Report: Nvidia might cut consumer GPU production by 40%, RAM shortage to blame

Industry analysts and supply chain sources warn that memory shortages driven by the AI surge could begin to disrupt the availability of a wide range of hardware products starting next year. AMD is expected to implement moderate price increases on its GPUs, while Nvidia may move more aggressively by cutting output of certain graphics card models.

Unverified industry sources and media reports from China suggest that Nvidia is considering reducing RTX 50-series GPU production by roughly 30-40% in the first half of 2026. The reported move is reportedly linked to ongoing memory constraints, which could make some models almost as scarce as they were during their initial launch period.

Chinese outlet, Benchlife, has partially supported these claims, though it has not confirmed the exact scale of the reductions. Its sources indicate that any production cuts would focus on the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5060 Ti.

If these claims prove accurate, they would be consistent with earlier speculation that both AMD and Nvidia could phase out certain budget and mid-range GPUs because of VRAM shortages. Memory represents a significant share of the total production cost for lower-priced graphics cards, and both the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5060 Ti are equipped with 16GB of VRAM.

Nvidia’s adoption of advanced GDDR7 memory for the RTX 50 series played a role in early supply limitations and elevated launch pricing in early 2025. While these GPUs are currently available at comparatively reasonable prices, availability is expected to tighten next year.

Fueled by AI-related demand, planned data center projects have absorbed much of the backlog of DRAM and NAND output from manufacturers such as Samsung and SK Hynix. Shortages are now expected to persist through 2027 or even 2028. As a consequence, future smartphones and laptops may ship with reduced memory configurations.

Put simply, RAM manufacturers prefer to produce data center RAM chips because they offer higher margins than consumer products. This became an issue as demand for data centers exploded and RAM, along with GPUs, became scarce. Some manufacturers reduced consumer RAM production to prioritize data centers, while others, such as Micron, went further by ending their consumer product lines altogether to focus exclusively on data centers.