Forget the RX 9070 GRE, this Nvidia RTX 5070 discount makes it the card to buy right now

It's official: the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE is now available outside of China, making for a reasonably strong option if your graphics card budget is around $550. However, competition is fierce at this price range, and this RTX 5070 discount we've spotted makes it the better buy right now.

Originally priced at the same $550 as the RX 9070 GRE, the RTX 5070 has steadily risen in price along with every other graphics card out there, thanks to inflating memory costs pushing up the price of just about all tech. As such, the RTX 5070 normally sells for around $650 these days, putting it a substantial $100 above the RX 9070 GRE. With this discount, though, this Nvidia card goes from being a middling option to one of the best graphics cards you can buy.

According to the price-per-frame number crunching in my RX 9070 GRE review, it's the best value card currently available, with its $5.16 cost per frame (based on the average frame rate of the games we've benchmarked) coming in just below the RX 9070's $5.31. Meanwhile, the RTX 5070 is normally a $6.07 per frame GPU, based on a price of $650. However, this discounted RTX 5070 is priced at $606, which means its cost per frame drops to $5.66.

That still makes this a worse value and more expensive option than an RX 9070 or RX 9070 GRE in terms of raw numbers, but, crucially, the RTX 5070 has access to Nvidia's DLSS upscaling and frame gen technology, which is more capable, has better image quality, and is far more widely supported than AMD's rival FSR tech.

What's more, the RTX 5070 has better ray tracing performance than the RX 9070 GRE, which puts it in a better position for future triple-A games. There are simply going to be more situations where the RTX 5070 can stretch to deliver top-tier visuals at higher resolutions with better image quality, thanks to upscaling and frame gen. This is something we explore more fully in our RTX 5070 review.

This is a consideration even for when this card is at its normal higher price, but the $100 saving by opting for an RX 9070 GRE is normally enough to compensate. At a $50 difference, though, the RTX 5070 becomes a much stronger contender.

Of course, the RTX 5070 is still a more expensive card overall, so if your budget really is limited, the RX 9070 GRE is still a great option. If you can stretch to an extra $50, though, I know which choice I'd make.

As to the card in question, it's the MSI Gaming RTX 5070 12G Ventus 2X OC, available on Amazon via this link. It is a fairly stripped-back card, with a utilitarian-looking design and a cooler that uses two larger fans rather than three smaller ones. But if you just want the performance and don't care about the looks or getting the absolute quietest card available, it will hit the mark.

Normally priced at $649.99, it's available today for just $606.81, which is a 7% discount and is the lowest price this card has ever been. No doubt it will be a short-lived offer, though, so you'll have to be quick.