September was a bittersweet month for PC gamers due for an upgrade, as both the GeForce RTX 3080 and 3090 simultaneously landed on shelves, promptly flew off them creating stock issues, and suffered from a series of crashes that were later addressed with a driver update. Unfortunately, those of you that are waiting for the more affordable RTX 3070 instead will have to stick it out a little longer, as Nvidia has delayed its release until the end of October.
The RTX 3070 was originally scheduled to launch on October 15, but will now see the light of day on October 29 – the day after AMD’s next-generation Radeon launch. The decision to postpone the RTX 3070 isn’t to better combat its rival, although that does seem a convenient addition to the move, but instead to address the higher demand.
Nvidia says that it knows this decision is likely “disappointing to those eager to purchase a GeForce RTX 3070 as soon as possible,” but it will give more time for production to ramp up. If the green team can better supply partners, then aftermarket cards will become more available, potentially avoiding déjà vu for a third time back-to-back.
The elusive RTX 3060 Super / Ti is also expected to be Nvidia’s answer to AMD’s upcoming lineup, but without an official announcement in sight, the RTX 3070 is perhaps a better fit with its $499 / £469 price tag.
Over on the red team, AMD has implied that its Radeon RX 6000 series won’t suffer the same “paper launch” as Nvidia. It’s not quite the assurance fans crave just yet, but AMD’s chief architect of gaming solutions Frank Azor is likely gauging demand before making guarantees the company can’t fulfil.