(Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)
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Nvidia is telling its board partners to prioritize the 16GB version of its RTX 5060 Ti graphics card, a shift in tone that suggests it has come to realize that gamers don't want 8GB VRAM graphics cards that will hamstring performance or even lock them out of new game experiences. This is long overdue, as shortly after the launch of both versions of the 5060 Ti, it became clear that the 16GB model was vastly outselling the 8GB version.
When the 5060 Ti debuted in April this year, we thought the 16GB version was a pretty decent midrange graphics card. It had the kind of performance you needed to play most modern games at 1080p or 1440p, and could even dabble in ray tracing in some games, at least partially thanks to its decent memory capacity. Although we didn't test the 8GB version, those who did found it to be a significantly poorer performer across the board, and in some cases, its capabilities fell off a cliff once the VRAM was saturated.
Gamers quickly cottoned on, and sales of the 8GB 5060 Ti were poor, although that did help it avoid some of the pricing spikes that were emblematic of the RTX 50-series.
However, perhaps this will be the last generation where Nvidia equips some of its most important, affordable GPUs with just 8GB. In a thread on BoardChannels (via TechPowerUp), a poster cites several sources indicating that Nvidia has implemented strict supply controls for the 8GB version of the 5060 Ti. This is reportedly a deliberate restriction and not caused by production shortages.
(Credit: PCMag)It's now requiring all board partners to limit over-stocking and will manage the supply of new 8GB GPUs based on market sales, rather than simply allowing them to purchase more for any other reason. To prevent these partners from underpricing cards to sell more of them, Nvidia is also implementing pricing controls for the 8GB 5060 Ti.
This reportedly follows an in-depth analysis from Nvidia that suggests not only is the 8GB version selling poorly, but that gamers now associate 8GB of VRAM with being outdated and underpowered for the modern gaming experience. This latest move is said to be part of an overall strategy to make the 16GB version of the 5060 Ti the "mainstream" one.
That gives us a little extra hope that the days of 8GB GPUs outside of the very entry-level models might be behind us.
Looking for a new GPU right now? Here are the best graphics cards out there in 2025 (all with more than 8GB of VRAM).