NVIDIA Hits AIB Partners With Second 2026 GPU Kit Price Hike, GDDR6 Cards Now Hit Too
NVIDIA has told its board partners to brace for another round of price increases on GeForce GPU kits, and this time the pain isn’t limited to the flagship RTX 5090. According to Taiwanese hardware outlet BenchLife, whose report was independently confirmed by TechPowerUp, PC Gamer and several other outlets within 24 hours, the new pricing notice covers both current GDDR7-based Blackwell cards and older GeForce products still running on GDDR6 memory.
NVIDIA has reportedly informed its add-in card partners of higher prices for GPU kits supplied with graphics memory, with the adjustment covering GeForce products using both GDDR7 and GDDR6 memory, since board partners commonly purchase the GPU and VRAM together as a kit supplied through NVIDIA. That structure means any increase NVIDIA charges upstream inevitably lands on the AIB companies that build and sell the finished cards.
Second GPU Kit Hike of 2026, Now Reaching GDDR6 Cards
This isn’t NVIDIA’s first move of the year. BenchLife says the new notification follows an earlier price adjustment for the GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5090 D V2 in May. That first round was narrow, hitting only the flagship and its China-market variant.
The latest notice is broader. BenchLife’s translated account states that partners received official notification of kit price increases covering “GeForce products using GDDR6 memory” in addition to the GDDR7-based Blackwell lineup, a scope that extends to revived RTX 30-series cards including the RTX 3060 12GB, which made a surprise return to US retail shelves in July close to its original 2021 launch MSRP. That comeback pricing now looks unlikely to survive the new kit costs for long.
The report was picked up and corroborated fast. The report originated with BenchLife, a Taiwan-based hardware publication with documented supply-chain sourcing, and was independently confirmed by TechPowerUp alongside VideoCardz, PC Gamer, OC3D, and KitGuru within 24 hours. NVIDIA itself has made no public statement on the matter.
Why: GDDR7 Module Costs Have Tripled
The driver behind the increase is the same one that’s been squeezing the whole PC industry all year: a structural shortage of graphics memory as manufacturers redirect production toward AI-focused HBM and server DRAM instead of consumer-grade GDDR and DRAM chips.
The scarcity is most acute in the newest memory class. A 3GB GDDR7 chip currently costs between $60 and $70, compared with around $20 for a standard 2GB module — meaning the 3GB version can cost about three times as much despite providing 50% more capacity. That imbalance is reportedly why NVIDIA’s rumoured RTX 50 SUPER refresh, which would need the higher-density 3GB modules across several SKUs, remains stuck in limbo despite finished hardware already sitting with at least one board partner.
Street Prices Already Up 20-30% Before This Round
Even before this latest kit-price notice takes effect at retail, gamers have already been paying substantially more than launch MSRP for most RTX 50-series cards. GPU prices have already increased 20-30% above where they were not long ago, and this latest round of kit price increases suggests there’s more pressure to come. Previous-generation GDDR6 cards had largely been spared until now, but that protection is evaporating as NVIDIA extends the increase across older product lines.
NVIDIA isn’t the only GPU maker passing memory costs down the chain. AMD reportedly raised the GDDR memory kit prices it charges board partners by approximately 10% effective July 2026, its second such increase in roughly six months, with a further 10–15% increase across the Radeon lineup anticipated in the second half of 2026. Whichever brand gamers choose, the underlying memory shortage is squeezing margins on both sides of the market.
The Australian Retail Reality: RTX 5090 Already Past A$5,500
For local buyers, the trend isn’t theoretical. Ongoing price tracking of major Australian PC retailers by tech blogger Rost Glukhov shows the pattern playing out in real dollars well before this newest wave of kit price hikes even reaches shelves. RTX 5090 prices jumped 15.2% to an average of $5,566 in Australia by January 2026, up from $4,832 in November, with the pricehike accelerating month over month.
That climb reflects a card that carries an official US launch MSRP of $1,999 — meaning Australian buyers have already been paying multiples of the sticker price well before NVIDIA’s newest GDDR6 kit increase has had any chance to filter through distributor stock. With the memory shortage showing no signs of easing and AMD following a similar path on its own Radeon cards, there’s little reason to expect the trend to reverse for local PC builders and upgraders in the months ahead.
What Happens to the RTX 3060 12GB and Budget Buyers
Perhaps the clearest casualty of this broadened price notice is the entry-level tier that had, until now, remained relatively insulated from the crisis. The RTX 3060 12GB’s brief return to near-original pricing was seen by many builders as a rare bright spot in an otherwise bleak market — one that now appears to have an expiry date attached.
NVIDIA has not disclosed the exact size of the new increase, the affected model list, or an effective date, and neither the company nor its board partners have confirmed how much of the added cost will reach retail shelves. But with every recent link in the supply chain — from Samsung and Micron’s DRAM pricing to NVIDIA and AMD’s own kit costs — moving in the same upward direction, gamers shopping for a new graphics card this year are unlikely to catch a break any time soon.
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