Nvidia has reportedly informed its board partners about incoming price increases for the GPU and VRAM kits required to build GeForce graphics cards. According to Taiwanese tech site BenchLife, these increases concern cards using both GDDR7 and GDDR6 memory, which means the entire RTX 50-series lineup could be impacted.
For those unfamiliar with the situation, board partners (graphics card makers who work with Nvidia) purchase the GPU and VRAM needed to make a card together as a kit from Nvidia. These kits account for the highest cost of building a graphics card, due to their expensive manufacturing procedures, which involve advanced lithography equipment.
Some reports claim these kits represent 80% of the total price, which isn’t surprising considering that the rest of the graphics card is made of readily available electrical components, a PCB, plus a cooler. “According to the information we have received, in addition to higher prices for GDDR7 used with the Blackwell GPU architecture, GeForce products using GDDR6 memory will also see price increases,” says the site [machine translation].
These increases are likely to be a result of ongoing memory shortages, which continue to push prices for all types of memory products through the roof. BenchLife indicates that this change comes following a previous adjustment to the GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5090 D V2 kit cost in May.
As if this weren’t enough, BenchLife also says that, on top of these GPU kits, every other component making a graphics card, be it coolers, PCBs, or even packaging, is facing continuously rising costs. Everyone wants a piece of the cake.
Unfortunately, this increase won’t be limited to Blackwell graphics cards using GDDR7, as even the budget RTX 5050 could be impacted, despite using last-gen GDDR6 memory. Needless to say, if this is accurate, then GeForce graphics cards may become even more expensive, transforming MSRPs into a fading dream.
