The horizon for the gaming industry continues to darken with yet more news regarding the impact of the current memory shortage. By now its no secret that there’s an ongoing shortage of memory chips due to manufacturers prioritizing orders for AI datacenters. Rather than a trickle-down effect, it has become more of a near cut-off of supplies for consumer products, leading to astronomical price increases, and is said to only worsen for the next couple of years. Ironically enough, NVIDIA, the biggest forerunner of AI, is reportedly slowing production of some of its GPUs due to this shortage.
According to a report from China’s BoBantang (via Benchlife), NVIDIA plans to cut production of its current GPU lineup by up to 30-40% in the coming year. It’s said that some of its partners have already gotten word that the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti are to be the first products affected. Both cards use 16 GB GDDR7, and NVIDIA is likely trying to re-allocate the VRAM for other, more profitable models. However, another side effect that could happen is that this move could redirect gamers on a budget to reconsider the 8 GB version of the RTX 5060 Ti, a model that was not viewed as being very relevant for modern gaming in 2025.
“In addition to the news from BoBantang, several AIC partners and component suppliers have also mentioned to us that NVIDIA will be the first to adjust the supply of GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GDDR7”
-Benchlife
As if this news isn’t bad enough, more was shared last month via hardware information leaker Golden Pig Upgrade (via Tom’s Hardware) that NVIDIA is reportedly examining another strategy to cut its costs. NVIDIA is said to be considering no longer providing its partners with VRAM. This means that partners such as MSI, ASUS, and GIGABYTE would need to procure memory for their graphics cards, which would assuredly cause a spectrum of prices for consumers never seen before. It also means the smaller companies might not be able to survive, given that the larger companies are likely to already have better channel support and thus be able to secure VRAM, leaving those who do not without supply alternatives.
“Previously, Nvidia monopolized both the GPU cores and memory for its AICs (Add-in-Card) partners. Now, it’s rumored online that Nvidia only supplies cores, while AICs are forced to source their own memory. For smaller AICs who didn’t have prior connections, trying to negotiate memory business is now completely ignored; it’s essentially like they’re no longer needed in the graphics card business.”
-Golden Pig Upgrade
There’s a lot of speculation regarding NVIDIA’s plans for 2026. Aside from what’s been mentioned here, it’s also been said that NVIDIA could delay the launch of its RTX 50 series refresh, aka SUPER series. NVIDIA has said nothing regarding the RTX 50 SUPER series, which is rumored to be the 5070 SUPER, 5070 Ti SUPER, and 5080 SUPER, but NVIDIA may still yet announce these GPUs at CES 26.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →So, so tired boss...
Well when your top tier cards are being stripped of parts to make more ai focused cards for AI data centers eating directly into your Y.O.Y. profit growth what is a plucky little company like Nvidia supposed to do?
Honestly I think Nvidia wants to pull a Micron and fully exit the consumer space. We are exactly pocket change that takes away from their enterprise sell through.
We are the foundation market that Nvidia was built on. But like your college girlfriend that just graduated.. they dont need us and we are holding them back now. 😉
This is truth right here. Get ready to fall in love all over again with discrete video and gaming consoles.
I was just thinking, AMD's next gen flagship will be sold to Microsoft for xbox xcloud gaming. Consumers will be lucky to get a cut down gaming version of it. Even if they do it'll cost $$$$
Meanwhile Microsoft is moving towards free tier 5hrs of cloud gaming every month (like geforce now) . And installing xbox cloud gaming app in phones, smart TVs, car displays etc.
Discrete gaming GPU market could shrink and consumers forced to try cloud gaming, maybe
Watch how fast millions of us jump ship if they try to force us to use subscription cloud gaming. Indie games will absolutely explode in popularity and sales. They will make games to run on the hardware we are already using. The quantity and quality will skyrocket. Do you want indie to take over? Because that's how you get indie takeover.
Us 4k-gamers are taking it in the Donkey on this arent we?
Having 16gb+ is not so optional.
Should I buy one of those 1440p ultrawide? I still dont think 8gb would be, well, good.
I see higher GPU pricing with even higher GPU scalping in the future.
May not be the best at RT, just the same, my 7900XTX still does a good job (for now).
I'm in the same boat though looking at a 5080... just not fully sold. I mean net it would cost me 400.. 1k for the zotac model, sell my current for 600... I just don't know...
Definitely would not be surprised to see Nvidia spin off their consumer GPU business
There are no 4K gamers anymore. What was the last time you played a new game at native 4K?
nvidia has forgot the thousand year rule they want to stop providing circuses for the people, it can only backfire, but I guess they think they'll use their ai surveillance partners to squash any unrest.
If you sell it for $600 in the next 12 months, consider it pre-sold and just let me know when you are ready. AKA, I call dibs. 😁
I certainly haven't. Upscaling works so well starting from 4K, providing a higher frame cap.
Try turning it off, just for a moment, and you'll want to cry.
Avowed, BG3, Elden Ring, Forspoken, Hogwarts Legacy, New World, POE 1/2, Starfield, Cyberpunk.
Mind, I don't have impressive times played for every single one, I do own them all in Steam and have had them up and running.
I rarely use upscaling. Only when I have no choice. With RT off my GPU does great with raster performance. So, yes, I play at native in most.
Perhaps I (We few peoples) are a Unicorn - just the same, denying our existence is not very nice. :)
But you asked last time, did you not, no more then 3 days at most (POE 1/2). Picked up Oblivion Remastered and have been playing that, at native 4k, but its not all then new or demanding to the system.
If you're not maxing out graphics then it is cheating and it doesn't count.
I didn't mean it as an insult, but as the sad state of gaming on PC thanks to nvidia.
I did not take this as an insult. Merely as an untruth. I assume we should agree that we do not agree.
The AI boom is just like the mining boom. Nvidia won't exit the consumer market, they'll just limit consumer parts production and jack up the prices while they feed the majority of their production to AI companies.