The Hot Take: Again, Nvidia doing anti-competitive practices?
Nvidiaâs graphics card prices are reportedly jumping again as memory costs rise and retailers start clearing shelves in panic.
With Samsung reportedly raising DRAM prices by about 20 per cent for the current quarter, Nvidia appears to have decided customers can pay. The result is another price rise for consumer graphics cards, the third such inflationary episode this year, according to the reports.
This one has reportedly emptied store shelves as distributors shift into full panic mode.
Unlike Nvidiaâs May price rise, the latest bout appears to cover far more consumer graphics card models.
According to Taiwanâs Economic Daily, Nvidia has increased prices on consumer-facing graphics cards by between 20 per cent and 30 per cent. That follows a price rise of between 10 per cent and 15 per cent in January 2026.
The May increase was aimed mainly at high-end cards such as the GeForce RTX 5090 series. The latest hike, therefore, looks like Nvidiaâs third attempt to test how much pain gamers and system builders can absorb this year.
BenchLife claims Nvidiaâs price notices to downstream supply chain partners now cover entire GPU bundles. That means the GPU itself and the GDDR memory are being lumped together on the same grim little invoice.
The notices, helped along by runaway rumours, have reportedly triggered a proper panic among retail channel distributors.
One major Chinese e-commerce platform went so far as to remove many mainstream Nvidia graphics cards from sale last week. Retailers that have already adjusted prices are showing a chunky difference.
The 16GB GDDR7 Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti is now selling for 10,700 yuan (âŹ1,389, $1,581), up from 9,299 yuan (âŹ1,207, $1,374) last week.
In November 2025, the same card was selling for 7,200 yuan (âŹ934, $1,064). The price rises are producing some daft results in the GDDR market as well.
Standard 2GB GDDR7 video memory now sells for $20, while a 3GB chip costs between $60 and $70. That means the 3GB GDDR7 part offers just 50 per cent more video memory but costs more than three times as much.
Â
Read the full article
The Hot Take: Is Nvidia pricing out AIB manufacturers to take the whole pie of selling their GPUs?
The ongoing component crisis has forced manufacturers to raise product prices around the world, which includes the best GPUs. MSI and PNY have just announced new prices for all RTX 50-series graphics cards for China, representing up to a 59% hike compared to MSRP. While Nvidia GPUs have been the most affected, offerings from Intel and AMD are also experiencing a similar predicament, according to Wccftech. MSI's price list actually shows the old prices (from a week ago) as well as the new ones, giving us an official percentage difference of 10-20%. Keep in mind the old prices still weren't at MSRP. The RTX 5080 Shadow 3X OC/Ventus sees the biggest change, going from 10,000 Yuan ($1,477) to 12,000 Yuan ($1,773), constituting a 20% hike. Other RTX 5080 variants received a pretty similar 18% hike, while the RTX 5070 Ti Shadow 3X OC now costs 19.5% more. Product NameOriginal PriceUpdated PriceOfficial MSRPvs. Originalvs. Base MSRPGeForce RTX 5090 D v2 24G VENTUS 3X OC„22,999„25,999„16,499+13.04%+57.58%GeForce RTX 5080 16G GAMING TRIO OC WHITE„10,999„12,999„8,299+18.18%+56.63%GeForce RTX 5080 16G GAMING TRIO OC„10,999„12,999„8,299+18.18%+56.63%GeForce RTX 5080 16G SHADOW 3X OC/VENTUS„9,999„11,999„8,299+20.00%+44.58%GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16G GAMING TRIO OC„8,199„9,699„5,499+18.29%+76.38%GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16G SHADOW 3X OC„7,699„9,199„5,499+19.48%+67.28%GeForce RTX 5070 12G GAMING TRIO OC„5,899„6,399„4,499+8.48%+42.23%GeForce RTX 5070 12G VENTUS 3X OC„5,499„5,999„4,499+9.09%+33.34%GeForce RTX 5070 12G SHADOW 3X OC„5,499„5,999„4,499+9.09%+33.34%GeForce RTX 5070 12G SHADOW 2X OC„5,299„5,799„4,499+9.44%+28.90%GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16G GAMING TRIO OC„4,599„4,999„3,199+8.70%+56.27%GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16G SHADOW 2X OC PLUS„4,299„4,699„3,199+9.30%+46.89%GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8G SHADOW 2X OC PLUS„3,099„3,399„2,799+9.68%+21.44%GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8G GAMING TRIO OC WHITE„3,399„3,699„2,799+8.83%+32.15%GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8G GAMING TRIO OC„3,399„3,699„2,799+8.83%+32.15%GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8G INSPIRE 2X OC„3,199„3,499„2,799+9.38%+25.01%GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8G VENTUS 3X OC„3,299„3,599„2,799+9.09%+28.58%GeForce RTX 5060 8G GAMING TRIO OC WHITE„2,799„3,199„2,199+14.29%+45.48%GeForce RTX 5060 8G GAMING TRIO OC„2,799„3,199„2,199+14.29%+45.48%GeForce RTX 5060 8G GAMING OC V1„2,699„3,099„2,199+14.82%+40.93%GeForce RTX 5060 8G SHADOW 2X OC„2,599„2,999„2,199+15.39%+36.38%GeForce RTX 5050 8G GAMING OC„2,599„2,999„1,899+15.39%+57.93%GeForce RTX 3050 VENTUS 2X E 6G OC„1,649„1,899„1,399+15.16%+35.74%The highest-end Blackwell GPU available in China, the RTX 5090 D V2 is a cut-down version of the RTX 5090, featuring 24GB of VRAM instead of 32GB. MSI raised its price by 13%, which is less than every RTX 5060 and RTX 5050 variant â those were around 14-15%. The RTX 5060 Ti (8GB and 16GB) and RTX 5070 both received price hikes under 10% compared to their old prices. If you put these numbers up against these GPUs' MSRPs then the picture becomes a lot grimmer. The RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Trio OC is now priced 76% above MSRP, while its cheaper Shadow 3X OC variant is still 67% more expensive than the suggested retail price. The prices for the RTX 5090 D V2 are 57.5% higher, the RTX 5080 and 5060 Ti up to 56% higher, the RTX 5060 up to 45% higher, and the RTX 5070 up to 42% higher. Moving onto Colorful's list, the company doesn't provide old prices to compare against, so we can only reference them against the MSRPs. The top-end offering, the RTX 5080 Vulcan W OC is now priced 59% above MSRP, while the 5070 Ti Vulcan W OC is 58.5% higher. The RTX 5070 and 5060 Ti 16GB models were largely under the 50% threshold, while price hikes for the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB and RTX 5060 variants were under 30% compared to MSRP. GPU ModelNew PriceOriginal PriceDifference% vs MSRPRTX 5080 Vulcan W OC 16G„13,199„8,299+„4,900+59.0%RTX 5080 Vulcan OC 16GB„12,299„8,299+„4,000+48.2%RTX 5080 Advanced OC 16G„11,799„8,299+„3,500+42.2%RTX 5080 Ultra W OC 16G„10,499„8,299+„2,200+26.5%RTX 5070 Ti Vulcan W OC 16G„9,999„6,299+„3,700+58.7%RTX 5070 Ti Advanced OC 16G„9,299„6,299+„3,000+47.6%RTX 5070 Ti Ultra W OC SFF 16G„8,899„6,299+„2,600+41.3%RTX 5070 Ti Ultra OC SFF 16G„8,799„6,299+„2,500+39.7%RTX 5070 Ti Deluxe SFF 16G„8,699„6,299+„2,400+38.1%RTX 5070 Vulcan X OC 12G„7,199„4,599+„2,600+56.6%RTX 5070 Ultra OC 12G„6,799„4,599+„2,200+47.9%RTX 5070 Deluxe 12G„6,399„4,599+„1,800+39.2%RTX 5060 Ti Ultra W OC 16G„5,299„3,599+„1,700+47.3%RTX 5060 Ti Ultra Z OC 16G„5,249„3,599+„1,650+46.0%RTX 5060 Ti Ultra OC 16G„5,249„3,599+„1,650+46.0%RTX 5060 Ti Deluxe 16G„5,199„3,599+„1,600+44.6%RTX 5060 Ti Ultra W DUO OC 16G„5,099„3,599+„1,500+41.8%RTX 5060 Ti Ultra DUO OC 16G„5,099„3,599+„1,500+41.8%RTX 5060 Ti Advanced OC 8G„3,949„3,199+„750+23.5%RTX 5060 Ti Ultra W OC 8G„3,949„3,199+„750+23.5%RTX 5060 Ti Ultra OC 8G„3,849„3,199+„650+20.3%RTX 5060 Ti Deluxe 8G„3,699„3,199+„500+15.7%RTX 5060 Ti DUO 8G„3,549„3,199+„350+11.0%RTX 5060 Advanced OC 8G„3,199„2,499+„700+27.9%RTX 5060 Ultra W OC 8G„3,149„2,499+„650+26.0%RTX 5060 Ultra DUO OC 8G„3,049„2,499+„550+22.0%RTX 5060 Deluxe 8G„3,049„2,499+„550+22.0%RTX 5060 DUO 8G„2,949„2,499+„450+17.9%RTX 5050 DUO 8G„2,449„2,099+„350+16.8%Both of these lists came directly from the distributors but marketplaces online show that AMD and Intel GPUs are also more expensive now, as well. AMD's cards are selling for 14% to 29% higher prices, and Blue Team's cards are seeing $200 to almost $300 bumps, according to Wccftech. The RX 9060 XT 16GB is the worst offender among the two lineups, being hiked up by 28.8% compared to its MSRP. All of this is happening because VRAM prices have skyrocketed over the past year, with reports highlighting a $20 price increase per module. That means an 8GB card, with taxes included, should cost almost $100 more now, a 12GB card about $130 more, and a 16GB card roughly $180 more, and that's just accounting for VRAM price changes. With prices going up, there's an additional element of supply and demand that is pushing prices higher. There are no signs of the component crisis slowing down; in fact, we only see more fearmongering from major companies, persuading them to buy whatever they want now instead of waiting for some miracle market crash. With the way things are looking right now, prices don't seem to be coming down anytime soon, that much is clear.
Read the full article
The Hot Take: We'll have to see, they just keep milking Ai at the cost of liquidating a whole other industry.
The GeForce RTX 50-series desktop graphics lineup has remained unchanged for just over a year now (since the introduction of the RTX 5050), and none of the conversations we've had at major trade shows suggests that a mid-cycle Super refresh will occur any time soon. But there are still signs that such an update could still happen at some point, and the latest sign comes from Seasonic, which has listed an RTX 5080 Super, an RTX 5070 Ti Super, and RTX 5070 Ti Super in its PSU wattage calculator. Go deeper with TH Premium: GPUs(Image credit: Noctua)Desktop RoadmapEnterprise RoadmapRubin in-depthThe Stout Owl: The ultimate Noctua G2 PCYou can click through the calculator and assemble a hypothetical system with these unannounced products inside. To be useful, this calculator also provides board power numbers for these as-yet-unreleased cards, and that gives us another bit of juicy info. Given that no official specifications for these GPUs exist, it's impossible to say whether these figures are accurate. But it does allow us to speculate a bit on how they might stack up to existing products. Unannounced RTX 50 Super-series TGPsGraphics CardTotal Graphics Power (W)% ChangeRTX 5070250--RTX 5070 Super275*10% RTX 5070 Ti300--RTX 5070 Ti Super350*17%RTX 5080380--RTX 5080 Super415*15% *As listed in Seasonic PSU calculator. Unconfirmed by Nvidia. Seasonic gives this purported RTX 5080 Super a board power of 415W in its calculator, or 15% higher than the existing RTX 5080's 360W envelope. That makes sense, because the RTX 5080's GB203 GPU is already fully enabled, so any Super version of that card would have to lean on higher power limits and more aggressive clock speeds to see any baseline performance benefit. That figure could also partially account for slightly higher power usage from 8 GB more GDDR7 memory on such a card. Past RTX 50 Super-series rumors have suggested that Nvidia will boost VRAM capacity on those products by moving to higher-density GDDR7 modules with 3GB of capacity each. GDDR7's power consumption as part of the overall board picture is relatively small, but more of it will still matter. If Seasonic's figures are accurate, we should also expect a similarly sized TGP increase out of the RTX 5070 Ti Super, whose 350W rating is 17% higher than that of the RTX 5070 Ti. The RTX 5070 Super, meanwhile, gets only a 10% TGP bump over the RTX 5070, from 250W to 275W. Both of these cards rely on GPUs that are slightly cut down from their full available resources, so it's possible that Nvidia could boost their performance through a balance of enabling more Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs) in addition to boosting clocks through higher power envelopes. Beware of extrapolating performance improvements directly from these percentages, though. Our own testing has shown that any real-world performance benefits from these power limit increases are likely to be smaller than those figures would suggest. As our review of the MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z showed, the largest performance boosts from higher power limits are likely to be concentrated in ray-traced and path-traced games, whose computational intensity is significantly higher than pure raster titles and is more likely to run the GPU into its power limits. In any event, we shouldn't expect to see these products any time soon. Nvidia has instead been focused on getting more out of existing Blackwell silicon with software improvements such as DLSS 4.5 upscaling and Multi-Frame Generation multipliers up to 6X. These technologies enable higher output frame rates and image quality with lower input resolution than past DLSS technologies, and the boost to both performance and image quality from those technologies in tandem has certainly made existing Blackwell products more appealing than they were at launch.But as monitor refresh rates continue to climb thanks to ongoing improvements to OLED and LCD panels, and next-generation HDMI 2.2 connectors looming over 2027, a hardware update of some kind that boosts baseline performance and potentially implements support for those standards seems practical at some point. Given these primarily consumer-focused improvements, an announcement at CES 2027 or Computex 2027 might make sense. As with any future product rumors, however, only time will truly tell.
Read the full article
The Hot Take: We'll see how long before they go to Intel because TSMC is filled up in Arizona FABs.
Nvidia will stay TSMCâs biggest customer in 2027, but AMDâs EPYC Venice could pinch the CPU bragging rights.
TSMC is seeing rising demand for 2.5D advanced packaging as CPUs become more important in the agentic AI bunfight. Apparently, GPUs alone are no longer enough to feed the machine.
Morgan Stanley reckons Nvidia will remain TSMCâs largest CoWoS customer in 2027. TSMC is expected to reach wafer capacity of 200,000 wafers a month that year.
Nvidia is using TSMCâs CoWoS packaging for two main product families. CoWoS-L is for AI GPUs such as Blackwell and Rubin, while CoWoS-R is for Vera CPUs.
CoWoS-L capacity is expected to hit about 910,000 units, up 40 per cent year on year. Vera shipments are expected to double, which would help Nvidia lift data centre revenue by 52 per cent.
Morgan Stanley said:âNvidia uses TSMCâs CoWoS-L as the single source for all its AI GPU products (e.g. Blackwell and Rubin). Its 2027 CoWoS-L consumption could reach ~910k, up ~40 per cent year on year. Strong CoWoS-R bookings by Nvidia suggest room for AI GPM products (such as doubling). Taken together, we estimate Nvidiaâs 2027 forecast for Nvidiaâs data centre revenue to rise 52 per cent year on year.â
Nvidia has been pivoting harder into CPUs to claw back China revenue after GPU restrictions. Several customers have shown interest in Vera CPUs.
The company has hand-delivered the first Vera CPUs to Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceX and Oracle. Nothing says âagentic AI eraâ like an expensive chip being passed around the usual suspects.
The problem for Nvidia is that AMD is not politely standing at the back. Its next-generation EPYC Venice platform is already in volume production at TSMC.
Venice is based on AMDâs upcoming Zen 6 architecture and is expected to deliver better performance and efficiency. It targets both AI and HPC, while Vera is being pitched squarely at agentic AI.
Morgan Stanley projects Nvidiaâs Vera CPUs could reach 5.75 million units by 2027. AMDâs EPYC Venice, though, could reach 6.75 million units in 2027. That is 17 per cent more than Vera and 5.4 times its expected 2026 volume.
âBased on our CoWoS consumption forecasts, Nvidiaâs 5nm Vera CPU could grow to 5.75mn units in 2027, while AMDâs 2nm Venice CPU may reach 6.75mn units in 2027 vs. ~1.25mn in 2026,â the beancounters said.
AMD has another advantage on paper, with Venice using TSMCâs advanced 2-nanometre process. Vera is based on a 3-nanometre process. The real headache for both companies may not be each other. It is custom silicon, where the cloud crowd is deciding that buying chips off the shelf is for the riffraff.
OpenAI, Google, Amazon and others are either talking up custom chips or already building them. That turns the AI supply chain into a fight between outside suppliers and in-house silicon vanity projects.
Read the full article