Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070: where to buy, price and specs
Everything you need to know about the RTX 3070
Today's the day, folks, it's release day for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070. Launching at 6am PT / 1pm GMT today, October 29th, it's set to be one of the most anticipated graphics card launches of the year - and you can find out exactly why in my Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 review. Offering RTX 2080 Ti-level performance for a fraction of the cost, the RTX 3070 is likely to be in hot demand when pre-orders open shortly, so here's a list of exactly where you can buy one so you don't miss out.
RTX 3070: What you need to know
What is it? Nvidia's new mid-range graphics card
When is it coming out? October 29th
How much is it? £469 / $499
Where to buy an RTX 3070:
The RTX 3070 is launching worldwide on Thursday October 29th at 6am PT / 1pm GMT, just over a month after the release of its RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 siblings. Prices will start from £469 in the UK, and $499 in the US, which is more or less the same launch price as the RTX 2070 Super.
Third party versions of the RTX 3070 will likely be more expensive, though, depending on how much they've been factory overclocked, but the Nvidia Founders Editions will stay at a fixed £469 / $499.
At the moment, the cheapest cards I've seen start at £500 in the UK, while the most expensive are well over £600. However, if retailer stock ends up being as low as industry analysts are currently predicting it to be, prices may shoot up even further after launch. Several retailers currently have holding pages for the RTX 3070, though, and I've included a list of everywhere you can buy an RTX 3070 right now.
Where to buy an RTX 3070 in the UK:
Where to buy an RTX 3070 in the US:
It's also worth noting that unless you buy one today on the day of release, it does mean that you'll likely miss out on Nvidia's current free game promotion, which gets you a free copy of Watch Dogs Legion (also due out on Thursday) and a year's subscription to GeForce Now if you buy an RTX 3000 card before October 29th.
RTX 3070 specs
The most eye-catching thing about the RTX 3070 is that its specs are meant to offer slightly faster performance than Nvidia's outgoing RTX 2080 Ti, a graphics card that's often cost well over £1000 / $1000 ever since it launched back in August 2018. That's impressive stuff considering the RTX 3070 will set you back only a fraction of that amount (and also goes to show just how grossly overpriced the entire RTX 20-series was in retrospect), and you can see where that extra power is coming from by taking a closer look at its specs.
RTX 3070 specs
CUDA Cores: 5888
Base / Boost Clock: 1.5GHz / 1.73GHz
VRAM: 8GB GDDR6
Memory Interface Width: 256-bit
Power: 220W
Recommended System Power: 650W
Nvidia haven't released all of the RTX 3070's specs just yet, such as memory speed or memory bandwidth, but I've listed the key specs they have announced above. It has over 1000 more CUDA cores than the RTX 2080 Ti, as well as a faster base and boost clock speed. It still only uses GDDR6 memory, however, rather than the faster GDDR6X variety found on the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090.
Still, while its memory may not be quite as fast as the rest of its RTX 3000 series siblings, the RTX 3070 still comes with 2nd Gen ray tracing cores and 3rd Gen Tensor cores for improved ray tracing and DLSS performance. Nvidia claim this will make the RTX 3000 series twice as fast as their previous generation RTX cards on this front, but I'll have to wait until review samples of the RTX 3070 are available before I can confirm this for sure.
In the mean time, though, here's where the RTX 3070 sits in comparison to the rest of Nvidia's RTX 3000 family, as well as their RTX 20 series of GPUs, and even some of Nvidia's older GTX 10-series and 900 series graphics cards.
Nvidia have also released a couple of benchmark figures for the RTX 3070, although only at 1440p rather than 4K. As you can see in the graph below, the RTX 3070 does indeed look as though it will offer RTX 2080 Ti-levels of performance when it comes out later this month, although Borderlands 3 and Control still put the RTX 2080 Ti slightly ahead.
Thankfully, Nvidia's recommended system power spec is still 650W for the RTX 3070, which is the same as the RTX 2070 and RTX 2070 Super. As a result, you shouldn't need to change your PSU if you're planning to upgrade from the previous generation.
The Founders Edition of the RTX 3070 will, however, make use of Nvidia’s new 12-pin power connector (pictured below), but the good news is that an adapter for this will be included in the box. Third party RTX 3070 cards, on the other hand, will simply require a regular 2x 8-pin power connector.
Those are the headline facts for the RTX 3070. If you're after more graphics card news and performance figures, you can read all about our favourite GPUs in our roundup of the best graphics cards, what games currently support ray tracing and DLSS, as well as find all the best current graphics card prices in our regularly updated graphics card deals hub.