This is not a drill: RTX 5070 is in stock at Best Buy, at MSRP

Doth mine eyes deceive me? The cheapest and, in many ways, most desirable of Nvidia’s new RTX 50-series graphics cards is actually available to buy at a major retailer? And I don’t have to give up my soul or any other precious bits? Indeed, for the last 90 minutes I’ve had the option to buy an RTX 5070 from Best Buy. At the $550 MSRP. Holy crap.

So most mornings I scope out some deals that will appeal to PCWorld readers. It’s part of my job. This morning I saw an Nvidia PNY RTX 5070 graphics card on SlickDeals, which Best Buy is allegedly selling for $549.99. Normally that wouldn’t be anything interesting, but as you’re probably aware, new Nvidia cards have been almost impossible to find for a month and change. Doubly so if you’re looking for one without a ridiculous markup from an add-in board partner, a retailer trying to make a little bank, a reseller-slash-scalper, or some combination of all three.

So following the link, I was surprised to see the $550 graphics card still available to buy, yes, at the price Nvidia advertised way back at launch. I was able to add it to my cart. I was able to begin the checkout process, with an extra account verification step and a countdown timer that usually doesn’t apply to Best Buy’s straightforward sales. I was presented with the “place order” button, indicating that it was about to charge my card.

90 minutes later, I was able to do it again. Shipping to my Pennsylvania home in two days. To use technical industry parlance: hot diggity.

A couple of qualifiers here. One, I have a Best Buy Plus membership, basically the store’s version of Amazon Prime. It’s possible that Best Buy is reserving a certain amount of stock specifically for these memberships — the company has done so before.

It’s also possible that, had I actually checked out at either of these points, Best Buy would decide that it doesn’t actually have the stock after all, apologize in an email, and reverse the charge in a day or two. We’ve seen that happen with the latest graphics cards as well.

But even with those sobering afterthoughts, the fact that I was able to get this far into the process for what’s probably one of the most in-demand graphics cards on the market right now is promising. It means that somewhere, in at least some measurable degree, availability is improving. We can but hope. Give it a shot if you’ve been looking for a relatively affordable card. And don’t you dare try to flip it, or Santa will be going to the reindeer stalls to fill up your stocking this year.