Nvidia RTX 5000 GPU shortage worsens due to RAM crisis, PC gamers in despair

The new year 2026 seems to have kicked off on a sad note for gaming freaks as the shortage of Nvidia RTX 5000 GPUs is gaining pace owing to the ongoing RAM crisis.

The memory crisis, partially caused by price hikes amid the AI boom, is taking a heavy toll on the PC hardware market. Furthering this unfortunate happening is the development that the repercussions for GPUs are expected to worsen in the near future.

Notebookcheck noted in one of its reports that a German seller (Gb2753 on Reddit) has indicated significant supply issues for Nvidia's RTX 5000 series GPUs, particularly the RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080, and the flagship RTX 5090.

In an email shared by the seller, their supplier confirmed that none of these Nvidia GPUs are currently available for order. Although the RTX 5070 is an exception, orders are limited to five units per model.

This scarcity is said to be linked to the dearth of GDDR7 VRAM, which is essential for Nvidia's RTX 5000 GPUs. A considerable portion of this video memory has been heavily directed towards AI products used in data centres.

While this claim may be tentative, since it is coming from a single source, it might be an indication of potential stock issues for consumers in the near future. As of now, there is still a reasonable amount of stock for most RTX 5000 series GPUs, but that could change rapidly.

That being the case, GPU prices are skyrocketing dramatically, an example of which is that the Asus Prime GeForce RTX 5080 is priced at $1,599 at Best Buy, way above the retail price of $999.

Similarly, the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 has surged from $3,610 to $4,209, inching closer to the rumoured $5,000 mark for Nvidia's flagship GPU. 

With prices inflating, PC gamers are going to be more likely to hesitate in investing in these GPUs, given that the price hikes are not appearing to slow down anytime soon.