It looks as though you can forget about paying anything close to MSRP for GeForce RTX 50 series cards in the future, as Nvidia has allegedly ended a previously unknown financial support program for manufacturers, making the production of graphics cards for advertised price targets effectively impossible. This is bad news for consumers, as insiders expect the impact of this change to push prices of some models up by as much as 40-50%, with no hope of cost correction in the near future.
This bombshell comes courtesy of Roman ‘der8auer Hartung, CEO of Thermal Grizzly and well-renowned professional overclocker. Hartung says he received “kind of classified” information regarding an “OPP Program,” verifying its existence through two separate sources. He says the program served as a cashback scheme for add-in board partners (AIBs), such as Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI, but Nvidia terminated it just days before publishing his coverage on January 22.
Essentially, in order to hit advertised MSRPs, Nvidia would reportedly sell GPUs and VRAM to graphics card manufacturers at a standard rate under the proviso that they could claim some costs back following sales of MSRP models. Without the OPP Program to mitigate manufacturing costs, combined with rising VRAM costs that increase the price of Nvidia’s bundles, add-in board partners have no other option but to increase how much they charge for graphics cards.
As Hartung puts it, this effectively means MSRP no longer exists. According to Hartung, insiders claim a GeForce RTX 5080 card could soon set you back €1,400-1,500, a 40-50% increase from the ~€1,000 price point it occupied just a few months ago. Other SKUs could see similar rises.
On top of higher prices, Nvidia is also apparently cutting GB203 supply for the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, instead focusing on the GeForce RTX 5080. While the RTX 5070 Ti isn’t EOL (end of life) according to Asus, it’s in such short supply that it might as well be. As for why the RTX 5080 is getting preferential treatment, revenue is almost certainly a factor, as the more-expensive card generates greater profits.
With the OPP Program apparently gone and current market conditions likely to stick around for the foreseeable future, I don’t see any hope of the GeForce RTX 50 Super series seeing the light of day. It simply doesn’t make sense for any of the parties involved to increase manufacturing costs by adding 3GB VRAM chips, when producing existing models at a profit is already so difficult from a financial standpoint.
I have a strong suspicion that the untenable financial situation of graphics card production is also the reason why we’ve not seen the Arc B770 materialise, despite many indications that it would launch. Instead, it seems the company is shifting BMG-G31’s debut to Pro SKUs. If true, it would be a terrible shame, as soaring GeForce pricing could offer the perfect opportunity for both Intel and AMD to capture market share. The question is whether they’re willing to stomach higher costs and lower profits to do so. It’s highly unlikely.
As AI continues to perpetuate the ongoing memory crisis and NAND shortage, the future of consumer hardware looks especially bleak. If you’re thinking about upgrading your system, I would do so sooner rather than later to avoid further cost. For those lucky enough to own an AM4 or compatible LGA1700 rig, then I’d consider reading our guide to buying the best DDR4 CPU instead. There are other improvements you can make to a gaming setup that don’t cost silly money too, like a new monitor.
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