(Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)
Nvidia may be planning to launch two more versions of its entry-level RTX 50-series graphics cards with 9GB of VRAM to address memory shortages and rising graphics card prices.
As TechPowerUp reports, the two cards are Nvidia's RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti, which typically come with just 8GB of VRAM each. Raising them to 9GB gets around the existing problem with some games where 8GB locks gamers out of certain visual settings and resolutions, though it may lead to an overall reduction in memory bandwidth.
The latest rumors come from Hakuitado on the Board Channels forum, so they are far from official. However, they follow leaks in early March suggesting Nvidia was considering selling a version of its entry-level RTX 5050 graphics card with 9GB of VRAM for the same reasons.
To do this, Nvidia will reportedly take advantage of new 3GB GDDR7 chips, packing three of them onto each card to achieve the 9GB VRAM capacity. These are the same chips used in the RTX 5090 mobile configurations and were thought to form part of the now-probably-canceled RTX 50 Super range of refreshed Blackwell graphics cards.
A second leaker on Twitter/X claims that, as part of the capacity changeup, Nvidia may also adjust the memory bus width, which could result in weaker overall performance. It would involve moving RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti cards from a 128-bit to 96-bit memory bus with 24 Gbit memory chips, reducing overall memory bandwidth and memory performance. So even if these cards have greater capacity to handle higher-end settings, they may deliver worse overall performance and lower frame rates than their 8GB counterparts.
If true, this is a strange move from Nvidia. It's less of an issue on the RTX 5050, where the switch to newer, faster memory chips results in higher bandwidth even with the bus-width reduction. But on the 5060 and 5060 Ti, it might actually make the cards worse.
Both leakers claim that the new cards could be available by the end of May or early June, with a probable debut at Computex. Whether these cards do much to alleviate gamers' needs remains to be seen. Cards with more VRAM but worse performance at higher than their original launch prices aren't exactly attractive options, even if those available to gamers are rather limited.