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When Nvidia unveiled the GTX 1080 and 1070 back in early May, it was immediately apparent that both GPUs would be substantially faster than the GTX 970 and 980 they replaced. Nvidia chose to stagger its retail launch windows for both cards; the GTX 1080 went on sale in late May, while the GTX 1070 formally went on auction five days ago, on June 10.

When Nvidia announced its new GPUs, it also created a new cost structure for both of them. The GTX 1080 and 1070 are both available (at least theoretically) in a standard configuration and a in a "Founders Edition" with improve cooling. For the GTX 1080, the baseline MSRP is $599 and $699 respectively, while the GTX 1070 is supposed to be priced at $379 and $449 respectively. Nosotros say "supposed to be" because both GPUs are currently commanding substantial premiums — when you tin discover them in stock at all.

Nosotros ordinarily adopt to source price comparison information from NewEgg, but the site is completely out of either the GTX 1080 or 1070 every bit of this writing. Amazon has multiple listings for both GPUs, simply the prices are significantly college than Nvidia's suggested MSRP. The GTX 1070 FE is running between $525 and $609 for a Founder's Edition (17% – 35% above MSRP) while the Founder'south Edition GTX 1080 is mostly listed for between $800 – $900. We say mostly considering 1 Zotac Founder'due south Edition GTX 1080 is supposedly available for the list price of $700, but the social club is listed as requiring additional processing time. Meanwhile, at the other stop of the scale, someone is trying to score a cool $2000 for an EVGA GTX 1080 FTW ACX 3.0.

EVGA-Wow

Screencapped for posterity. Please don't buy this.

It should go without proverb that this is an absolutely terrible deal.

Predictable problem or newspaper-ish product?

Whether nosotros're writing about AMD, Intel, or Nvidia, in that location are ii words none of them like to see in print: Paper launch. The term refers to the much-derided practise of announcing products as being on the marketplace when actually buying them is somewhere between hard and impossible.

Information technology's not uncommon for high-end graphics cards to endure short-term availability issues for the first few weeks after launch. AMD's Fury 10 was tough to find subsequently its initial debut, and the GTX 1080 and 1070 will (probably) be bachelor in book in the not-as well-afar future. The current price spikes bespeak that someone — either the OEMs or the resellers themselves — are taking reward of express early availability to exercise a picayune profit-taking. Nvidia hasn't changed its recommended MSRPs, and information technology probably hasn't changed the price it charges companies like EVGA, Zotac, and Gigabyte, either.

That said, information technology's a footling surprising not to see the GTX 1070 bachelor in high book straight out of the gate. The GTX 1080'due south express availability is to be expected when a new architecture debuts on a new process node, just the unabridged point of the GTX 1070 is to give Nvidia a way to recover GPUs that don't quite laissez passer muster every bit GTX 1080 parts.

Even if you plan on upgrading to Nvidia'due south latest and greatest, nosotros recommend waiting a few more weeks to run into how prices evolve. If the cards aren't seriously supply constrained, we'll see prices falling down to Nvidia'south recommended levels, at to the lowest degree for the baseline models. If they stay elevated and the GPUs don't materialize in greater volume, information technology'll point to potential problems with yields on TSMC'due south 16nm process.

Now read: How to purchase the right video card for your gaming PC