Sure, I do know, we’re all very enthusiastic about how highly effective Nvidia’s RTX 5090 is, and presumably many people are additionally very upset that Nvidia apparently thought seven playing cards per retailer could be sufficient inventory for launch day (be aware to Jensen Huang: that was a joke, please take your hitman off pace dial).

However despite the fact that it does look mighty spectacular – and as per our RTX 5080 evaluation, the center youngster of the Blackwell era is not any slouch both – there’s a distinct GPU I’m actually trying ahead to this 12 months, and it’s the lowest-spec desktop card Nvidia introduced at CES 2025. That’s proper, I’m speaking concerning the RTX 5070.

Now, I’ve at all times had a comfortable spot for Nvidia’s xx70 GPUs; I rocked a GTX 970 again within the day, and I used to be a powerful supporter of the RTX 3070 when it got here out again in 2020. These playing cards sometimes discover the appropriate steadiness between efficiency and pricing; not too costly, however nonetheless completely able to delivering a stable gaming expertise to the common shopper. And with the RTX 5070, I feel we might be in for a deal with – not least as a result of Nvidia has seemingly completed the unthinkable.

A pleasing shock

See, at launch, the current-gen RTX 4070 value $599 / £589 / AU$1,109. I assumed that was a fairly honest value on the time – definitely higher worth for cash than the higher-end Lovelace GPUs, and one thing we praised it for in our evaluation. I used to be anticipating to see the very same price ticket for the RTX 5070, however no: Nvidia has truly lowered the record value, bringing it all the way down to $549 / £549 (round AU$880).

I’m actually not exaggerating once I say that that is nuts. Clearly, we don’t have efficiency figures for the RTX 5070 but, so there’s each chance Nvidia does screw the pooch on this one, however let’s be trustworthy: this card will probably sit someplace between the RTX 4070 and RTX 4080, with $50 / £40 shaved off the value tag as well. That’s nice!

That’s not all, both; I’m simply speaking about my uncooked efficiency expectations right here, however that’s with out even factoring in Multi Body Technology, which mixed with DLSS 4 and Reflex 2 supplies a critical efficiency increase for RTX 5000 GPUs with out lots of the drawbacks seen in earlier iterations of Nvidia’s upscaling and frame-gen tech. Entry to those instruments – which could be retroactively improved by Nvidia – is a key profitable issue for the 5070.

With that price ticket, the RTX 5070 has real potential to be the brand new 1440p gaming king – or perhaps a fairly priced 4K card, as soon as we see how nicely DLSS 4 and MFG truly carry out on a extra inexpensive Blackwell card. Personally, I’ve excessive expectations… don’t let me down, Nvidia.

• The place to purchase the RTX 5090
• Nvidia RTX 5090 8K efficiency has blown me away already – and it is primarily because of Multi-Body Technology
• Nvidia’s DLSS 4 is wonderful – here is what AMD’s FSR 4 must do to take it on