Oh great, the latest rumours suggest Nvidia might stop bundling VRAM with its GPUs, because who cares about cheap graphics cards

MSI RTX 5090 Suprim in an open test bench — (Image credit: Future)

We all saw it coming, but it still doesn't feel great. It seems that the RAM shortage that has us all mourning the not-so-terrible prices of a few months ago might now also open the door to a GPU shortage, and small GPU vendors will be hit the hardest.

Reputable leaker Golden Pig Upgrade Pack on Weibo (via VideoCardz) claims Nvidia is planning to stop bundling VRAM with its GPU dies.

Nvidia always supplied both the GPU and the VRAM to its add-in card (AIC) partners... well, potentially up until now. This made it easier for GPU manufacturers to stay on spec, but also removed the need for them to source DRAM directly from memory giants like Micron or Samsung. So, Nvidia took care of the VRAM and the GPU die, and the AIC did whatever they wanted with the rest of it, customizing the graphics card before selling it.

A screenshot of Golden Pig Upgrade Pack post on Weibo, talking about Nvidia — (Image credit: Weibo)

The leaker says that this change will affect smaller AICs that don't have prior connections with memory makers, effectively forcing them out of the GPU market. It's easy to imagine that giants like MSI or Gigabyte will be able to manage sourcing their own VRAM, but what about brands like Inno3D or Gainward that maybe don't have the same production volume?

For us, the unfortunate customers at the end of that supply chain, the news could mean two things in the long run: higher prices or lower availability. Pick your poison, I suppose.

Another leaker responded to the initial post, claiming they received news that GPU prices would go up as a result of rising memory pricing. We've heard the same from retailers in the past few weeks, claiming that once the current stock runs dry they're going to have to increase prices as the cost they buy them at is going up. This is true regardless of whether Nvidia continues bundling the GPU with VRAM or not, but it might well make the situation even worse.

If GPU vendors have to fend for themselves and negotiate their own deals with memory makers, the added cost might make its way back to the consumers eventually.

So, is it time to panic-buy a new GPU?

Two RTX 5060 Ti graphics cards lined up next to an RTX 4060 Ti. — (Image credit: Future)

There's no need to raid the stores in search of GPUs before prices rise (although there are some Black Friday graphcs card deals, color me surprised). This is still just a rumour, and even if it turns out to be true, Nvidia and its partners won't suddenly raise the prices across all GPUs at every retailer right away.

What this does mean, though, is that in the long run, the prices may go back up again, and just as they were starting to become a bit less horrible. We can never catch a break, can we?

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Monica started her gaming journey playing Super Mario Bros on the SNES, but she quickly switched over to a PC and never looked back. These days, her gaming habits are all over the place, ranging from Pokémon and Spelunky 2 to World of Warcraft and Elden Ring. She built her first rig nearly two decades ago, and now, when she's not elbow-deep inside a PC case, she's probably getting paid to rant about the mess that is the GPU market. Outside of the endless battle between AMD and Nvidia, she writes about CPUs, gaming laptops, software, and peripherals. Her work has appeared in Digital Trends, TechRadar, Laptop Mag, SlashGear, Tom's Hardware, WePC, and more.

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