Reports coming in from Asian Pacific retailers suggest that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 will have a considerably larger supply than the GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3090 at launch. The report comes from PC Watch who has received word from various retailers in the Akihabara tech market-based in Tokyo, Japan.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Graphics Card To Launch With Considerably Larger Supply Than The RTX 3080 & RTX 3090
Dospara, one of the main retail outlets at Akihabara, has announced that it will initiate sales for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 graphics cards at around 20:00 (JST) when the first tickets will be handed out. The store expects payments to initiate by 21:00 (JST) following product delivery by 22:00 which should last just 10 minutes. The graphics card will be sold on a first-come & first serve basis which is similar to lots of North American stores and how they process orders for new launches.
According to PC Watch, they didn’t just visit Dospara but also talked to several other retailers based in the Akihabara market. All of them have guaranteed that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 will have a considerably larger stock than the GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 3080. It remains to be seen if they are referring to the launch stock or the overall stock since the launch stock could’ve gotten a bit better due to the delayed launch from 15th October to 29th October but if the launch stock runs out quick, will there be enough of a supply coming through the backchannel to meet demand even after the launch.
This report is also based on just words from Asian Pacific retailers. We don’t know what the stock & supply would look like in other market regions, especially North America. Danish retailer ProShop has released its own demand versus supply statistics for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 and their total numbers don’t look that great. NVIDIA and its partners are only able to meet 7.4% of the demand for the upcoming card so it remains to be seen how things are going to unfold on 29th October.
The GeForce RTX 3070 is definitely positioned in a very interesting spot. The reviews for the card arrive a day before AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 series unveiling and the card launches in the retail PC segment a day after the unveiling. Many consumers will definitely wait to see what AMD has been cooking with its RDNA 2 GPU architecture for the gaming segment but from what we know, even at this close to launch, the RTX 3070 demand is at an unprecedented scale simply based on the fact that it offers 2080 Ti equivalent performance at $499 US. It remains to be seen if AMD can top the card in terms of performance/$ on 28th October.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Graphics Card Specifications – GA104 GPU & 8 GB GDDR6 Memory
At the heart of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card lies the GA104 GPU. The GA104 is one of the many Ampere GPUs that we will be getting on the gaming segment. The GA104 GPU is the second-fastest Ampere chip in the stack. The GPU is based on Samsung’s 8nm (N8) process node. The GPU measures at 392.5mm2 and features 17.4 Billion transistors which are almost 93% of the transistors featured on the TU102 GPU. At the same time, the GA104 GPU is almost half the size of the TU102 GPU which is an insane amount of density.
For the GeForce RTX 3070, NVIDIA has enabled a total of 46 SM units on its flagship which results in a total of 5888 CUDA cores. In addition to the CUDA cores, NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3070 also comes packed with next-generation RT (Ray-Tracing) cores, Tensor cores, and brand new SM or streaming multi-processor units.
In terms of memory, the RTX 3070 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. The GeForce RTX 3070 comes with memory at speeds of 14 Gbps. That along with a full uncut bus interface of 256-bit will deliver a cumulative bandwidth of 448 Gbps.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series ‘Ampere’ Graphics Card Specifications:
| Graphics Card Name | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Name | Ampere GA104-200 | Ampere GA104-300 | Ampere GA102-200 | Ampere GA102-300 |
| Process Node | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm |
| Die Size | 395.2mm2 | 395.2mm2 | 628.4mm2 | 628.4mm2 |
| Transistors | 17.4 Billion | 17.4 Billion | 28 Billion | 28 Billion |
| CUDA Cores | 4864 | 5888 | 8704 | 10496 |
| TMUs / ROPs | 152 / 80 | 184 / 96 | 272 / 96 | 328 / 112 |
| Tensor / RT Cores | 152 / 38 | 184 / 46 | 272 / 68 | 328 / 82 |
| Base Clock | 1410 MHz | 1500 MHz | 1440 MHz | 1400 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1665 MHz | 1730 MHz | 1710 MHz | 1700 MHz |
| FP32 Compute | 16 TFLOPs | 20 TFLOPs | 30 TFLOPs | 36 TFLOPs |
| RT TFLOPs | 32 TFLOPs | 40 TFLOPs | 58 TFLOPs | 69 TFLOPs |
| Tensor-TOPs | 192 TOPs | 163 TOPs | 238 TOPs | 285 TOPs |
| Memory Capacity | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 10 GB GDDR6X | 24 GB GDDR6X |
| Memory Bus | 256-bit | 256-bit | 320-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory Speed | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 19 Gbps | 19.5 Gbps |
| Bandwidth | 448 Gbps | 448 Gbps | 760 Gbps | 936 Gbps |
| TGP | 175W | 220W | 320W | 350W |
| Price (MSRP / FE) | $399 US | $499 US | $699 US | $1499 US |
| Launch (Availability) | 2nd December 2020 | 29th October 2020 | 17th September 2020 | 24th September 2020 |
For now, it looks like the GeForce RTX 3070 would be a great option for anyone who doesn’t own either the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti or the GeForce RTX 1080 Ti. You would get lower temperatures, a lower power consumption rating, and an upgrade to a faster graphics card for a much lower price point. (This isn’t our final conclusion or recommendation for the RTX 3070 graphics card).
