NVIDIA will not be launching a new GPU lineup this year, while the GeForce RTX 6000 series is expected to arrive sometime in 2028, according to a new report.
According to a report by The Information (via Install Base forum member Godzilla), NVIDIA won’t be launching a new GPU lineup this year, the first such pause in the company’s three-decade history. The information comes from two people with direct knowledge of the situation, who mentioned that the GPU manufacturer has decided against releasing a new consumer graphics card lineup in 2026 due to a deepening global shortage of memory chips, largely driven by the ongoing AI boom.
While consumer GPUs and AI accelerators use different types of memory, they rely on the same raw materials and are produced by the same small group of suppliers i.e. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology. With demand for AI hardware exploding, these suppliers are struggling to keep up, and expanding capacity is not something that can be done quickly, as building new fabrication plants can take years.
Faced with limited memory supply, NVIDIA is reportedly prioritizing its far more lucrative AI business. The company is said to be diverting available memory chips toward its AI accelerators, which deliver much higher operating margins than consumer GPUs. As a result, it has reportedly begun cutting production of its current GeForce RTX 5000 series, contributing to ongoing shortages and rising retail prices. Acknowledging the situation, the GPU manufacturer stated that demand for GeForce RTX GPUs remains strong but memory supply is constrained, and that it is working closely with suppliers to maximize availability.
The GPU manufacturer had originally planned an incremental update to the GeForce RTX 5000 lineup this year in 2026, internally code-named “Kicker,” but that plan was reportedly shelved in December without a new timeline. This postponement is expected to push back the GeForce RTX 6000 series to 2028, based on the upcoming NVIDIA Rubin architecture, previously slated for mass production toward the end of 2027.
