If you’ve been holding off on a GPU upgrade in hopes of a “Super” refresh, I’ve got some news that’s going to sting. It’s been a rough week for the PC community—first, we had a quiet CES 2026 with zero new gaming cards, and now a bombshell report from The Information has revealed why: Nvidia isn’t planning to launch any new GPUs in 2026.
This isn’t just a small delay; it’s a historic shift. For the first time in three decades, the “Green Team” is taking a full gap year from gaming hardware.
The “RAMmageddon” Reality Check
The culprit behind this dry spell is something the industry is calling the global memory shortage.
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Prioritizing AI: Nvidia has reportedly finished the designs for the RTX 5080 Super and 5070 Super lineups, but they’ve decided to “deprioritize” them.
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High-Margin Strategy: Simply put, the GDDR7 memory needed for your next gaming card is worth way more to Nvidia when it’s tucked inside an AI accelerator for a data center.
The Leaked Specs: What We’re Missing
Before the “cancelation” rumors took over, we actually saw some pretty beefy specs for the Super refresh. If these ever see the light of day, they’ll be massive upgrades:
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RTX 5080 Super: Rumored to jump to 24GB of GDDR7 (up from 16GB) with a 415W power limit.
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RTX 5070 Ti Super: Also tipped for 24GB of GDDR7, making it a 1440p beast.
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RTX 5070 Super: The only one rumored to get more cores (6,400 CUDA cores) and 18GB of VRAM.
Why it matters: These aren’t just minor speed bumps. That extra VRAM is exactly what we need for 2026’s triple-A titles. By shelving these, Nvidia is effectively telling us that the “regular” 50-series is going to have to last a lot longer.
The RTX 60 Series: Pushed to 2028?
This is where the news goes from bad to worse. The next-gen RTX 60 series (codenamed “Rubin”) was originally supposed to hit mass production in late 2027.
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Timeline Slip: Because of the supply chain chaos, sources now say mass production won’t even begin until 2028.
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Supply Cuts: To make matters worse, Nvidia is reportedly slashing current GPU supply by 20% to conserve memory.
The “Zombie” GPU Strategy
I noticed an interesting detail in the reports: Jensen Huang might try to “resurrect” older GPUs.
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The Return of 3060?: Expect to see more stock of older, lower-VRAM cards (like the 8GB variants) because they use older memory chips that aren’t in as much demand for AI.
This is a tough pill to swallow for us gamers. It feels like we’re no longer the “main character” in Nvidia’s story—we’re competing with multi-billion dollar AI contracts for the same silicon.
Are you going to bite the bullet and buy a current RTX 50-series card now, or are you going to switch over to Team Red (AMD) to see if they can fill the gap? Keep an eye on the market, because with supply being slashed, prices for existing cards are likely headed up.
