The xx70-class of Nvidia’s GeForce graphics cards has been considered the middle of the pack for a long time. But it seems like with every new generation, that “middle” gets a little more expensive, and gamers are tired of paying out the nose for an upgrade. Maybe Nvidia and its OEM and retail partners agree…or maybe they’re just feeling the heat from AMD’s new $500 Radeon RX 7800 XT GPU in the same range. Whatever the case, GeForce RTX 4070 cards from a variety of manufacturers are dropping a bit in price, from the launch price of $600 down to $550.

You can see the price drop from the usual suspects: Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy. It’s not universal yet, so far only affecting the Gigabyte and Zotac base-level cards. But give it a week or two and the new “standard” price should start spreading, at least as far as U.S. pricing is concerned. “Standard” goes in quotes, because there’s no indication that this is an official retail price drop from Nvidia. But without any signs of sales or other limited-time promotions, this seems like a price drop to make the 4070 more competitive.

Should you upgrade? Our resident GPU expert Brad Chacos says that the RTX 4070 is an excellent card if you’re targeting power-efficient gaming at no more than 1440p resolution, but going to 4K will require something beefier. Nvidia’s ray tracing support is a notable highlight. But if you’re more interested in raw FPS power, and you don’t need Nvidia’s fancier features like DLSS, the Radeon RX 7800 XT has a little more oomph at a smaller $500 price tag.

Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer

Michael is a former graphic designer who’s been building and tweaking desktop computers for longer than he cares to admit. His interests include folk music, football, science fiction, and salsa verde, in no particular order.

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