NVIDIA RTX 5070 rumor claims GPU is delayed to March, and this is seeming more and more likely
NVIDIA might be about to delay its RTX 5070 graphics card, or that’s the latest from the grapevine regarding the remaining Blackwell models that Team Green has on the boil.
As you’re doubtless aware, the RTX 5070 Ti has been strongly rumored for a February 20 launch, but notably, the vanilla version, the RTX 5070, has been absent from all the chatter on the rumor mill.
While NVIDIA said both the RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti will be out in February, back at the Blackwell reveal during CES 2025, it now appears that the vanilla RTX 5070 might be pushed back to March, as rumored by MegaSizeGPU on X.
At least this is only a short delay, in theory, to early March before the RTX 5070 goes on sale, perhaps leaving a three-week gap between that graphics card and the RTX 5070 Ti (assuming that February 20 date isn’t wrong, and judging from the weight of rumors, it’s probably correct).
Why might there be a delay with the RTX 5070? The leaker on X doesn’t engage in any speculation on that score, but VideoCardz, which spotted the post, notes an obvious possible reason – is this to mess with AMD’s RX 9070 mojo?
By which we mean that AMD has delayed the RX 9070 launch to March, with some folks theorizing that as well as to hone these GPUs (and beef up stock), this is also about getting the full picture of what NVIDIA is offering, price/performance-wise, with the RTX 5070. And if the 5070 is pushed back, that could leave Team Red in a difficult spot, decision-wise.
Or it could simply be because the RTX 5070 isn’t up to scratch with its stock levels yet, which seems a more likely explanation to us. Especially given the difficulties around supply NVIDIA has experienced so far with Blackwell.
Strong demand
What we must remember about the RTX 5070 is that this is a mainstream GPU, so if you thought demand for the RTX 5080 and 5090 was strong, this is going to be an even bigger pull for PC gamers hunting for a cutting-edge upgrade.
It’d make some sense for NVIDIA to ensure that yet another stock disaster isn’t experienced here, if at all possible. What might be in the RTX 5070’s favor is that it relies on a different chip (GB205) to the RTX 5070 Ti, which shares the same chip as the RTX 5080 (GB203).
So, we can hope that GB205 production has been a bit more fruitful – and is exclusively bound to the RTX 5070 – but ultimately, we’re just guessing here.
This isn’t the first time that there’s been a suggestion that the RTX 5070 is going to end up pushed back to March, however. And the more the rumor mill stays quiet about this GPU, while RTX 5070 Ti rumors are whirling all around, the more likely it seems that something’s amiss with the launch timing for the vanilla variant.