NVIDIA is reportedly cutting back production of its RTX 40 series graphics cards by as much as 50% as it prepares for the RTX 50 series. Such a move is not wholly unheard of before the release of new products but it does mean that PC owners who’ve been holding out for the lowest prices for the current ADA-based GPUs may want to make their move soon since prices could go up significantly in the coming months. Except for NVIDIA’s flagship GeForce RTX 4090, many of its current RTX 40 series lineups can be had at MSRP or less, but that may change within weeks or months.
News that NVIDIA is reportedly cutting back production for its ADA-based GPUs comes from ITHome (via its source with The Economic Times) which also told it the following as reasons for reducing current supplies.
Per ITHome (machine translated):
- “Transfer the production capacity of consumer-grade high-end graphics cards to Blackwell products.”
- “Start tightening the supply of RTX 40 series in preparation for the upcoming RTX 50 series.”
ITHome also reports during Q1 24 there were already shortages of NVIDIA’s entry-level GPUs, the GeForce RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti, and that by April they and previous gen-cards such as the RTX 3050 and GTX 1650 increased in prices. Now, overseas, NVIDIA’s mid-to-high-end offerings, essentially everything from the GeForce RTX 4070 up to RTX 4090, are already reportedly seeing price increases.
Blackwell samples are shipping soon
It was also reported that NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang attended SIGGRAPH 2024 in Denver this week and announced that Blackwell GPU samples will soon be shipped out to partners. Rumors about the timing of the RTX 50 series launch have indicated either Q4 24 or, as is becoming more likely, a Q1 25 release. While the former is still possible, NVIDIA may aim for CES 25, as another rumor has suggested, and may coincide with new releases from its fellow graphics card manufacturers, AMD and Intel.