Over the past three weeks, press outlets and the buying public have levelled heavy criticism at NVIDIA board partners. The launches of three GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" GPUs have—so far—been problematic; based on news reports and community feedback. Prior to release (on February 20), VideoCardz anticipated major price fluctuations for an all-custom portfolio of GeForce RTX 5070 Ti graphics cards. The publication did not hold back with its targeting of ASUS; one of Team Green's big time AIBs. Only a small selection of baseline MSRP ($749) conformant models were available on day one, and VideoCardz posited that manufacturers would implement price hikes soon after launch. A follow-up report continues their investigation into a lack of baseline MSRP options, as well as so-called "fake promotions."

VideoCardz repeated its belief that ASUS will jack-up the asking price for its PRIME GeForce RTX 5070 Ti model. When looking at Newegg's listing of baseline MSRP cards, the intrepid investigator stumbled up another notable absence: "we wrote three articles about the ASUS RTX 5070 Ti PRIME model not being listed as an MSRP card by retailers, which finally led ASUS to intervene (most likely for a limited time) to sell this card at the promised price. What we can immediately notice is the lack of the VENTUS 3X model from MSI, which was basically 90% of the MSRP card review coverage yesterday, as NVIDIA had no Founders Edition card for this launch and relied on board partners. In fact, the VENTUS 3X non-OC is not even included in the official launch, meaning that the card you saw yesterday in reviews is simply not available anywhere." It should be noted that TechPowerUp received an MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Ventus 3X OC sample unit for evaluation purposes (review guide pricing was $749); Newegg lists this particular model with a current $829.99 price point, but stock is unavailable (at the time of writing).Since yesterday's report, the non-overclocked MSI RTX 5070 Ti VENTUS 3X model has appeared on Newegg's webstore. Presently, its price sits at $799.99:MSI's new SHADOW 3X designs—in standard and OC flavors—seem to conform to baseline MSRP (as of February 21), but no stock is available.

VideoCardz sent additional ire in the direction of NVIDIA's major board partners: "unfortunately, MSI is copying ASUS with their fake promotions. The launch prices we will see today will only be valid for a week, and just when new supply arrives, MSI will increase the price and make it impossible for you to buy at launch prices. We find this very misleading, and since MSI has no option to pre-order despite the lack of stock, for the vast majority of gamers today, these prices are simply impossible to find."Post-conclusion of price trend investigations across several North American e-tailers, VideoCardz signed off with: "Micro Center is still using ASUS's fake MSRP promotion (technique). This card is not meant to cost $749, it will be increased to $899 next week. It looks like NVIDIA is fine with these deceptive promotions and there's not much they are willing to do. One might ask, what's even the point of an MSRP review embargo if these cards are not sold at the advertised prices?"