The RTX 5070 is creeping ever closer to $1,000, and the mid-range PC gamer in me is in mourning

For the quickest way to join, simply enter your email below and get access. FYI, that's compared to June 2026 versus now, and while its previous inflated $659.99 offended me to my bones, you're now looking at $899.99 as an average across every custom model. You can still grab a card for less than $900 theoretically, but you're more likely to encounter something in that price range than anything close to Nvidia's original $549 MSRP. The subsection still felt high-end, with my original EVGA GeForce GTX 470 pulling some serviceable 1080p moves even into the early 2010s, and I feel like the class reached its true affordable performance heights with the GeForce GTX 970, a card that cost me under $300 back in 2014.