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is a senior editor and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years.
The GPU market is turning into a mess again. Asus told Hardware Unboxed earlier this week that it was winding down production of its RTX 5070 Ti, but the PC maker is now walking back that claim and blaming “incomplete information” from its own Asus PR representatives.
“The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB have not been discontinued or designated as end-of-life (EOL),” says an Asus statement. “Asus has no plans to stop selling these models.”
That’s quite the opposite of what Asus told Hardware Unboxed, with the YouTube channel reporting that Asus “explicitly told us this model is currently facing a supply shortage and, as such, they have placed the model into end-of-life status.”
Here’s the full timeline, from Hardware Unboxed, of how this mess unfolded:
• We request RTX 5070 Ti samples from Asus (and other partners)
• An Asus PR rep looks into it, comes back and says they cannot provide 5070 Tis due to supply constraints, saying their models are “end of life.”
• We ask Asus to clarify whether the RTX 5070 Ti is end of life. They confirm it’s end of life.
• We reach out to retailers to see whether they can purchase RTX 5070 Ti stock for their stores, to fact check Asus’ claims. They say there is no supply.
• Given we have received an on the record statement from Asus and confirmed the supply constraints with retailers, we publish a video with this information.
• Nvidia says all GeForce SKUs are being shipped.
• Asus reaches out to clarify that Nvidia told Asus that the RTX 5070 Ti is not end of life, but that Asus are “streamlining some models.”
• We publish that statement.
• Asus reaches out again to provide another statement (the third statement we’ve received from Asus), now saying the 5070 Ti is not discontinued or end of life. This directly contradicts the original statement.
• We immediately request RTX 5070 Ti samples now that the cards are not discontinued or end of life. We haven’t heard back yet.
A global shortage of conventional DRAM and NAND is putting the pressure on RAM and GPU prices, and we’re starting to see a lack of GPU stock or higher pricing. Asus blames fluctuations in supply for both the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5060 Ti 16GB models due to the ongoing memory supply constraints that have affected production output. “As a result, availability may appear limited in certain markets, but this should not be interpreted as a production halt or product retirement,” says Asus.
Nvidia told us yesterday that it was still producing RTX 5070 Ti GPUs and continues “to ship all GeForce SKUs and are working closely with our suppliers to maximize memory availability.” Just how many RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti 16GB models will be available in the future is anyone’s guess. Perhaps they’ll be as limited in the real world as Nvidia’s own Founders Edition models, which are very rarely ever in stock.
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