The graphics card market has been a mess for quite some time now. It’s been nearly three months since the launch of the GeForce RTX 5090, and Blackwell prices are yet to stabilize. This is despite the lackluster gen-over-gen gains of the RTX 50 series family. We won’t even talk about the RTX 5090- that card is going for several thousand dollars. Here are the cheapest RTX 5070, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5080 graphics cards you can buy in the US:
GIGABYTE WindForce GeForce RTX 5070 12GB
The GIGABYTE WindForce is the cheapest RTX 5070 variant on the market, starting at $610. Unless you can find an RTX 4070 Super or equivalent at a lower price, it’s probably the best budget GPU on the market.
Launched at $549, the GeForce RTX 5070 features 6,144 FP32 shaders and 12 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 192-bit bus. Consequently, it performs similar to the RTX 4070 Super, but falls behind in shader intensive workloads on account of the lower core count (vs. 7,168).
The above variant is a triple fan AIB model with a plastic shell and a flimsy blackplate. It’s powered by a 16-pin power connector, and features four I/O options, including 1x HDMI 2.1b, and 3x DP 2.1b options. It’s 282mm long and requires a 750W power supply.
Pros:
- Cheapest “midrange” GPU on the market
- DLSS 4 “Multi Frame Generation
Cons:
- Overpriced.
- Marginal gen-over-gen gains.
- Limited VRAM (16 GB is recommended).
MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB
The MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is currently priced at $899, $150 more than its official MSRP. This is the cheapest 4K graphics cards on the market, undercutting the RTX 4080 and the 4080 Super.
The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti features 8,960 shader cores paired with a 16 GB GDDR7 memory buffer (across a 256-bit bus). In case you were wondering, even that’s not enough for some games. It consistently equals the RTX 4080 in performance, with the added bonus of MFG and a faster display engine.
The MSI Ventus is the bare-bones AIB variant with a triple fan heatsink and a plastic body. It’s powered by a 16-pin power connector, and features four I/O options, including 1x HDMI 2.1b, and 3x DP 2.1b options. It’s 303mm long and requires a 750W power supply.
Pros:
- Cheapest 4K GPU.
- RTX 4080-grade gaming performance.
Cons:
- Much overpriced.
- Relatively less VRAM.
MSI SHADOW GeForce RTX 5080 16GB
The MSI Shadow GeForce RTX 5080 is somewhat of an abomination. It should have been as fast as the RTX 4090, but ends up being at least 20% slower with much less VRAM. The cheapest one can be had for $1,284 which is still nearly $100 over its already overpriced MSRP. Newegg is selling it for $1,359.
On paper, it’s almost identical to the RTX 4080 Super. It features slightly more cores (10,752) and 16 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 256-bit bus. The faster memory helps it attain 4K-worthy bandwidths of up to 960 GB/s. Realistically, it performs between the RTX 4080 Super and the RTX 4090.
The MSI Shadow is yet another bare-bones AIB variant with a triple fan heatsink and a plastic body. It’s powered by a 16-pin power connector, and features four I/O options, including 1x HDMI 2.1b, and 3x DP 2.1b options. It’s 303mm long and requires an 850W power supply.
Pros:
- Sufficient 4K bandwidth.
- Approaches the RTX 4090 in some titles.
Cons:
- Very overpriced.
- Relatively less VRAM.
