Nvidia Might Cut RTX 50 GPU Supply by Up to 40% in 2026 Due to Memory Shortages

The global memory crunch is reportedly squeezing Nvidia enough that it will reduce production of its RTX 50-series GPUs. As WCCFTech reports, citing the Chinese Board Channel forums, Nvidia could trim Blackwell gaming GPU production by 30-40% in the first half of 2026, which could put a significant strain on your next PC build.

According to Benchlife, the change will initially affect midrange models, such as the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GDDR6. That's disappointing, as they're the most affordable 12GB+ VRAM GPUs from Nvidia. Everything above that gets very expensive, and everything below suffers from hamstrung performance in higher-fidelity games.

Nvidia's RTX 5070 is one of its better value RTX 50-series GPUs. (Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)

This is reportedly a strategic decision for Nvidia amid pressure from data center clients sucking up all the hardware. With memory and SSDs in shorter supply and prices rising, PC purchasing and upgrading will likely be diminished as a result. So, its drop in GPU output may turn out to be a reflection of the market as much as its own inability to produce enough graphics cards.

While reports suggest AMD will increase GPU prices by 10% or more next year, WCCFTech reports that Nvidia is attempting to avoid price hikes. That said, partners with fewer supplies will likely want to increase their margins, which could result in price rises on their end.

Nvidia hasn't addressed these reports, but in a recent earnings call, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia has "done a really good job planning our supply chain, [which] basically includes every technology company in the world. And TSMC and their packaging and our memory vendors and memory partners and all of our system ODMs have done a really good job planning with us."

It's also possible that this reduction in supply could help lay the groundwork for an RTX 50 Super refresh, which has long been rumored but may have been delayed by the shortage of new 3GB GDDR7 VRAM modules. More recent rumors have suggested it's hoarding those for use with the RTX 5090 laptop GPUs.