Gamers face another crushing blow as Nvidia allegedly slashes GPU supply by 20%, leaker claims
Moving up the stack, the RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti contribute the same gross revenue per gigabyte, meaning that the cheaper-to-produce 5070 will likely be favored over its Ti sibling (which uses a bigger, more power-hungry GPU and a more complex board design)—or that both cards are likely to be deprioritized in favor of the more profitable RTX 5060 Ti 8GB.
At the highest end, the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 contribute nearly the same revenue per gig of VRAM, meaning that the RTX 5080 will likely take precedence for allocation of 2GB GDDR7 chips going forward due to its smaller GPU die (half the size of the RTX 5090's) and much less complex board design. It would also mean that the 32GB of VRAM needed to produce one large 5090 GPU would instead create two 16GB RTX 5080s, which would help with overall supply and possibly lead to more margin.
Just for fun, the RTX 5090 and RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell share the same GB202 GPU (albeit with differing SM counts), but even with 96GB of GDDR7 on board, the RTX Pro 6000 contributes a whopping 41% more revenue per GB of GDDR7 on board versus the 5090.
Of course, the RTX Pro 6000 uses 3GB GDDR7 chips in clamshell mode to achieve its memory capacity rather than the 2GB single-side parts on the RTX 5090, so it's not an apples-to-apples comparison.
But it does make it obvious why Nvidia may have foregone launching the RTX 50-series Super refresh at CES: the margins afforded by using 3GB packages on RTX Pro products are simply much more attractive than they would have been for GeForce cards that presumably would have sold for near the same MSRPs as non-Super cards did at launch.
Going forward, we expect that the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, RTX 5070, and RTX 5080 may be the easiest cards to find on shelves, relatively speaking, while enthusiast favorites like the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and RTX 5070 Ti will be in short supply. The writing is also on the wall for the RTX 5090 — we can already see the supply situation reflected in today's empty e-tail shelves and dramatically inflated prices from third-party sellers. We'll continue to monitor this situation and update our list of the best GPUs for gaming accordingly.
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As the Senior Analyst, Graphics at Tom's Hardware, Jeff Kampman covers everything to do with GPUs, gaming performance, and more. From integrated graphics processors to discrete graphics cards to the hyperscale installations powering our AI future, if it's got a GPU in it, Jeff is on it.\u00a0 ","contributorText":"With contributions from","contributors":[{"name":"Paul Alcorn","role":"Editor-in-Chief","link":{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomshardware.com\/author\/paul-alcorn"}}],"collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-11/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Jeffrey Kampman Senior Analyst, Graphics As the Senior Analyst, Graphics at Tom's Hardware, Jeff Kampman covers everything to do with GPUs, gaming performance, and more. From integrated graphics processors to discrete graphics cards to the hyperscale installations powering our AI future, if it's got a GPU in it, Jeff is on it.
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/gigabyte-ceo-explains-nvidias-potential-gpu-supply-strategy-amid-crushing-memory-shortages-gross-revenue-per-gigabyte-of-gddr7-memory-could-decide-what-products-thrive#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.