Nvidia may have RTX 5000 Super GPUs ready, but costly 3GB GDDR7 is holding them back
Rumor mill: The RTX 5000 series is real – according to reports, an Nvidia board partner already has one of the cards in its possession. However, a familiar problem is preventing them from being released, one that will come as no surprise to anyone.
The latest RTX 5000 Super story, which comes from VideoCardz, claims that Nvidia has told the board partner holding onto the card that it can’t be released yet because of the price of 3GB GDDR7 memory components.
The publication’s sources say that a 3GB GDDR7 chip currently costs between $60 and $70, while a standard 2GB GDDR7 chip is just $20. Paying over three times more for a 50% memory boost is going to skyrocket the cards’ BOM cost.
At a time when components already cost a fortune as AI hyperscalers snap up all the DRAM and NAND manufacturing capacity, releasing RTX 5000 Super cards with comically high price tags isn’t going to prove popular.
Another issue is that since 2025, Nvidia has left it to board partners to source their own memory chips. If these companies are told by Nvidia that they have to sell the Super series at or close to MSRP, they’re likely not to make any cards at all, rather than take a huge loss on each one sold.
Using 3GB GDDR7 memory chips allows Nvidia to push up the cards’ memory capacity without changing the number of memory modules or altering the memory bus. But their high price is proving to be an issue.
Three RTX 5000 Super models are reportedly in the works: the GeForce RTX 5080 Super, RTX 5070 Ti Super and RTX 5070 Super. This aligns with previous rumors, which included some of those cards’ alleged specs.
| RTX 5080 | RTX 5080 Super | RTX 5070 Ti | RTX 5070 Ti Super | RTX 5070 | RTX 5070 Super | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Die | GB203 | GB205 | ||||
| CUDA Cores | 10,752 | 8,960 | 6,144 | 6,400 | ||
| Memory Capacity | 16 GB | 24 GB | 16 GB | 24 GB | 12 GB | 18 GB |
| Memory Speed | 30 Gbps | 32 Gbps | 28 Gbps | |||
| Bus Type | 256-bit | 192-bit | ||||
| Total Board Power | 360W | 415W | 300W | 350W | 250W | 275W |
Nvidia is also said to have an RTX 5050 9GB ready that uses the 3GB GDDR7 models. Like the Super series, its release date still hasn’t been decided because of the chips’ prohibitive price.
If Nvidia really is waiting for memory prices to drop before releasing the cards, it could be a while before we see them. SK Hynix predicts that 2027 will be the worst year ever for the industry from a supply perspective, and that demand will continue to outpace supply even beyond 2030.
This is the latest piece of RTX 5000 Super news we’ve heard recently. The RTX 5080 Super just appeared in Seasonic’s PSU calculator, joining the RTX 5070 Super and RTX 5070 Ti Super, which were added in September.
Renowned leaker MEGAsizeGPU, who has a good track record when it comes to Nvidia rumors, said last month that the RTX 5000 Super series could be released this year, but that’s looking increasingly less likely.
