Nvidia has reportedly paused the launch of its GeForce RTX 50 Super GPUs, due to the escalating cost of 3GB GDDR7 memory chips. According to tech site Videocardz, at least one of the company’s add-in board partners (AIBs) has already received stock of RTX 50 Super GPUs, but Nvidia has now stated that the products are on hold.
The RTX 50 Super series has been in the news on and off for a while now, sometimes through rumours claiming its demise, and others through leaks assuring us it’s still on track. Today’s report is slightly different, claiming that the hardware is ready and that partners have already received GPUs, but the launch is being put on pause due to the current memory shortages.
Graphics cards in Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 50 Super series are expected to pack 50% more memory than the standard models. So far, three models have been rumoured: the RTX 5070 Super 18GB, RTX 5070 Ti Super 24GB, and RTX 5080 Super 24GB. All three models are expected to use 3GB GDDR7 memory chips, rather than the usual 2GB chips, to increase capacity without needing to change the bus width.
The issue is that these 3GB chips are said to be up to 3x more expensive than the traditional 2GB modules found inside the non-Super cards. According to Videocardz, these 3GB chips currently cost between $60 and $70, compared to $20 or so for the regular 2GB chips. In other words, the 3GB chips provide 50% more capacity for triple the price.
If we do some quick maths, we find that the RTX 5080 non-Super’s memory costs $120, compared to up to $560 for the RTX 5080 Super. That’s a huge price increase, especially as the GPU is rumoured to have exactly the same specs. As a reminder, the RTX 5070 Ti Super and RTX 5080 Super are not expected to get any boost to their GPU specs.
The only model said to boast a slight increase (4%) to its number of CUDA cores is the RTX 5070 Super. I’ve put the rumoured specs of these Super GPUs in the table below, along with the standard GPU specs for comparison.
| GPU | CUDA cores | Memory | TGP |
| RTX 5070 | 6,144 | 12GB | 250W |
| RTX 5070 Super | 6,400 | 18GB | 275W |
| RTX 5070 Ti | 8,960 | 16GB | 300W |
| RTX 5070 Ti Super | 8,960 | 24GB | 350W |
| RTX 5080 | 10,752 | 16GB | 360W |
| RTX 5080 Super | 10,752 | 24GB | 415W |
In parallel, Videocardz has indicated that the RTX 5050 9GB has also been put on hold for the same reason, as it’s expected to use three 3GB GDDR7 chips instead of the four 2GB GDDR7 chips of the original RTX 5050 8GB.
Delays aside, this report suggests that the Super series development has at least reached the prototyping phase, meaning that a complete cancellation is unlikely. However, Vidoecardz claims that Nvidia has not provided its partners with a new release date.
