Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB graphics cards just aren't selling, and Nvidia is reportedly taking action

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB could be going the way of the dodo, if a new report is to be believed. With games and gamers now demanding large amounts of VRAM on graphics cards, the 8GB on the cheaper version of the RTX 5060 Ti is proving not enough to tempt many buyers, leading to Nvidia implementing a "selective supply" initiative for the card.

As we saw in our Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB review, the GPU at the heart of this Nvidia card is a capable one, and sure enough, that version of the card has proved popular. However, the 8GB version of the card, which was never sent out to reviewers to test, has proven to be severely restricted by its 8GB of VRAM. Our tests have shown on multiple occasions - such as in our RTX 5060 review - that cards with 8GB of VRAM or less have terrible performance in some modern AAA games, such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and this limitation is putting gamers off.

So bad has this aversion by gamers to spend $350+ on one of these cards become that Nvidia is telling its board partners to reduce supply, according to a new report on Chinese tech discussion site BoardChannels. In a post by forum member Low-Hand No. 1 (machine-translated version shown below), the poster claims that "multiple sources" have confirmed that "Nvidia has implemented a precise strategy control" for the RTX 5060 Ti that will see board partners (the companies that actually make the grpahics cards from the GPUs supplied by Nvidia) reduce supply of the 8GB card.

They go on to say that the "selective supply" edict isn't to allow for any issues with supplying the GPUs on Nvidia's side, but specifically to deal with a lack of demand from buyers. Rather than flood shops with excess stock that may never sell, Nvidia wants to ensure that 8GB supply is kept at a level that will sell at MSRP. In fact, it is even stated that the company is "prohibiting low-price sales," suggesting it doesn't want a flood of discounted RTX 5060 Ti 8GB cards hitting the market.

Moreover, the report even goes on to suggest that Nvidia will effectively phase out the 8GB card, stating that "Nvidia […] is controlling 8GB supply to accelerate the market migration to the 16GB version."

None of this has been confirmed by Nvidia, so take all this speculation with a grain of salt for now. However, it does tally with a previous rumor on the same subject that came out around six weeks ago. In that RTX 5060 stock report, it was claimed that the supply of both the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB and RTX 5060 GPUs was being restricted by Nvidia, for much the same reason.

This particular VRAM limitation isn't unique to Nvidia, with the likes of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 and more recent RX 9060 XT also suffering from performance that collapses in certain modern AAA games. However, those cards, along with the RTX 5060, have always been under $300, which is a price at which more gamers might be willing to accept the limitation. However, with the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB MSRP being $379, that particular card has borne the brunt of the recent backlash.

Have you found yourself holding back from buying a new AMD or Nvidia GPU because it has too little VRAM? If so, what card did you buy? Or, did you hold off on upgrading at all? Let us know your story over on our community Discord server.