch windows are so much more critical than you appear to understand.

Paper launches are rife in this industry. Nevertheless if you can't wait a couple months for something that won't exactly change your life then perhaps you need a little perspective adjustment.

 

[Bulllee]

I love the old school yarns about going into a bricks and mortar shop to buy something new.

 

[brucek]

I love the old school yarns about going into a bricks and mortar shop to buy something new.

It does seem quaint, and during a time of pandemic, perhaps even irresponsible. None-the-less pretty much the only cases I'm personally aware of where regular end users obtained a 3080 at regular retail price happened only from brick and mortar. Mail order seems like it received very limited quantity and was most susceptible to bots/scalpers.

 

[Alfatawi Mendel]

It's not hard to see why either, the numbers point to RDNA2 being at the very least competitive.

Nvidia is making sure it has leeway to make changes. I fairly certain this isn't about stock.

By not talking AMD has put more pressure on Nvidia than it has ever before.

I'm betting they call it the 3070 KO.

 

[Alfatawi Mendel]

Will it be a paper launch like the 3080 and 3090?

 

[Evernessince]

Is it really feasible to update the BIOS on units that are already in the back rooms of individual stores that are set to go on sale the next morning?

Preferably they would let AIBs know before the cards hit the store but it certainly has happened before in the graphics card market and it happens every time AMD releases a new CPUs that's supported on older motherboards only through a BIOS update.

 

[brucek]

Preferably they would let AIBs know before the cards hit the store but it certainly has happened before in the graphics card market and it happens every time AMD releases a new CPUs that's supported on older motherboards only through a BIOS update.

Wow, OK, thank you I did not realize that was an option. As a buyer, I am not sure I'm 100% convinced that having a retailer break the shrink wrap, open the package, perform a procedure, and then re-seal everything meets my expectations of a 100% new product, although ultimately of course I'd want the fixed BIOS. Do you know if the retailers charge the manufacturers a fee for this service? If it were my shop I wouldn't want to be paying someone overtime all night to handle this, and if there were a screwup I wouldn't want the liability for that either.