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Custom GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPUs Start At $1,800 Overseas

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The cruel reality

In the lead-up to Nvidia's speculated GeForce RTX 3070 Ti announcement, overseas retailers have slowly started listing custom models from the chipmaker's partners. Given the rumored specifications, the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti may deserve a spot on the list of best graphics cards on the market, but the price has to be right. Unfortunately, that might not be the case at launch. 

Curiously, LambdaTek was one of the first retailers to list custom GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards on its online store. The company (via momomo_us) has once again updated its product catalog to include a trio of custom GeForce RTX 3070 Ti models from MSI.

Although LambdaTek has a good reputation, we have to keep in mind that this might be placeholder pricing. We recommend the usual precautions when it comes to pricing for unreleased hardware. Furthermore, the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti's MSRP is unknown, and word on the street is that Nvidia hasn't even communicated it to reviewers. A such, we likely won't know the official price tag until the day of the announcement. Therefore, LambdaTek's pricing is in no way an indication of the final street price.

MSI's GeForce RTX 3070 Ti graphics cards found their way into LambdaTek's U.K. website. As usual, we've converted the pre-VAT prices from pounds to dollars for quick comparisons.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Pricing

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VendorGraphics CardPart NumberPrice
MSIGeForce RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X 8GV505-008R$2,025
MSIGeForce RTX 3070 Ti Gaming X Trio 8GV505-009R$1,958
MSIGeForce RTX 3070 Ti Ventus 3X 8G OCV505-007R$1,824

LambdaTek added three MSI SKUs, one each from the brand's Suprim, Gaming and Ventus product lines. For now, the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Ventus 3X 8G OC appears to be the cheapest option at $1,824. On the contrary, the flagship GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X 8G could end up costing a small fortune in the range of $2,025.

For comparison, LambdaTek sells the GeForce RTX 3070 versions of the Suprim X, Gaming X Trio and Ventus 3X OC series for $1,036, $956 and $915, respectively. Therefore, the corresponding GeForce RTX 3070 Ti variants are up to twice as expensive. It's unclear if this pricing follows the manufacturer's MSRP, or if it's just a sneaky markup on the retailer's part.

MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (Image credit: LambdaTek)

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3070 rivals the Radeon RX 6700 XT, while the faster GeForce RTX 3080 battles the Radeon RX 6800 XT. Presently, the chipmaker doesn't have an answer for AMD's Radeon RX 6800 that comes with a $579 MSRP. The GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, which slides in between the GeForce RTX 3070 and GeForce RTX 3080, should give Nvidia the competitive edge in the sub-$600 category. Of course, that's in an ideal world where we can still find graphics cards anywhere near the MSRP.

Nvidia has scheduled its Computex 2021 keynote for May 31 and has begun teasing what appears to be a new Ampere graphics card. All the rumors up to now point to the probability of Nvidia announcing both the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti at the same time. We'll find out tomorrow.

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Zhiye Liu
Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

16 Comments Comment from the forums
  • InvalidError
    Progress!

    In the wrong direction of course.
    Reply
  • I always though lower price points resulted in increased sales volume leading to greater profits. I guess I'm wrong. Insanely high, almost criminal pricing seems to be the strategy now. I still feel though that many buyers are squeezed out of the market because they can't afford the extreme costs.

    I used to update cards of my 10 PCs every couple of years. I hope my lowly GTX 1660 Tis that I didn't get to upgrade before they blasted prices into infinity will go the distance. Looks like upgrades will be every 6 years now :(
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    IceQueen0607 said:
    I still feel though that many buyers are squeezed out of the market because they can't afford the extreme costs.
    If you have the choice between making 500k of something to earn $2000 a pop or making 1M of something to earn only $500 a pop and be sold-out either way, you net twice as much selling to half as many people.

    The joys of a supply-limited market. It will get better next year when everyone migrates new high-end SKUs to 5nm but won't be back to normal until everyone's shiny new fabs are online and making progress chewing through backlogs in 2023.

    I'm still using a GTX1050, a "lowly" 1660Ti would sound relatively good right about now. With some luck, the still unannounced desktop 3050(Ti) will be reasonably priced once the RTX4070-4090 have launched.
    Reply
  • I guess they also figure that if they keep th eprices high sooner or later people will have to replace their old cards or go without a PC... or heaven forbid, use the iGPU. :)

    I feel for you with the 1050. 😢

    The GTX 1660 Ti really struggles with Runescape 3 (NXT). GPU runs at 80c and 100% a lot of the time and some load is being offloaded to the CPU which also runs at 60%+ And that's not running with ultra settings either When the user also has twitch and youtube open things lag terribly. When he's running that combo I can hear his fans and cooler from downstairs. He uses headphones to drown out the noise... That's what I meant by lowly.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    IceQueen0607 said:
    I feel for you with the 1050. 😢
    Don't. Anyone still using a GPU that was a $100 bottom of the barrel card at release in 2016, entering 2020, is not a serious gamer.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    spongiemaster said:
    Don't. Anyone still using a GPU that was a $100 bottom of the barrel card at release in 2016, entering 2020, is not a serious gamer.
    Not my fault if neither AMD or Nvidia can be bothered releasing new sub-$200 GPUs worth a damn. Through the first ~15 years of gaming GPU history, lower-end GPUs used to progress just as fast if not faster than high-end models did especially after a node shrink and you didn't need to spend $1000 on a GPU to get decent gaming done, $150-200 was enough to get there. Today, you can't even get a 1650 Super new for $300, twice its launch price.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    InvalidError said:
    Not my fault if neither AMD or Nvidia can be bothered releasing new sub-$200 GPUs worth a damn. Through the first ~15 years of gaming GPU history, lower-end GPUs used to progress just as fast if not faster than high-end models did especially after a node shrink and you didn't need to spend $1000 on a GPU to get decent gaming done, $150-200 was enough to get there. Today, you can't even get a 1650 Super new for $300, twice its launch price.
    I bought 2 4GB 5500XT's for $100 a piece new in May of last year. Those are more than twice as fast as a 1050. The 8GB versions were going for around $150. Even though your price range is exceedingly low, and not indicative of a serious gamer, there were still options available. There were definitely sub $200 options from Nvidia as well that would crush a 1050.
    Reply
  • NightHawkRMX
    spongiemaster said:
    I bought 2 4GB 5500XT's for $100 a piece new in May of last year. Those are more than twice as fast as a 1050. The 8GB versions were going for around $150. Even though your price range is exceedingly low, and not indicative of a serious gamer, there were still options available. There were definitely sub $200 options from Nvidia as well that would crush a 1050.
    5500xt were never 100 or even 150. You happened to get lucky and exceptions don't make a rule.

    The 5500xt was 169 and 199 for the 4 and 8gb versions respectively.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    spongiemaster said:
    There were definitely sub $200 options from Nvidia as well that would crush a 1050.
    Not $200 regular price and the 1650 Super at $170 is only 70% faster, barely getting in the range where I would consider it worth bothering with.
    Reply
  • Eximo
    RTX 3050 Ti might be your card of choice if they produce them in any number. But I fear we won't recover from this price inflation. They'll certainly set the new normal at a higher price even when supply returns to normal. They kept testing the waters and people kept buying.

    Once Intel shakes down, they might offer an interesting mid-range alternative that could drive prices down again.

    I still kind of want a DG1 for my HTPC, but I don't really want to buy a whole desktop to get one.
    Reply