The sorry state of the computer parts world

[Renegade334]

I have droned on about it in two or three separate threads, and thought today that maybe, yeah, it'd be best to gather everything into a single discussion spot rather than give it the scattershot treatment. I even started doing a long write-up of all the bad stuff that's been happening lately in the PC parts market (from ASUS doing shady stuff with its RMA process, to yet another round of 12VHPWR cables melting, Intel shooting themselves in the face with their latest CPUs...and that stupid RGB craze), but I figured my fellow forum users wouldn't be really interested in yet another case of logorrhea from yours truly (I know - I have a problem, and I'm working on it).

So, I figured, let's pick one subject and let's go on from there. There's certainly a lot to unpack across countless categories and I know I'm not the only one with an opinion to voice.


So let me start: today, I visited the webshop of one of the cheapest computer parts retailers we have here in the Benelux region (Alternate, for those interested) and I noticed that the new RTX 5070 cards were now on sale, just days after the official release date. Remember Jensen "I'll blind you with my lies and shiny jacket" Huang saying that, with the help of multiple frame generation, a 5070 can match the performance of a 4090...but at $549 (VAT not included) the unit? Cheaper than the launch price of a 4070? Yeeeeaaah. Don't we all...
Well...the RTX 5070 (non-FE) retails at Alternate at 999€, 21% VAT included. The 5070Ti goes for 1,499€ (MSi and Gigabyte models) and 1,599€ (Gigabyte AORUS model).

AMD has pounced on the 5070's lackluster performance and unreasonable price tag like a starved piranha, but we should not rejoice so easily: there are indicators that the 9070 and 9070XT will only be sold (unlike NVIDIA, AMD had the intelligence to NOT make the release schedule coincide with Chinese New Year, which means there's plenty of stock available for the new Radeons) at the trumpeted MSRP for as long as the initial release stock lasts. Once the said stock is cleared out, prices for subsequent production batches will be readjusted. Upwards. And not necessarily by a small margin.
Which actually makes the announced price tag an "early bird special" rather than a genuine MSRP.


It's rather depressing. It almost makes me wonder if the future RTX 6070 will cost more than my Junkers boiler-heater. The pricing is certainly following a bad trend.

I mean, 14-15 years ago, I bought my previous computer for 800€, VAT and technician's assembly fee included, with an additional 700€ spent (GPU, RAM, aircooler and PSU upgrades) over the course of fourteen years. I essentially doled out 1,900€ for my brand new rig in less than two weeks. That tally could have been higher, mind you: two weeks after mounting my new GPU (an Asus GeForce Prime RTX 4070 Super OC), I noticed that on Alternate (where I purchased it), that specific model had gone from 759€ to 999€.
What the hell...

EDIT: for reference, today (2025/03/09), 1€ = $1.08
EDIT 2: price of 4070S went down by 100€. I wonder if, in the next century, instead of trading in cryptocurrency, people will be trading in GPUs: some traders and cryptobros would feel right at home with the volatility and rugpulls...