Nvidia is dealing with a very nice problem to have: so many consumers want to buy its latest graphics cards, production lines simply can't keep up. Now the forthcoming GeForce RTX 3070 release has been delayed, and huge demand is to blame.
A post has appeared on the Nvidia website offering an availability update for the RTX 3070 graphics cards. The expected release date was Oct. 15, but that's now been pushed back by two weeks to Oct. 29. As way of an explanation, Nvidia said, "Production of GeForce RTX 3070 graphics cards are ramping quickly. We’ve heard from many of you that there should be more cards available on launch day. To help make that happen, we are updating the availability date to Thursday, October 29th."
Two weeks isn't a long time, but Nvidia believes it's enough to, "help our global partners get more graphics cards into the hands of gamers on launch day." Considering the RTX 3090 costs $1,499 and the RTX 3080 cards are $699, it's obvious why the $499 RTX 3070 is likely to be the most popular next-gen graphics card offered by Nvidia and its partners over the holiday season and well into 2021. Even with the delay and production ramp-up, it will be more surprising if the 3070 doesn't sell through all its stock at launch.
Nvidia signs off the availability update post by reminding us that the RTX 3070 is at least as performant as the RTX 2080 Ti while costing half as much. That will do nothing to dampen down demand for these cards.