the RTX 5070 just hit $900. I ran the local-AI math and almost couldn't recommend it

Nvidia's mid-range GPU is up 36% in two months — here's whether it still makes sense for running models at home, or if $900 changes the answer… Aliteq Ravi Malhotra · Hardware Editor

RTX 5070 median US price rose from $659.99 (June) to $899.99 (August), a 36% increase, per Newegg-tracked data from Tom's Hardware.

The card's original MSRP was $549 — it's now selling roughly 64% above that.

12GB of VRAM and 672 GB/s of GDDR7 bandwidth still deliver about 70-80 tokens/sec on Llama 3.1 8B at Q4_K_M — the hardware hasn't changed, only the price.

At $900, the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, AMD's RX 9060 XT, and Intel's Arc B580 all become more defensible for local AI, depending on what you actually want to run.

My take: buy it only if you need the raw speed and CUDA compatibility today. If you can wait or run smaller models, this isn't the price to pay.

Still a genuinely fast local-AI card — 12GB and 672 GB/s aren't going anywhere. But at a 64% markup over its $549 MSRP, it's no longer the default value pick. Buy it only if you specifically need…

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