Sluggish Sales, Nvidia Temporarily Stops RTX 4070 Production

The classic economic principle that is commonly used today is to shop according to the capacity of your wallet. This is the case with the recently launched RTX 4070 GPU by Nvidia priced in the US$600 range. Gamers as the main consumers of graphics cards seem quite fed up with the price offered by Nvidia for its GPU 40 series. The reason is, there are allegations that Nvidia temporarily stopped production of the card a week after its launch.

The RTX 4070 launched on April 13, 2023, so this GPU is relatively new. Monitoring stock availability at the Best Buy store, the item was available for nearly eight hours. This was an unprecedented event in the GPU market—especially for graphics giants like Nvidia, as they usually manage to sell every single GPU on launch day. The consequence is, Nvidia was forced to stop production for one month.

Allegedly this temporary suspension originated in China via the BenchLife website, which aims to enable distributors to sell their cards before Nvidia ships more. It is not clear whether this plan is only for China or other regions, although it appears to be feasible in the US as well. It's also been reported that Nvidia is considering offering $50 to distributors for every 4070 it orders, but this has not been verified.

The RTX 4070 itself is the most affordable GPU for the 4000 series. At $599, this GPU is $100 more expensive than the RTX 3070, but still $100 cheaper than the RTX 3080. However, many gamers remember how early the GTX 1070 was launched for only $379. in 2016, backtracking regularly given the price has almost doubled. Currently they are holding back on buying the graphics card.