A few weeks ago, I wrote that NVIDIA is considering pricing the NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti at MSRP of $899 The AICs have reported that this will be the launch price tentatively. Multiple sources have informed us that they’ve received a last-minute update from Big Green with what appears to be a pre-launch price drop and current tentative MSRP for the NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti: $799.
NVIDIA quietly notifies AICs of 4070 Ti price cut MSRP: Initial launches at $799
NVIDIA likes to keep the prices of its GPUs close to the same before launch, and some AIC’s have already started taking orders at MSRP of $899 from some of their channel partners. However, today they were informed that the tentative launch date is now $799 and the difference will be adjusted for current orders. As we get closer to launch, that price point will likely remain stable (although that’s just my educated guess).
However, this excerpt from my original article is still relevant (although the price is unlikely to go up, and likely to go down if Jensen changes his mind again):
Keep in mind, however, that Jensen is wearing a black leather jacket and we must all submit to its power. So he can snap his fingers and change the MSRP at the last minute if he wants to. This is also why I’m still marking this post as a rumor – because until marketing and documentation for the launch is done, details like this can still change.
The main reason behind NVIDIA’s change of heart could be the fact that 25% of GPU tariffs were set to resume on 1/1 and were delayed by the US government for 9 months. This means that if NVIDIA and AICs keep their card prices steady, their margins could shrink. They may have come to take the hurt anyway and pass the savings from no appeal on to the consumer.
GPU fees that resumed on 1/1 have been delayed by 9 months. #NVIDIA #Intel Corporation #AMDhttps://t.co/GVLjFYotnY
– Usman Pirzada (@usmanpirzada) December 17, 2022
But of course, perhaps the biggest reason is the utterly lackluster tenure of the NVIDIA RTX 4080 which had a hard time flying off the shelves unlike its more expensive sibling: the NVIDIA RTX 4090. The updated value proposition for NVIDIA’s RTX 40 series based on the value offered by the RTX 4090 is below. :
| GPU | FP32 TFLOPs | MSRP | TFLOPs/dollars | Values (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 4090 | 82.59 | 1599 | 0.05165 | 100.0% |
| GeForce RTX 4080 | 48.74 | 1199 | 0.04065 | 78.7% |
| GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | 40.09 | 799 | 0.05017 | 97% |
As we can see, the RTX 4070 Ti with this new MSRP is much closer to the value offered by TITAN in terms of TFLOPs/$ and should enable the card to take the burn to AMD’s Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs. With only a few weeks to go, NVIDIA has decided to lower the price of its mainstream entry relatively and there could be other price cuts in the pipeline if the black leather jacket maker considers it so. If there are any other price changes, I will report it immediately.