Nvidia, the green giant of the tech world, is facing worrying forecasts from analysts, with reports suggesting the company will sharply reduce graphics card production next year. The memory shortage driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom is forcing hardware makers to adjust their strategies, and rival AMD is expected to raise prices only slightly. Nvidia's decision to cut supply, however, is seen as a far more drastic move and could shake up the PC gaming market.
Rumors of Nvidia production cuts and the models affected
According to unconfirmed reports from the Board Channels forum, which regularly shares inside information from motherboard and graphics card partners, Nvidia is seriously considering cutting production of its RTX 50 series GPUs. The reported cut is enormous, ranging from 30 to 40% in the first half of 2026. The decision is likely driven by a scarcity of memory components, which could make some graphics cards as hard to find as they were at launch.
Another source, Benchlife, has also confirmed part of this information. Although it did not give a specific figure for the scale of the adjustment, its sources say the cuts will directly target mid-range and upper mid-range cards, specifically the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5060 Ti. Readers should keep one important detail in mind, though: both rumors come from sources in Asia. The situation may therefore reflect market conditions in mainland China and does not necessarily represent the global market accurately.
If these reports are accurate, they would line up exactly with earlier rumors that both AMD and Nvidia may stop producing some budget and mid-range graphics cards because of a shortage of video memory (VRAM). Memory makes up a large share of the bill of materials for low-priced GPUs, and both the RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti are cards with 16GB of memory, a fairly large and expensive amount in the current climate.
The root causes: the AI boom and the memory shortage crisis
Nvidia's decision to use the latest GDDR7 memory technology for the RTX 50 series contributed to supply constraints and pushed costs up at launch in early 2025. Although these GPUs are still available on the market at relatively reasonable prices today, supply is forecast to get worse next year. Experts therefore say this year's holiday season could be a prime time for users to upgrade their systems before the price storm hits.
The main driver behind this scarcity is none other than the huge demand from AI. Plans to build AI data centers have "soaked up" most of the remaining DRAM and NAND production capacity from leading manufacturers such as Samsung and SK Hynix. Gloomy forecasts suggest the shortage could drag on until 2027 or even 2028. As a result, it is not just graphics cards: upcoming smartphones and laptops may also see their RAM capacity cut compared with previous generations. The Nintendo Switch 2 game console is even facing the risk of a price increase, and the well-known memory brand Micron/Crucial has announced its exit from the consumer RAM business after three decades.
The ripple effect across the entire PC hardware market
In the graphics card market, AMD is expected to pass the higher memory costs on to consumers, with price increases possibly starting as early as next January. That is unwelcome news for fans of the "Red Team" waiting for products with good performance for the price.
On Nvidia's side, the impact of this crisis could also affect its future product roadmap. Reports suggest the company may delay or even cancel the RTX 50 Super series entirely. That refreshed lineup had previously been expected to launch in 2026 with impressive VRAM capacities: 18GB for the RTX 5070 and up to 24GB for the 5070 Ti and 5080. With memory prices climbing as they are now, producing such memory-rich versions may no longer make economic sense for Nvidia.
In short, the PC hardware market faces unprecedented challenges next year. The fierce competition between the AI and consumer segments for component supply is putting end users in a difficult position. If you are planning to build a new PC, acting early could save you a considerable amount of money and help you avoid shortages in the near future.
