PLATES are disappearing? – Adrenaline

If you were planning to build a high-performance gaming PC in 2026, news coming from behind the scenes in the hardware industry may require a change of plans.

The scenario we predicted at the end of last year began to materialize: video cards are starting to disappear from the shelves, and the reason has a well-known name: Artificial Intelligence.

In this post, we will detail why popular models are being discontinued and how the dispute for components between gamers and data centers is changing the market.

The early end of the RTX 5070 Ti?

One of the strongest rumors recently confirmed by representatives of manufacturers like ASUS is that the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti has entered EOL state (End of Life). This means that the product is being discontinued not because of a lack of public interest, but because of a critical shortage of chips and components.

ASUS denied the rumors and NVIDIA assured that it will continue to supply SKUs to all manufacturers.

“Demand for GeForce RTX GPUs is high and memory supply is limited. We continue to ship all GeForce SKUs and are working closely with our suppliers to maximize memory availability,” highlights André Forte, NVIDIA Public Relations Manager for Latin America.

Why was the RTX 5070 Ti the “victim” chosen?

The explanation lies in the amount of memory. The RTX 5070 Ti is equipped with 16GB of VRAMthe same capacity as the RTX 5080. In a scenario where GDDR7 memory is expensive and scarce, Nvidia prefers to prioritize the production of the RTX 5080, which offers higher profit margins.

Furthermore, the 5070 Ti is seen by many experts as one of the least interesting models in the current lineup, as it did not deliver such a significant leap in performance compared to its direct predecessor or the competition.

Gamers vs. data centers: the war for memory

The big villain in this story is the boom in Artificial Intelligence. The same graphics chips and large amounts of memory needed to run modern games are fought over by Data center PCs that accelerate AI.

It is estimated that Nvidia is shipping to graphics card manufacturers only half the availability of components compared to the same period of the previous year. Another model that must suffer from this pressure is the RTX 5060 Ti 16GBprecisely due to the high cost and demand for memory.

AMD: an opportunity or a risk?

With the departure of NVIDIA models from the scene, AMD RX 9070 XT appears as a strong recommendation. Currently, it is possible to find this card at significantly lower prices (reaching a difference of R$2,500 compared to the RTX 5070 Ti in Brazil), delivering similar performance, including in Ray Tracing.

However, there is a concern: without direct competition from Nvidia in this segment, AMD may be tempted to increase your prices to improve your profit marginslosing the chance to gain a larger share of the market.

Despite the worrying scenario, there is an unexpected positive point. As the evolution of video memory is being “braked” by shortages, the installed base of cards with 8 GB of VRAM should remain for longer.

This forces game developers to better optimize releases so that they run well at 8 GB and prevent older cards from becoming obsolete quickly due to lack of memory.

Nvidia itself has been working on its drivers and technologies like DLSS to reduce memory consumption, trying to extend the longevity of these products.

What should the gamer do?

The time is for caution. With the CES 2026 Focusing less on consumer electronics and more on AI infrastructure, the long-awaited “refreshes” of boards (such as a possible Super line) did not appear.

If you find a good deal on cards like the RX 9070 XT or even 50 series models that are still in stock, it might be time to make sure you upgrade before availability drops even further.

What do you think of this prioritization of AI over games? Leave your opinion in the comments!