It may be the day after April Fool’s Day, but this is no joke. The coveted Nvidia RTX 5070 is currently available at the major retailer, Best Buy, at its regularly suggested price of $550.
There have already been reports of increased availability of the RTX 50-series graphics cards, such as news of exclusive offerings for Amazon Prime members. However, this sighting is a lucky opportunity for those who don’t want to spend in excess for a graphic component. All of Nvidia’s GPUs have been subject to reseller and scalper inflation, but its cheapest option becoming too costly can be exhausting. Retailers attempted to push the price of the mid-range RTX 5070 Ti up to $1,000 in March before complaints forced them to bring the price down to a more reasonable level.
Michael Crider at PC World noted several hours ago that the Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU was available at Best Buy in his Pennsylvania area and simulated purchasing the component. Having success, he suggested that a Best Buy Plus membership potentially gave him a leg up in processing the purchase, but also noted there is also a possibility of the retailer cancelling orders after confirmation due to lack of availability.
Keeping this in mind, I attempted to simulate my own purchase, fumbling through the Best Buy interface as online shopping is not my forte. I received a short web-queue before being prompted to log in to my Best Buy account. Once logged in, I got all the way to the checkout page at approximately 5 p.m. eastern time without entering any payment information– Having been given nine minutes to complete the order.
I don’t have a Best Buy Plus membership. The hardest part of the experience was recalling whether I had a Best Buy account at all (I do).
There are several Best Buy locations in my Brooklyn area, but I just worked with the one that was already connected to my webpage, which indicated that it had RTX 5070 models in stock, and they were selling fast.
The Best Buy page indicated that there were shipping and in-person pick-up options, which I believe increases the likelihood of receiving a product. Had I completed my purchase, I would have been able to pick up my GPU within a week, on April 8.
This will hopefully be a light at the end of the tunnel for many anxious Nvidia fans who have been waiting to get their hands on affordable GPUs. The component brand did indicate that availability would open up in the coming weeks and months, and it seems it is keeping up on that promise.