Uh-oh — Nvidia could drastically reduce supply of its RTX 5000 gaming GPUs in 2026, cutting production by up to 40%
- Nvidia would abandon production of RTX 5000 models
- This reduces the supply of RTX 5000 GPUs by around 30-40%, we’re told
- It’s the first half of 2026, compared to 2025, and it’s related to VRAM supply issues.
Want some darker PC component news? Of course not, but unfortunately a new rumor has emerged that Nvidia will make about a third fewer RTX 5000 gaming GPUs in the first half of 2026 than this year.
OC3D flagged an article from Chinese tech site Benchlife, which in turn highlighted an article on the Board Channels forum in China. This post claims that Nvidia is significantly reducing the supply of its current generation GeForce graphics cards for the first half of 2026 by 30-40% compared to the same period in 2025.
Obviously, one should take this report with a few handfuls of seasoning, as Board Channels isn’t always the most reliable source – but at the same time, it has been on the money in the past.
The reason for this severe production adjustment, we are told, is due to rising VRAM (video RAM) prices and supply issues, which are part of the current global memory crisis.
Analysis: Video RAM killed the GPU star?
While we should be skeptical, as noted, it makes sense that if VRAM gets a little thinner in the field – and it’s certainly happening – then Nvidia would prioritize AI graphics cards over gaming GPUs. The former are a plot more profitable by an order of magnitude, after all.
On top of that, we’ve already heard speculation that Nvidia might stop supplying VRAM alongside its GPU chips (in bundles) when it supplies that silicon to third-party graphics card makers – and that could mean fewer Blackwell graphics cards on the shelves. (As smaller partners will not be able to secure their own video RAM in this turbulent market).
There has also been speculation that Nvidia (and AMD) may remove some low-to-mid-range gaming GPUs, those that use a disproportionate amount of video RAM relative to their MSRP.
Benchlife further notes that it has sources from card manufacturers in China, as well as those in the GPU supply chain, who claim that Nvidia will initially adjust the supply of two Blackwell graphics cards in particular. Apparently, these are the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5060 Ti with 16 GB of VRAM, and the latter makes perfect sense in light of the previous rumor about GPUs with too much video RAM allocation compared to their price range.
Frankly, this all sounds pretty plausible, but let’s not get carried away at this point. This also casts growing doubt on the likelihood of Nvidia’s rumored RTX 5000 Super refresh, which is theoretically responsible for actually loading VRAM. The possibility that these new Blackwell products could be canceled was even raised last month, but the group’s consensus settled on a delay – but perhaps a very long delay (until the end of 2026) given the RAM crisis.
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