The global component shortage is apparently affecting Nvidia — one of the catalysts of this very crisis — just as hard as other manufacturers, with the consumer segment taking the hit. Memory and chip constraints are leading the company to think of interesting new products — a new RTX 5050 with 9GB of VRAM seems to be in the works, according to leaker @Zed__Wang.
New product: RTX5050 9GB GDDR7 96BitNV knows they can give you a 5050/5060 128-bit 12G with the new 3G GDDR7 dies. But no, you got a 5050 9G💀March 4, 2026
According to the tweet, this new RTX 5050 will adopt 28 Gbps GDDR7 memory chips in favor of the existing 20 Gbps GDDR6 modules. The VRAM capacity will be upped from 8GB to 9GB, but the bus width will be cut down from 128-bit to just 96-bit. The current spec translates to 320 GB/s of bandwidth, and the updated spec will result in 336 GB/s bandwidth, which is a 5% increase.
The leaker goes on to mention that Nvidia could build 12GB variants of the RTX 5050 and 5060 with 3GB GDDR7 chips, but perhaps the company isn't concerned with value maximization like that, especially not in these times. The last time a desktop GPU from Nvidia rocked a 96-bit interface was back in 2024 with the RTX 3050, so it's actually not too distant of a memory.
The rest of the specs should remain identical; the same GB207 die with 2,560 CUDA cores, built on TSMC's 5nm process, rated at 130W. Clock speed differences (if any) will become public knowledge as we near the potential release of this SKU. The RTX 5050 is one of the few GPUs that basically saw no price hikes in the past few months, only going up about $10. The only other card with the same stability was the RTX 5060.
RTX5060 GB205 incomingNV has jammed AIC with 5060Ti 8G, and later realized Oh shit, no GB206 for 5060. And here comes the solution: 5060 based on GB205. Poor AICs need to make a new 5060 PCB design to house the GB205. Basically making a 5070 PCB with an 8-pin connector.March 4, 2026
Speaking of which, @Zed__Wang also talked about a new RTX 5060 in the works with a cut-down version of the GB205 GPU — that's the silicon that powers the RTX 5070. Apparently, Nvidia has told AIBs to focus on the 8GB RTX 5060 Ti, which has led to a shortage of GB206 dies for RTX 5060 SKUs. Since both the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti use the GB206, the chipmaker is now forced to switch gears.
Defective GB205 dies might be repurposed to fit into new PCB designs for the RTX 5060 with an 8-pin power connector. Otherwise, the RTX 5070 has a 12V-2x6 connector and the GB205 die inside features 6,144 CUDA cores — those would be reduced to 3,840 CUDA cores for an RTX 5060. Moreover, the bus width on the GB205 is 192-bit and that would also go down, to 128-bit, in order to match an RTX 5060.
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