The chances of GeForce RTX 50 Super series graphics cards seeing the light of day are at an all-time low, as Nvidia has reportedly put prior launch plans on hold. This won’t come as a massive surprise if you’re aware of the ongoing mess that the consumer PC market is in right now, to the point you can already guess the reasons behind the brand’s apparent change of heart.
According to chatter on Board Channels, Nvidia has recently briefed add-in board (AIB) partners that it plans to indefinitely delay its GeForce RTX 50 Super series. These conversations would have taken place prior to CES 2026, as there was nary a whisper of the supposed refresh across the entire trade show. Instead, GeForce’s focus has been on DLSS 4.5 and G-Sync Pulsar, both of which are now available to consumers.
Nvidia has never publicly confirmed the existence of the GeForce RTX 50 Super series, but rumours about the refresh have persisted since mid-2025. These new models would apparently use 3GB DDR7 modules, in place of existing 2GB chips. This would create room for 12GB (6x2GB) cards to become 18GB (6x3GB), with 16GB (8x2GB) becoming 24GB (8x3GB) without any major changes to a GPU or PCB other than perhaps higher power draw.
I’ve highlighted these capacities specifically as they directly relate to the cards that would allegedly receive a Super refresh, the 12GB GeForce RTX 5070 as well as the 16GB GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and GeForce RTX 5080. As much as I’d welcome improvements to the latter two models, Nvidia’s midrange offering stands to benefit the most from an increase in buffer size so it can properly stretch its legs at QHD resolutions without a second thought.
As for why Nvidia has decided to effectively pull the plug on the GeForce RTX 50 Super series, you can thank the industry’s favourite buzzword. Yes, AI is the reported driving force behind at least two of the market conditions that have kept this refresh out of consumers’ hands.
Nvidia continues to make money hand over first with its data centre products, far in excess of gaming, understandably pushing the company to place manufacturing efforts towards that business instead. This same demand has prompted memory manufacturers to similarly reprioritise production towards B2B channels, creating a pricing crisis across all markets and stifling supply in the consumer space, with some exiting completely.
Then there’s the matter of competition. Compelling as the Radeon RX 9070 XT, Arc B580, and their ilk are as alternatives to Nvidia’s cards, GeForce market share and sales remain strong enough to the point that Team Green likely doesn’t feel the need to quickly counter their rivals’ efforts. Why pump money into a refresh whose manufacturing costs will be much higher, when your existing products are competitive enough?
These same factors are also apparently driving Nvidia to cut GeForce RTX 50 series production by up to 40%, and push the GeForce RTX 60 series launch close to 1,000 days after the release of its current generation cards. The current market is simply bad news for graphics cards all around.
I do hope that the GeForce RTX 50 Super series sees the light of day. The cards will provide greater longevity to consumers than existing models through their larger buffer sizes as they more easily meet games’ rising VRAM appetites. I just hope that if and when Nvidia does launch the refresh, it does so without much of a price bump.
Despite all this doom and gloom, some amazing GeForce RTX 5090 designs have emerged from CES 2026. Make sure you don’t miss our coverage of the Gigabyte Aorus Infinity and MSI Lightning Z, as well as other announcements from the show by following us on Google News and setting Club386 as one of your Google Preferred Sources.
