We're almost there. Soon, hopefully very soon, we're going to be able to look back on this generation of graphics cards and not be bitter about it. Prices are nearing normal levels again, and not just on the cards that no one actually wants to buy. No, the good cards of this generation are starting to enter reasonable price territory. Unheard of.
The RTX 3070 highlighted above is a great case in point. With the $50 promo code (VGAGBET246), you're looking at $550 for the triple-fan card from Gigabyte. The fact that this is a factory overclocked card that rumbles along at 1.815GHz as opposed to the 1.73GHz of the Founder's Edition, means you're actually getting pretty decent value for money. And for reference, the Nvidia FE card should in theory cost $500, you know if you could actually buy one from Nvidia.
So what makes this RTX 3070 the card we'd recommend right now? Well for starters it's a really very good graphics card, earning a 90% score when we reviewed it back on release in October 2020. If you're looking for a graphics card that can handle 1440p and 4K gaming with ease, even with the ray tracing pretties turned up, then there's plenty to love here—it nails that value/performance proposition better than most.
Unlike its bigger more performant siblings, it's also not so expensive that buying one now is likely to bite you in the ass later on. I mean it isn't cheap, and there is a good chance that the RTX 4070 or equivalent will outperform it when released later this year. But such a card could cost notably more than this, $600-$700 maybe? And potentially come out that little bit later than the flagship card.
Plus, at this price, it isn't quite the same as dropping $800+ on a card that you absolutely know will be trounced before the holiday season starts, when the next-gen GPUs emerge. You're still taking something of a risk, of course, but at least here you're getting a card that can play everything you can throw at it isn't breaking the bank in the process. This is pretty much as high as I'd recommend you should go right now though.
Alternatively, if you're looking to save a bit more cash, then there are plenty of deals out there on various SKUs of the RTX 3060 Ti—an incredible card for 1440p gaming that can handle some 4K action too. Indeed when doing the morning scour for decent deals, it was the reductions on this excellent GPU that caught my eye first. From the $499 price of the Asus Dual over on Amazon to this $489 Asus TUF Gaming card over on Newegg.
The best deal I've found for the RTX 3060 Ti though is the dual-fan Gigabyte Eagle OC above, which with the $70 promo code is down to $480 right now. That's a $120 saving on this particular card's MSRP, although still $80 over the standard-clocked card, but this is faster and still a great option. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that the RTX 3070 has seen such healthy reductions as well, this would easily be our deal of the day.
Who'd have guessed that Ampere at reasonable prices would be such a hit?
