I hope you managed to find the right GPU at the right price in 2025, because a new report suggests that NVIDIA plans to significantly cut production of its RTX 50-series graphics cards in 2026.
The cause? You guessed it — AI and its unending thirst for memory and storage, which is causing a global shortage.
This news began on China's tech forum Bobantang and was picked up by Benchlife and eventually OC3D. The report alleges that NVIDIA plans to "adjust GPU production capacity of GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards in 2026 to cope with memory shortages." Just how much of a reduction? Compared to the first half of 2025, supply could be reduced by anywhere from 30-40%.
That's not an insignificant reduction, and I can't see how the ramifications won't be felt throughout the tech industry.
It's not just GDDR7 memory — the stuff that goes into RTX 5000 cards — causing issues, either. The report suggests that all memory types are being squeezed enough to cause a shift in production.
According to Benchlife, "a number of AIC partners and component suppliers have also mentioned" that the RTX 5070 Ti and the RTX 5060 Ti, each with 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM, will be the first to see a cut to production.
If true, that's some terrible news for PC gamers. GPUs with 8GB of VRAM are on the edge of being "not enough" to play demanding modern titles, and the 16GB GPU options drying up will make it more difficult to get the performance you desire without spending huge money on an RTX 5080 or RTX 5090.
Notably, the report makes no mention of NVIDIA's RTX PRO GPUs. These specialized cards are coveted by data scientists, creators, engineers, developers, AI professionals, and more. They come at a much higher price compared to the consumer RTX 50-series GPUs, and I wouldn't be surprised to see NVIDIA continue to feed GDDR7 into the production lines to maximize profits.
The memory crisis is only getting started
This NVIDIA news comes on the heels of several high-profile stories focusing on the RAM shortage.
At the end of November 2025, Micron announced that it was discontinuing its consumer lineup of Crucial memory and storage to focus on producing the hardware for AI companies. Samsung, one of the other leading memory suppliers, is expected to hike RAM prices as well.
Dell just announced that it plans to hike its commercial PC prices by up to 30% on December 17, echoing the moves by other major PC manufacturers. Elsewhere, Valve's upcoming Steam Machine could be in trouble if it can't debut at a reasonable price due to RAM costs.
As for NVIDIA's RTX 50-series SUPER cards — the "upgrade" versions that generally debut about a year after the standard cards hit markets — there have been rumors floating around for a couple of months regarding NVIDIA killing the entire product line due to the memory shortage.
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