NVIDIA plans to cut GeForce RTX production by up to 40% in early 2026 — Here’s which graphics cards will be affected first

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If you were hoping to upgrade your graphics card, it’s good you found one when you did! A recent report indicates NVIDIA is planning to reduce production of their next-generation RTX 50-series cards starting in 2026.

The reason for this problem is simple: artificial intelligence needs a huge amount of memory and storage, and that’s leading to a worldwide shortage.

The information started on the Chinese tech forum Bobantang and was then reported by Benchlife and OC3D. They claim NVIDIA is planning to modify the production of its GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards in 2026 because of potential memory shortages. The reduction in supply could be significant, potentially decreasing by 30 to 40% compared to the first half of 2025.

This is a substantial decrease, and it’s likely to have a major impact on the entire tech industry.

I’m seeing reports that the problems aren’t limited to just the new GDDR7 memory, the kind expected in the RTX 5000 series cards. It seems like there’s a general crunch on all types of memory, which is causing a slowdown in production.

Benchlife reports that partners and suppliers to NVIDIA have indicated the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5060 Ti graphics cards – both equipped with 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM – will be the first to have their production reduced.

This is bad news for PC gamers. Graphics cards with only 8GB of video memory are already struggling to run the latest, most demanding games, and it’s becoming harder to find 16GB cards. This means getting good performance will likely require spending a lot of money on a high-end card like the RTX 5080 or RTX 5090.

Interestingly, the report doesn’t discuss NVIDIA’s RTX PRO GPUs. These powerful cards are highly sought after by professionals in fields like data science, content creation, engineering, and AI. They’re considerably more expensive than the standard RTX 50-series graphics cards, and it seems likely NVIDIA will continue using GDDR7 technology in their production to increase 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.

In late November 2025, Micron said it would stop making Crucial memory and storage products for consumers, choosing instead to concentrate on supplying hardware for companies building artificial intelligence technology. Industry experts predict that Samsung, another major memory manufacturer, will likely raise prices for RAM as a result.

Dell announced it will raise prices on its business computers by as much as 30% starting December 17th, following similar decisions by other PC makers. Meanwhile, Valve’s new Steam Machine might face challenges if high memory costs prevent it from being affordable.

For the past couple of months, there have been rumors that NVIDIA might cancel its RTX 50-series SUPER cards – the updated versions typically released about a year after the original cards – because of a shortage of memory chips.

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2025-12-18 00:39