- A PC maker in the US says 'retail GPU pricing is expected to climb significantly'
- A further rumor suggests AMD just put up the cost of VRAM, which will affect the prices of graphics cards
- Rounding off a trio of fresh rumors is a claim that Nvidia has discontinued the RTX 5090
There have been a few developments in the GPU world over the weekend — and none of them bode well for the prices of graphics cards down the line.
For starters, Wccftech reports that according to the Board Channels — a reliable enough forum for chatter from the supply chain over in China — AMD has increased the cost of the GDDR6 video RAM it sells to board-making partners. This means that those graphics card makers will inevitably pass that cost on to consumers — if this rumor is accurate of course.
Bench Life further observes that more expensive VRAM isn't the only upward pricing pressure here, and that the cost of other graphics card components — including the main circuit board itself — is also rising.
Secondly, as Wccftech also noticed, we have a custom PC maker in the US, StinceBuilt, informing us on X that it is "starting to see increasing supply constraints on graphics cards" and that, "Retail GPU pricing is expected to climb significantly, and these elevated prices could stick around for quite some time."
Finally, VideoCardz highlighted another post on X from regular leaker MegaSizeGPU, who claims Nvidia will not allocate any more GB202 (Blackwell) chips to make the RTX 5090, and that all this silicon is going to be used in RTX Pro (AI) graphics cards.
In theory, that means it's the end of the line for the flagship RTX 5090, with its replacement (the RTX 6090 in theory) still quite some way off in the distance (a more recent rumor indicates that it's probably due to land in 2028).
Analysis: a cacophony of warning bells
Of all those sentiments, the last one needs the most seasoning, although it's believable enough that Nvidia is essentially canning the RTX 5090. By that I mean that if this is true, I don't think this will be an official (announced) discontinuation, but the way it'll play out is that Nvidia will allocate so few chips for the GeForce flagship that stock will effectively dwindle to next to nothing.
Arguably we're already seeing some evidence of this, certainly in the US where at Newegg, for example, you can't buy an RTX 5090 directly from the retailer, but only from third-party sellers (often in Asia). And the cost of the graphics card is tipping up towards $9,000, such is its scarcity — and you'll pay from £6,000 upwards in the UK, although at least stock is available to buy directly from retailers in that country. Still, I wonder how long that will last; and the idea of Nvidia pulling the plug on the RTX 5090 in a stealthy behind-the-scenes manner certainly feels like it's possible.
Meanwhile, the suggestion of AMD's Radeon GPU price rises backs up similar recent rumors, and the warning from the PC maker in the US that price tags are set to 'climb significantly' is another ominous addition to the warning bells that have been sounded of late.
I'm still very much of the opinion that it's a good idea to buy sooner rather than later, even though GPUs are already overpriced, because I fear that the situation could get substantially worse in 2027, as the grapevine indicates.
The key question is how long a recovery from these pricing pressures might take in the case of GPUs. Again, I have a suspicion that it might take a lot longer than we might hope.