Update: Nvidia has confirmed in this blog that the delay is to ensure that there will be more stock in the channel at launch.
Nvidia has delayed the release of the GeForce RTX 3070 by two weeks, now launching on October 29. Looking at the RTX 3070 page on Nvidia's website you'll notice a small detail has been added under the Notify Me button, the date that the new card will be available. Previously this wasn't mentioned directly on the site, but Nvidia had informed us the availability date for the RTX 3070 would be October 15.
Given the performance we've seen from the Nvidia RTX 3080 and the RTX 3090, we're pretty confident that the RTX 3070 is going to be impressive. So we think it's likely to be worth the wait.
Nvidia hasn't had a lot of luck with its first two launches. First there's the ongoing problems actually getting a card, which has seen demand for the new cards far outstripping the initial stock. Something that hasn't been helped by the resellers buying cards and then turning straight to eBay to try and make a tidy profit.
This was followed up by reports of new RTX 3080 cards crashing. There was speculation that this was down to the quality of the capacitors used, with a fair amount of mud slinging from pundits and manufacturers. The end result though was that Nvidia released a new driver, which seems to have calmed things (and clock speeds) down somewhat.
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Nvidia needs a smoother launch for the RTX 3070, and surely this delay will help. We're hopeful Nvidia pushing the date back two weeks is because it wants to get enough stock in the channel before making it publicly available. And we predict the demand for the more expensive cards will be nothing compared to what we'll see for this more affordable $499 (£469) card.
There's another reason that the delay could work in Nvidia's favour, though. AMD is set to announce its Radeon RX 6000-series graphics cards on October 28. Is this Nvidia's way of muddying the waters and stealing some of the Radeon thunder?
Rumour has it AMD's Big Navi will offer performance somewhere between the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080, but if the Nvidia card isn't out at the time it makes its announcement, that could present some confusing message for AMD. We'll have to see how AMD handles the announcement.
