Nvidia will reportedly slash GeForce RTX GPU production by up to 40% for some, and here's why and when it might happen

Nvidia is reportedly reducing the supply of its RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GPUs to its add-in board (AIB) partners for the first half of 2026 in some regions. As a result of these GPU supply reductions, we could see a shortage of Nvidia graphics cards in the coming months.

These Nvidia reports are specific to Chinese AIBs and are just rumors for now, but they align with other recent reports of reductions in the supply of some of the best graphics cards and tally with the ongoing PC memory supply problems affecting large swathes of the industry. We've already seen the apparent delay or possible cancellation of Nvidia's RTX 5000 Super series and rumored AMD GPU price increase, so there's good reason to believe these reports could be true.

The rumor comes from a regular tech leak source, the Chinese message board Board Channels. A user on the site claims that they have seen rumors that suggest Nvidia may adjust the supply of some of its GPUs "in the mainland China market" with "supply expected to be about 30%-40% lower year-on-year compared to the first half of 2025."

They go on to say that the reason for this adjustment is to "better adapt to changes in the DIY market," which actually suggests the problem is people not buying these GPUs, rather than the supply of these GPUs being low. Up until a few weeks ago, that would have tallied with the generally lacklustre response we've seen to several of Nvidia's mid-range RTX 5000 graphics, such as the VRAM-starved RTX 5060 Ti 8GB and RTX 5070 12GB.

However, a further report from another source, Benchlife, specifically points out that "Nvidia will be the first to adjust supply of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB." These are two of the company's most VRAM-generous graphics cards, so pulling back on the supply of these would strongly point towards the reduction being in response to memory supply issues across the industry, rather than user demand.

All of this is, of course, just a rumor for now, and it may only affect the Chinese market, but it doesn't paint a positive picture for the graphics card market in the new year. Just yesterday, PR manager of graphics card AIB, Sapphire, said that he predicted the current graphics card and memory "pain" would only last six to eight months, so it's certainly looking increasingly likely that supply issues and high prices are coming, and it's just a matter of how long it lasts. As such, you may want to shelve any planned graphics card, memory, or gaming system (i.e., desktop, laptop, or handheld) upgrades for a few months.