• Nvidia's RTX 5080 Super was rumored for January 2027, but fresh gossip suggests it's delayed
• Meanwhile, a new report on GPU prices observes a hefty price jump month-on-month
• Even lower-end GPUs are getting more costly at a faster pace, and the high-end is a nightmare — with no RTX 5080 Super riding to the rescue, it seems

Nvidia's RTX 5080 Super has been strongly rumored of late, but there's now been a cloud of doubt cast over this potential addition to the Blackwell range — just as we've got more evidence of how dire the situation with GPU price hikes has recently become.

VideoCardz spotted the latest from the rumor mill on the RTX 5080 Super, a graphics card that supposedly packs 24GB of video RAM, with Taiwanese tech site Benchlife reporting that Nvidia has delayed the GPU (assuming it's a real product in the first place, of course).

We were told via other rumor peddlers that the 24GB spin on the RTX 5080 is theoretically planned for a January 2027 launch, but Benchlife asserts that the release date "remains unclear" and that Nvidia's board manufacturing partners have yet to receive any design details for the new model.

Given that, according to Benchlife, the "probability is extremely high" that the RTX 5080 Super won't debut in January, considering that board makers were expecting to receive the mentioned design info back in October.

This pushes the rumored GPU back at least a month, very probably more, and the idea of that is hardly surprising given the ongoing RAM crisis, which has been getting worse as 2026 rolls on.

That affects video RAM, and it's the main driver of price spikes with graphics cards, which are starting to get out of hand, as evidenced by TechSpot's latest monthly report highlighting the current cost of GPUs across various regions.

What TechSpot's monitoring data for October 2026 shows is that, as we already knew, high-end pricing has gone even further off the rails. The RTX 5080 is up 39% in the US and 40% in Germany month-on-month, for example, which is ludicrous, frankly — in the US it's now 120% over the MSRP at $2,200. The UK has seen an 8% hike over the past month, with this GPU now 40% over its MSRP in the country. Globally, it's 77% over Nvidia's recommended price on average.

The RTX 5090 is even sillier, as we've seen for some time now, and stands at $9,400 in the US in October, some 370% over the already very expensive MSRP. If you can find the Blackwell flagship at all, that is.

What's really worrying is that TechSpot's data shows lower-tier GPUs are now seeing some major price bumps. Want a humble RTX 5050 in the US? It's gone up 35% over the past month (an increase of over $100), so you'll now pay 68% over the MSRP.

The RTX 5060 is creeping up in price in some European countries, too — it's up 7% in the UK and 13% in Germany. The RTX 5060 Ti 8GB has gone up more, with this GPU getting hiked by 10% in the UK, so it's now £440 compared to £350 back at the start of 2026. The 5060 Ti 8GB went up 6% in the US, too, so it's now 40% over the MSRP in total.

There are hikes across the board for Nvidia, and AMD's Radeon GPUs are getting more expensive at an even faster rate currently. Again, lower-end graphics cards are suffering, such as RX 9060 XT models being up 10% on average month-on-month. The RX 9070 XT is also up 10% in the US since last month, and the increase in Canada has been a sickening 30% — in just one month.

Analysis: a deteriorating situation for GPUs

What does all this tell us? That spiralling graphics card prices are very real, with some huge ongoing hikes for higher-end models — but this isn't just a top-end GPU problem any longer. The real concern is that lower-tier boards are also seeing more price inflation, and I don't think this is a problem that's going away.

Indeed, based on the weighty amount of chatter about the memory crisis continuing to get worse in this final quarter of 2026 and into next year, there's every reason to believe that GPU prices could keep going up. That's why I've been advising PC owners thinking of a GPU upgrade to treat Black Friday as a prime (pun not intended) opportunity to get in and buy a graphics card before any more hikes.

With the RTX 5090 reportedly effectively discontinued — something Nvidia strenuously denies, but the stock situation speaks for itself in countries like the US — and the RTX 5080 pricing itself well out of the range of the vast majority of consumers, those who were anticipating the RTX 5080 Super to ride to the rescue have suffered a fresh blow here, too.

I never thought that was a realistic proposition anyway, mind, but still, it's clear enough that the GPU market is in trouble, and Nvidia seemingly doesn't have any answers in the short term for the upper echelons of its Blackwell range. As noted, though, the real worry is that there's more pain coming to the more affordable end of the graphics card spectrum, where mainstream buyers make their purchases.

• John Ternus has warned that: "What we're seeing with memory pricing right now is unprecedented."
• The Apple CEO cautioned that RAM costs are going to climb higher in this final quarter of 2026
• It sounds even bleaker than Apple's previous statements on the RAM crisis, and follows many other warnings that 2027 is set to be a miserable year price-wise

Apple is warning of an 'unprecedented' rise in the cost of RAM, adding to the cacophony of alarm bells that have been ringing about the price of memory chips (and other PC components besides) recently.

The Guardian reports that in a conference call following Apple's fiscal Q3 results — which were better than analysts expected, driven by the iPhone, Mac mini and sales in China — Apple's new CEO John Ternus touched on the subject of the RAM crisis.

Ternus, who recently took the reins from Tim Cook, cautioned bleakly that: "What we're seeing with memory pricing right now is unprecedented."

He then observed that memory costs would climb even higher in the final quarter of 2026 compared to the rest of the year, during which, as you've doubtless seen, we've already witnessed a steep climb in pricing.

Despite its financial results outperforming analyst forecasts, Apple informed investors that these higher memory costs are going to erode some of its profit margins, which meant the company's stock dropped.

Apple raised the prices of Macs earlier this year, as well as iPads and more recently iPhones, and Ternus acknowledged that this had "provided some offset" for Apple in terms of the ongoing cost crisis around components.

Analysis: Ternus takes a turn for the sterner

It's an ominous utterance from Ternus, and sounds more severe than the warning Apple issued back before the Mac (and other) price hikes happened in June 2026. Back then, when Cook was still chief executive, he warned about "significantly higher memory costs" that would "drive an increasing impact" on Apple's products, which, as noted, came to pass.

Now we're hearing the word "unprecedented", which sounds a lot more concerning than "significant"; although in fairness, this is referencing what's already happened this year as much as what's to come. But we're clearly being primed for more price-hike misery by Ternus here, and it's difficult to see how this won't have a further impact on Macs, iPhones and iPads, if not in this quarter, then in 2027.

We don't, of course, know to what extent profits might be eroded by more expensive memory chips, or how this might be balanced by consumers having to foot that bill. Only time will tell on that score.

Mac mini sales were mentioned in the report — which quoted Ben Barringer, the head of technology research at investment management firm Quilter Cheviot — as being responsible for part of Apple's boosted earnings for the most recent quarter, and that's down to the increasing demand for local AI.

The Mac Studio is major part of that picture, too, and this particular PC just popped up as an example of how ridiculous RAM pricing has just become at the very top end of the Apple product tree. If you want a Mac Studio with 512GB of RAM, you'll now pay more than double the cost of a Mac Studio that has 256GB of memory, meaning that it's cheaper to buy two of the latter computers (while getting two CPUs/GPUs in the process).

It's a bizarre situation, but this is what we've arrived at with memory upgrades, which were always seriously pricey with Apple, even before the RAM crisis kicked off (that goes for storage, too).

And this situation is only going to get worse, seemingly, according to Ternus, which is also, of course, the view of the wider industry and various analysts. I can't begin to count the warnings we've had in the past couple of months about the RAM crisis becoming even more dire, so at this point it's just a question of how much worse things might get.

I fear that some categories of tech and PC components are going to become increasingly unaffordable next year, and I recently wrote about why Black Friday could be a good time to move on certain purchases.

• SK Hynix just published its Q3 2026 financial results
• These came with a prediction of the RAM crisis lasting until 2030
• After that, expect a further drain on memory supply from "physical AI such as autonomous driving and robotics"

Apologies for bringing you more negative news about the RAM crisis, but we've heard yet another prediction that supply woes are going to last for the rest of this decade.

This time it's SK Hynix (again) weighing in, a memory chip maker that has just issued its latest earnings report, as Wccftech noticed. Profits are booming, unsurprisingly, but SK Hynix also shared its most recent thinking on the RAM crisis, and how likely it is to be a protracted affair.

In the press release for its Q3 2026 results, SK Hynix announced succinctly: "Memory supply shortage to persist through 2030."

That was the title of a section briefing us on the memory shortage, where SK Hynix further observed: "The company assessed that supply … is not keeping pace with the growth of the market. Given technical difficulty of leading-edge processes and the long lead time required to build new production facilities, it expects the structure in which demand exceeds supply to persist through 2030."

The firm also predicted it will sustain its growth and revenue, which exceeded 100 trillion won in Q3 — the first time that's ever happened in a quarter by the way — thanks to enterprise and AI demand in the shorter-term, and "over the mid-to-long term, demand for physical AI such as autonomous driving and robotics."

Analysis: a 'virtuous cycle' for shareholders – a nightmare for consumers

It's interesting to note that SK Hynix is forecasting that longer-term demand for memory will be driven by robots or 'physical AI' even if software AI (agents) falls away somewhat as the decade rolls to a close. Micron is predicting the exact same thing, and recently went into even more precise detail in estimating that 'humanoid robots' could need 200GB (or more) of RAM and multiple terabytes of storage in every unit.

So there's similar thinking from the big memory module makers here, but we shouldn't be surprised by that. They need to talk up their future profits, after all, and reassure markets that we aren't in a bubble, so it's only natural that they'd want to make predictions of major future revenue sources to be tapped.

Still, there's clearly some substance to these predictions, and it's concerning for consumers that a growing number of analysts and big players in the tech industry are talking about the RAM crisis lasting until 2030, and that robots are apparently set to take the baton from AI data centers and push demand for more memory as we head into the next decade.

We can but hope that Micron and SK Hynix are overshooting with their expectations of the hungry robots eating all our RAM in a few years' time, although how that land lies will depend on how widely robots are adopted, as well as how much memory they'll need.

Meanwhile, SK Hynix asserts that the "virtuous cycle" which has resulted from AI-powered productivity gains driving increased investment in infrastructure (data centers) will continue, and moreover "broaden to include general enterprises and nation-level initiatives", the upshot being that the "global AI data center infrastructure market will continue to grow steadily."

I don't think many PC owners or gamers feel that the way things have gone with memory of late is all that 'virtuous' at all, but the shareholders of SK Hynix and other big chip makers certainly won't be complaining. They can probably afford themselves a very nice PC even in the current super-inflated component climate, after all.

• XMG warns that 'substantial price increases for upcoming GPU shipments' mean it's hiking RTX 5090 laptop prices
• One model is already pricier and bigger hikes for XMG's other notebooks could be coming soon
• At the same time, we're hearing more about the struggles of Nvidia's partners for supply of components for the desktop RTX 5090

The position of Nvidia's RTX 5090 is looking shakier by the day, as even more chatter is emerging suggesting that this GPU is effectively sidelined at this point, even if it hasn't actually been discontinued.

You may have read up on those recent rumors claiming that Nvidia has discontinued the RTX 5090 — which is speculation that Team Green has firmly denied, I should make clear.

The fresh negative news from the grapevine comes firstly from laptop maker XMG on Reddit, which is sharing more bad news on the RAM crisis affecting its prices, specifically with the RTX 5090.

XMG says: "We expect laptops with the RTX 5090 to become significantly more expensive again over the coming weeks." (We already saw price hikes from XMG last month, if you recall).

The company explains why: "Procurement conditions for the RTX 5090 Laptop GPU have deteriorated considerably within a short period. We have received new information indicating substantial price increases for upcoming GPU shipments.

"At the same time, availability is becoming increasingly constrained. Replenishment orders that have already been planned or, in some cases, even confirmed are being significantly reduced in quantity."

XMG notes that beyond these existing orders, it is "currently difficult to make reliable predictions about future supply volumes and delivery dates."

The laptop maker also tells us that "other laptop GPUs are also facing supply constraints", but that the "combination of massive price increases and extremely limited supply" is "particularly pronounced" with the RTX 5090.

That doesn't sound very comforting, does it? The immediate result is that the Schenker Key 18 Pro laptop (Schenker is XMG's parent company) with the RTX 5090 has increased in price by €250 (around $280 / £210 / AU$400) as of today, and the XMG NEO laptops with the RTX 5090 will see at least a similar price increase — although we're warned that the "increase could be even higher" for those notebooks depending on how the situation develops. Nasty.

The second shot of negativity here is from overclocker Der8auer in Germany, who as Wccftech reports, has heard from one of Nvidia's board making partners.

Add seasoning as appropriate here, but the unnamed graphics-card maker claims that while it hasn't been informed that the RTX 5090 is discontinued — Nvidia Germany also told Der8auer this (backing up other statements to this effect from Team Green) — it cannot currently purchase the GB203 chip plus VRAM package (32GB of GDDR7 video RAM) to make the RTX 5090 laptop card.

The more worrying part is that the board maker says that this kind of component shortage has happened before, but it has always been able to place a backorder to be fulfilled later. However, right now it's not even possible to obtain a backorder from Nvidia.

A maker of coolers for the RTX 5090 further observes that it has witnessed reduced orders from board makers, and it doesn't have any orders at all for heatsinks for Nvidia's flagship GPU for Q2 2027 at this point. That obviously suggests that the production quantities for the RTX 5090 are looking even shakier for the future.

Analysis: bleak times

At some point, the accumulation of rumors begins to reach a kind of critical mass where it seems very unlikely that they're all off base, and that in all likelihood, something really is going on.

We appear to be arriving at this point with the RTX 5090 rumors, in my opinion. There are too many of them, and the indications at the retail level — vanishing stock, and ever-increasing RTX 5090 prices, which have become truly ridiculous — also back up the grapevine here.

What's worrying is the further gloom from the likes of a cooler manufacturer, and the fact that the RTX 5090 laptop GPU is also involved. Remember that this doesn't use the GB202 chip seen in the desktop RTX 5090, but Nvidia's GB203 silicon; however, the supply problem lies in getting the video RAM (3GB GDDR7 modules, which are now thinner on the ground and far pricier than the 2GB modules used in the RTX 5080 laptop graphics card).

So, while the RTX 5090 may not be discontinued, it would appear that supplies are getting so low for this GPU — on both desktop and laptop fronts — that while technically it's still in production, the quantities are dipping to such an extent that the flagship is effectively being pushed aside.

All in all, it feels like an especially bleak time for higher-end Nvidia graphics cards, and the fear is that the situation may worsen from here.

Certainly when we look at the predictions for the RAM crisis next year, they're universally pessimistic, and there's a greater level of belief these days that memory supply woes could last for the rest of this decade. Of course, VRAM is bound up in that, as well as AI demand for GPU chips, and all this could affect the launch timeframe of Nvidia's next-gen GeForce graphics cards, too.

• A new report claims that Amazon is buying up more AI GPU racks than it can deploy in data centers
• An analyst links this report to Nvidia's GeForce GPU supply woes, theorizing that there's a connection
• The contention is that Nvidia is deliberately 'channel stuffing' or in other words, pushing an excess of AI GPUs to the detriment of gaming GPU chips

Nvidia's supply issues with its gaming GPUs are seemingly the result of a strategy to get AI giants to stock up on more graphics chips than they can handle, if fresh reports are to be believed.

You can't have failed to notice the stock issues around Nvidia's GeForce GPUs, and the spike in prices that has happened over the past few months, particularly for higher-end graphics cards.

Well, according to the musings of tech pundit and analyst Ed Zitron (via RespawnFirst) — who picked up on a report by Business Insider — the consumer GPU shortage is a direct result of Nvidia pushing AI graphics cards on the likes of Amazon.

Business Insider informs us that Amazon (or rather AWS) is buying more Nvidia GPUs than it can deploy. Apparently, racks of the AI graphics cards are being kept unused in holding warehouses until there's power available at the data centers where they'll be used (electricity capacity, not space, is the issue here).

Amazon is paying out huge sums for these GB300 racks from Nvidia, and according to an internal email that Business Insider got hold of, a new 'Early Rack Receipt' process (buying these GPUs upfront, before they're installed) saw some $5 billion worth of server racks paid for in August 2026. Seemingly $3 billion more are on order every month for the "foreseeable future" going by another email.

We're told one AWS team didn't have a "clear forecasted path" for getting the purchased racks installed — in other words, they're not even sure when these GPUs might be used.

Zitron's argument is based on a key phrase in the Business Insider report, where the author states that the reason for the switch in policy — Amazon only used to pay for racks when they were installed in a data center — is that "Amazon has to compete more for scarce resources as it jockeys with rivals for access to Nvidia GPUs and other AI components."

The conclusion Zitron draws is that this is basically indicating that Nvidia is making Amazon, and others buying up AI GPUs, compete with each other by agreeing to order a whole pile of them there and then — more than they possibly need — otherwise they won't get their allocation (presumably).

Analysis: GPU misery is clear enough to see

In short, these AI GPUs aren't actually needed as such — not by Amazon in this quantity, as per the Business Insider report — but Nvidia is effectively strong-arming the company into buying the chips, or as Zitron puts it, this is "deliberate channel stuffing." Meaning Nvidia is forcing this AI demand artificially to the seeming detriment of GeForce GPUs, with lesser chip supply for those gaming cards causing price inflation and general misery for gamers.

Obviously we need to take this with a good deal of caution — that goes for the initial report from Business Insider, and doubly so with the theorizing that Zitron applies on top of that article.

There's no denying, however, that we have witnessed a frustrating shortage of consumer GPUs, and in particular Nvidia's high-end gaming graphics cards have become painfully thin on the ground — and pricey. The RTX 5090 is either unobtainable, save through third-party marketplace sellers trying to gouge you out of the best part of 10 grand (in the US), or it's hideously expensive to the tune of over £6,000 in the UK, for example.

What's worse is the RTX 5080 is now getting ridiculously pricey too, reaching £1,400 in the UK. And in the US on Newegg, there's now only one model for sale (direct from the retailer) — and it'll set you back $2,000. It's all getting silly, frankly, and with rumors that the RTX 5090 is being discontinued doing the rounds — speculation Nvidia has denied, I should make clear — it's currently a disappointingly gloomy picture for GPUs.

The expectation is that matters are only going to get worse for RAM, SSDs, and GPUs, as next year rolls into town — and that makes all the above theorizing seem a bit more plausible. It's certainly clear that Nvidia's priority is AI GPUs rather than GeForce graphics cards because of the profits involved with AI, but of course, Team Green is a business — so what do we expect? Prioritization is one thing, though, and the levelled accusation of the practice of 'channel stuffing' is entirely another.

• Nvidia's RTX 6060 may not arrive until 2029 a leaker claims
• They note that when there are supply issues (the current RAM shortage), Nvidia tends to drag out the release of lower-end GPUs
• They also believe it's unlikely the RTX 6060 will match the PS6 for frame rates

Nvidia's budget GPU for its next-gen range may not be released for three years yet, if a new rumor about the RTX 6060 turns out to be correct.

Wccftech spotted a post from leaker Kepler on the NeoGAF forums, who chipped in with speculation on Nvidia's graphics cards in a thread about the cost of the PlayStation 6.

Kepler was responding to a comment observing that the PS6 is going to go up against the RTX 6060 when it launches in terms of comparisons to PC gaming, and the leaker said — add seasoning with this as ever — that the "6060 will launch much later (and based on recent trends I doubt it will match PS6)".

In a further post, the leaker added: "When there's a supply shortage Nvidia tends to really drag the release of lower end cards. There's a good chance RTX 6060 comes out in 2029."

This would mean we're looking at an early-to-mid 2028 launch for the RTX 6090, 6080 and 6070, which lines up with more recent rumors. Of course, that's not a foregone conclusion, and Kepler is clearly speculating here.

Recent reports from analysts indicate that the PS6 will likely launch in 2028, though some have argued that Sony's next-gen console could appear late in 2027 (alongside other devices, perhaps).

Analysis: late, as well as short on performance?

Of course, what Kepler contends here is what Nvidia is supposedly planning right now, and just as with the PS6, a lot of the direction that Team Green goes in with its next-gen GPUs will depend on the memory crisis. Graphics cards do, of course, use video RAM (VRAM), and the next generation of GeForce products will be expected to up the ante on that score. (Gamers are already unhappy with Nvidia's current-gen VRAM configurations).

The problem is that there's no shortage of predictions that RAM cost inflation is going to get even worse in 2027, after it has already spiked in a big way through the middle of this year. The theorizing then runs that 2028 is also going to be a difficult year, which lends weight to the argument that the RTX 6060 will indeed be late to the GPU party.

In short, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a 2029 arrival for the RTX 6060 as suggested, which obviously isn't great news for those hoping to score a more wallet-friendly next-gen Nvidia GPU.

It's also interesting to note that Kepler believes the RTX 6060 won't be as powerful as the PS6 for gaming frame rates, but I'd take that claim with even more salt than the rumors around timing.

Gauging hardware capabilities at this stage is obviously a trickier task, but Kepler's assertion isn't an impossibility of course. Note that the current RTX 5060 matches the PS5 Pro's gaming performance (roughly, for rasterization as opposed to ray tracing), so if the RTX 6060 couldn't equal the PS6, that would be a clear disappointment for PC gamers on a budget (particularly if the VRAM loadout again turns out lean).

• Chinese chipmaker CXMT is predicted to be ramping up RAM production
• It could double memory production by 2028, we're told
• This extra RAM is likely to service the domestic market, though, and meanwhile, Dell's CEO is warning that the memory crisis is likely to persist to 2030

A major Chinese chipmaker has plans to expand its DRAM production in a big way over the next couple of years, but this won't be a silver bullet for wider RAM problems, and Dell's CEO is warning on the memory crisis getting worse, too.

First, the news on the Chinese company CXMT, which was flagged by P Equity Research on X (via Wccftech) in a post that highlights forecasts from Counterpoint Research and TrendForce.

According to those research firms, CXMT is set to expand its DRAM wafer production from around 320,000 units this year, to 420,000 units over the course of 2027.

That translates to a growth of just over 30% in a year, and the further prediction is that in 2028, production capacity might hit 500,000 to 600,000, so given that most optimistic scenario, it would nearly double compared to this year.

There's some excitement on that point because while others are focusing on HBM, or high-end RAM for the AI industry, this is an expansion of traditional RAM production, meaning the kind that'll go in a PC as opposed to a data center server.

However, before we start mulling the prospect of RAM supply being shored up to some extent, there are obvious caveats to consider here – including a new warning from Dell's CEO as mentioned at the outset.

Analysis: domestic relief – and more pessimism from Dell

The problem with CXMT is that even if the predicted near-doubling of RAM production does happen in 2028 as these analysts are theorizing, where is this memory going to end up?

Most likely it'll serve the domestic market in China, and the chances of it making any kind of a meaningful difference to the balance of RAM supply outside of Asia are minimal. China's own memory requirements are substantial, and as we've discussed before, the government is likely to exert its influence in terms of keeping local demand fulfilled rather than selling abroad.

And yes, while it's true that CXMT's RAM is being used by some manufacturers in the west already, it's on a very limited basis currently – and it isn't like it's some kind of a bargain, either. Indeed, the cost of CXMT's memory is reportedly much the same as what you'll pay if buying from Samsung.

Meanwhile, as Wccftech also picked up, the CEO of Dell, Michael Dell, added his voice to the growing consensus that the memory shortage will get worse next year, and that these RAM woes are going to be prolonged for quite some time.

Dell told the Wall Street Journal that memory supply problems could keep on making us miserable for up to four years, meaning until 2030. Again, this echoes some of the many negative calls on the RAM crisis which have been heard in the past few months.

CXMT expanding its RAM production in a beefy way certainly won't hurt, but it's unlikely to help the average consumer outside of China.

Meanwhile, as RAM continues to get pricier (somehow, even though the cost was already through the roof), it's worth considering workarounds to get more from your gaming PC.

• Biomemory has unveiled DNA Shield, designed to provide offline, airgapped, secure storage of critical digital assets in synthetic DNA
• The company foresees challenges to the resilience those assets (also known as “cold data”) and has hinted at the introduction of what it calls Molecular IT
• Biomemory is a co-chair of the DNA Data Storage Alliance

Commercial DNA data storage company Biomemory has unveiled DNA Shield, a purpose-built synthetic DNA repository service that ensures critical digital assets remain untouched by cyber criminals and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

So-called cold data comprises 60% of all data in the world, and refers to information that cannot be altered. This might be passwords and biometrics or it could be incontrovertible data, facts, finances, and other material that serves as a record.

DNA Shield stores data in DNA, using an engineered encoding scheme that ensures it is biosecure – it’s a physical molecule that stores information long-term without power. Pilot slots have opened, ahead of a full service expected in 2027.

A shield of DNA

Biomemory has launched DNA Shield off the back of its acquisition of Boston-based DNA storage pioneer Catalog Technologies in March 2026, and aims to provide organizations with DNA storage of data.

Data could be biometric, it could be cryptographic keys, or it could be accounts. It might even be intellectual property, blueprints, unique or proprietary knowledge. Encrypting the data into synthetic DNA and storing as a medium that a million times denser than magnetic storage, offline and airgapped, is arguably the most secure storage available, potentially with a 150-year lifespan.

"DNA Shield is the moment Biomemory moves from proving a science to delivering a commercial product," notes Laurent Guengant, CEO of Biomemory. "Organizations need a way to hold their most critical digital assets, cryptographic keys, core intellectual property, regulated records, and long-term institutional memory, somewhere no single vendor, cloud, or system can reach, and to prove it still works over time.”

The molecular IT platform

Availability of the DNA Shield service is currently limited to a few pilots, running from October 15 2026 through to mid 2027. Biomemory tells us that a full service will proceed after that point, and its launch makes them the first company to launch a molecular IT product.

Vincent Franceschini, Vice President of Product Management at Biomemory and co-chair of the DNA Data Storage Alliance, said, "DNA Shield is built on the same molecular platform we have spent years industrializing, but it is the first time we are asking a customer to rely on it operationally rather than as a research demonstration. Getting that right, end to end, from encoding to authorized recovery, is what makes us the first company bringing Molecular IT to market."

Organizations interested in DNA Shield will be paying a subscription that starts at €10,000/month, and early access applications are open directly via Biomemory.

• Nvidia has considerably improved the AI model for DLSS 5
• This means the tech now offers up to 40% faster frame rates
• Team Green has also improved frame generation, and is bringing DLSS 5 to two new games: Hogwarts Legacy and Where Winds Meet

If you were wondering how soon Nvidia might start ramping up the performance of DLSS 5, well the answer is that it just happened.

Team Green's neural-rendering tech, which officially debuted in NBA 2K27, has only been out for just over a month, but Nvidia is claiming that it has doubled the performance of the AI that drives DLSS 5.

When it was first previewed in March 2026, DLSS 5 needed a pair of RTX 5090 GPUs to run, with the company improving the performance of the AI model by 5x for the release of the tech in NBA 2K27. With this latest update, it's now 10x more performant than that baseline.

Nvidia also made it clear that it has reduced the video memory (VRAM) usage of the tech considerably, noting that: "The DLSS 5 October update shrinks the [AI model] footprint by 24% to roughly 118 million parameters while reducing 4K VRAM usage by 20%. The result is half the GPU overhead of the September [launch] version while maintaining comparable visual fidelity."

Based on Nvidia's testing in NBA 2K27, that translates to boosts in frame rates in the order of 30% to 40%. Check out the video clip below to see the gains in the basketball game.

This new DLSS 5 model launches on October 16, with availability for RTX 5000 GPUs, RTX Spark laptops and the GeForce Now streaming service.

Nvidia also announced that DLSS 5 is being introduced for Hogwarts Legacy on November 5, and also Where Winds Meet in the "near future", although we aren't given a specific launch date in the latter case.

Finally, away from DLSS 5, Nvidia announced that it's bringing in a new performance mode for frame generation, speeding up the tech considerably. The company explains that this benefits from a "faster and lighter algorithm" that boosts frame rates even further, and that it'll offer up to 35% better frame rates with an RTX 5060.

This performance mode is called 'Preset C' in the Nvidia app's frame-generation override.

DLSS 5 is also coming to RTX Remix on October 23, meaning old games can get a graphical makeover with added neural-rendering goodness. That only makes sense. given that gamers have been fudging support (in various ways) with classic PC games anyway.

Analysis: a laudable step forward — but gamers want more

It's remarkable to see DLSS 5 performance being boosted so quickly, although Nvidia needed to act in this regard. One of the main criticisms of this tech has been that the performance hit is too hefty, and it requires a powerful RTX 5000 GPU to run smoothly enough — at a time when the prices of such graphics cards are getting rapidly more expensive.

That said, an increasing number of gamers seem to be accepting that DLSS 5 is worth the cost to the frame rate for the visual uplift. Those folks will doubtless be pleased with Nvidia's progress here, and likely wouldn't disagree with Team Green's assertion in its blog post that 2026 has been a "year of relentless DLSS innovation."

Of course, there are still skeptics who'd rather Nvidia didn't bring AI into play in this way with DLSS. And it's also true that these early optimizations are where the larger gains will be carved out, and as the AI model is further refined, performance improvements are likely to become a lot more modest.

There are also gamers out there who are asking whether, now that the AI model is much improved, this going to usher in wider support for Nvidia's older graphics cards? As this Redditor put it: "Great so could we get official support on the [RTX] 40 series now since the new model is so efficient?"

It's a good question, given that Nvidia has promised that after tuning RTX 5000 performance it's going to work on bringing support to the last-gen RTX 4000 range. I'm guessing this won't happen until early next year, though.

The other work on DLSS frame generation is obviously welcome, too, albeit the new 'Preset C' option has attracted some criticism for causing a bit more glitching and artifacts while boosting frame rates by a decent amount. Not everyone is seeing this, mind, and how obvious it is may be somewhat subjective going by reports (and it could obviously depend on the specific game, too).

At any rate, this preset should be useful for laptop gamers looking to further bolster frame rates with relatively modest Nvidia GPUs — and indeed, it's likely tied into the release of RTX Spark laptops to help their gaming chops.

• Intel's CEO has said that AI hardware will be in short supply for the next 2 to 3 years
• Of course, this refers to the ongoing memory crisis, and consumers will get shorter shrift than AI players
• A new report from Barclays also shows that contract pricing for RAM has risen 24% over the past quarter for DDR4 (and 20% for DDR5)

Need more fuel to stoke the idea that the RAM crisis is here to stay? Doubtless you don't, but sadly we've had a couple more indications that the memory shortage will last for a depressingly long time, with Intel's CEO the latest to weigh in.

Wccftech reports that Intel's Lip-Bu Tan was speaking in Singapore at the Asia Future Forward event, a conference organized by DBS Bank, where the CEO discussed his thoughts regarding trends with AI – including the amount of memory it's eating up.

As flagged by Theresa Perrin on X, Tan observed that "AI hardware will stay in short supply for the next 2 to 3 years" — primarily referring to memory — and that this was "driven by persistent constraints in the underlying tech supply chain."

While the CEO is talking directly about RAM (as well as GPUs, and to an extent CPUs) used in data centers for AI applications, the fact that the AI industry is going to be short on supply for perhaps the next three years means that consumer RAM is going to be even thinner on the ground. It's no secret that the greater profits to be had by catering to the AI industry mean that this memory is the priority for chip makers.

Wccftech also noticed another post on X, from 456X, highlighting a new report from Barclays that shows contract pricing (from chip makers) for DDR4 RAM has risen 24% over the last three months, and that DDR5 has gone up 20%.

Barclays further observed that one of the big memory chip makers, Micron, will see its supply levels of RAM remain constrained through 2028. In other words, we can expect that memory supply is going to keep on being a major problem for the next two years, with 'through' 2028 meaning that this year is included in the gloomy prediction.

Analysis: yet more doom nuggets — and then there's the rise of the robots

The reported rises in the contract price of RAM according to Barclays match what we've seen at retail over the past few months, with some notable jumps in the price of DDR5 memory (which in Germany has reached a ridiculous level of 544% up on the price it was before the RAM crisis began last July).

What Barclays, and Intel's CEO, are now telling us is that this kind of pain is likely to continue, and that RAM supply will continue to be frustratingly short until 2029. Unfortunately these kinds of forecasts are becoming more commonplace, with pretty much everyone's view appearing to align with the idea of the RAM crisis hanging around until the end of the decade.

At the very least, we can expect 2027 to be a repeat of this year — meaning more memory prices hikes, and other components besides, such as GPUs — with 2028 likely to follow in a similar vein. Indeed, Micron has said as much itself, while letting us know that robots (or 'physical AI') will be eating up a lot of RAM supply in the future.

• A PC maker in the US says 'retail GPU pricing is expected to climb significantly'
• A further rumor suggests AMD just put up the cost of VRAM, which will affect the prices of graphics cards
• Rounding off a trio of fresh rumors is a claim that Nvidia has discontinued the RTX 5090

There have been a few developments in the GPU world over the weekend — and none of them bode well for the prices of graphics cards down the line.

For starters, Wccftech reports that according to the Board Channels — a reliable enough forum for chatter from the supply chain over in China — AMD has increased the cost of the GDDR6 video RAM it sells to board-making partners. This means that those graphics card makers will inevitably pass that cost on to consumers — if this rumor is accurate of course.

Bench Life further observes that more expensive VRAM isn't the only upward pricing pressure here, and that the cost of other graphics card components — including the main circuit board itself — is also rising.

Secondly, as Wccftech also noticed, we have a custom PC maker in the US, StinceBuilt, informing us on X that it is "starting to see increasing supply constraints on graphics cards" and that, "Retail GPU pricing is expected to climb significantly, and these elevated prices could stick around for quite some time."

Finally, VideoCardz highlighted another post on X from regular leaker MegaSizeGPU, who claims Nvidia will not allocate any more GB202 (Blackwell) chips to make the RTX 5090, and that all this silicon is going to be used in RTX Pro (AI) graphics cards.

In theory, that means it's the end of the line for the flagship RTX 5090, with its replacement (the RTX 6090 in theory) still quite some way off in the distance (a more recent rumor indicates that it's probably due to land in 2028).

Analysis: a cacophony of warning bells

Of all those sentiments, the last one needs the most seasoning, although it's believable enough that Nvidia is essentially canning the RTX 5090. By that I mean that if this is true, I don't think this will be an official (announced) discontinuation, but the way it'll play out is that Nvidia will allocate so few chips for the GeForce flagship that stock will effectively dwindle to next to nothing.

Arguably we're already seeing some evidence of this, certainly in the US where at Newegg, for example, you can't buy an RTX 5090 directly from the retailer, but only from third-party sellers (often in Asia). And the cost of the graphics card is tipping up towards $9,000, such is its scarcity — and you'll pay from £6,000 upwards in the UK, although at least stock is available to buy directly from retailers in that country. Still, I wonder how long that will last; and the idea of Nvidia pulling the plug on the RTX 5090 in a stealthy behind-the-scenes manner certainly feels like it's possible.

Meanwhile, the suggestion of AMD's Radeon GPU price rises backs up similar recent rumors, and the warning from the PC maker in the US that price tags are set to 'climb significantly' is another ominous addition to the warning bells that have been sounded of late.

I'm still very much of the opinion that it's a good idea to buy sooner rather than later, even though GPUs are already overpriced, because I fear that the situation could get substantially worse in 2027, as the grapevine indicates.

The key question is how long a recovery from these pricing pressures might take in the case of GPUs. Again, I have a suspicion that it might take a lot longer than we might hope.

• IDC's latest figures show that PC shipments are down 20% year-on-year
• TrendForce predicts that next year is going to see further drops in PC sales and possible price hikes, which aligns with IDC's thinking
• If you're looking for a laptop, it might be a good idea to pull the trigger sooner rather than later – maybe during Black Friday

PC shipments have plunged dramatically, with analyst firms predicting that the sales of computers and laptops are set to slump next year as well.

PC Gamer noticed that IDC Research has a new report for Q3 of 2026 showing that global PC shipments are down 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year, dropping from 78.5 million units to 62.7 million.

The reason why is obvious: it's due to the RAM crisis and rising prices across a range of PC components (not just memory).

Another analyst firm, TrendForce, also produced a report (flagged by Wccftech) observing that the rising cost of those components threatens to weaken the demand for notebooks in 2027.

TrendForce claims that: "Global notebook shipments are currently projected to decline by a low-single-digit percentage in 2027."

However, the firm cautions that if RAM and CPU prices stay high (which seems almost inevitable), notebook makers "may be forced to pass more of these costs on to consumers", with high retail prices meaning fewer consumers buy new laptops – potentially pushing the drop in notebook sales to high single digits.

So, we could be looking at a near 10% drop in laptop sales next year, on top of an already gloomy picture and flagging sales for PCs as seen currently.

Analysis: act now or dig in for a lengthy wait

Both IDC and TrendForce observe that part of the problem for 2026 is that those looking at buying a new laptop purchased earlier in the year – due to the (very real) fear of price hikes coming in – meaning there are fewer sales now than there would normally have been. This is why there was a much sharper fall in Q3 compared to IDC's report for Q2 (although PC shipments were still down 3.8% year-on-year in that previous quarter).

Laptop makers are also running thin on components they purchased at lower prices (in anticipation of hikes, just like consumers), and so they are going to face worsening pressures on their profits margins due to rising RAM, storage and CPU costs. (TrendForce doesn't mention GPUs, but these will be a factor for some notebooks, notably gaming laptops, too). If they don't raise prices, laptop manufacturers will be forced to cut corners with specs.

TrendForce pulls out an interesting stat on the current state of play with the cost of building a laptop these days, namely that in a typical mid-to-upper-range ($900) notebook, 68% of the bill of materials (cost of the raw components) is taken up by the CPU, RAM and SSD. In other words, those core components now comprise two-thirds of the cost of the laptop.

IDC also predicts gloom for next year, or certainly the first half of 2027 anyway, noting that: "[PC] prices will remain elevated. With macro conditions worsening, the risk is that the outlook for the next few quarters gets worse before it gets better."

The only brighter spot here is that IDC says that with retailers worrying about "carrying too much inventory into a market where high prices are suppressing demand", we may see "promotions and some short-term relief for consumers" – meaning some possibly tempting Black Friday deals. Although the analyst firm makes it clear that pricing won't be "anywhere near what it was a year ago."

There will likely be some bargains to be had – we've seen some recently with Prime Day, and elsewhere for that matter – and if you are in the market for a laptop, it's looking like the smart move is to act on a decent deal if you see one for the type of notebook you're after.

Almost every prediction about the RAM crisis these days is negative, with a steadily growing weight of pessimistic sentiment, so unless a lot of analysts and industry pundits or insiders have got things very wrong, it's not a good idea to be waiting until next year to buy new hardware. Grab it now or hold out for the longer-term seems to be the right approach, certainly for laptops or PCs, and I'd say graphics cards, too.

• AMD's CEO said that the company plans to 'substantially increase' its chip supply in 2027
• Sadly this is chips for AI and data center usage, not consumer products
• If anything this is bad news for Radeon GPUs and Ryzen CPUs, as it's AMD underlining its commitment to the AI sphere

AMD's CEO has assured us that the company is going to increase chip production in 2027, but while that might sound great on the face of it, this isn't good news for consumers.

That's because CEO Lisa Su was talking about making chips for AI usage in data centers, not consumer processors or graphics cards.

Yahoo Finance reports that AMD has been expanding its chip production for AI and that Su said: "We've been able to increase our supply as we've gone through 2026, and we're going to substantially increase our supply in 2027."

This was a comment made to the press during a visit to Taiwan, and the chief executive made it clear that part of the reason for her trip – which included a visit to Foxconn and TSMC – was to make sure AMD's supply of CPU and GPU production could be increased to meet greater AI demand.

The next stop on the CEO's trip is South Korea, where Su will look to shore up memory chip supplies and is set to meet with Samsung and SK Hynix.

On the broader topic of how AI is impacting us all, Su said that it could be "incredibly good for the world" while at the same time cautioning on the risks and the need to cooperate on the safety of this technology.

Analysis: consumers in the cold

There's no mention of consumer products – Radeon GPUs and Ryzen CPUs – here, and the fact that AMD is clearly focused on beefing up AI supply is bad news for the typical PC owner. If anything it might mean that next year is an even leaner time for chip supply for consumer products, especially given all the negative chatter there's been of late talking about memory chip supply in particular looking like it'll considerably worsen next year.

Of course, none of this is surprising – there's a lot more profit in AI accelerators (graphics cards), of course, and as a business, Team Red can hardly afford to ignore that. But it does underline AMD's commitments, and PC owners on Reddit have voiced their displeasure in no uncertain terms.

As one Redditor put it: "Yeah I have a feeling the consumer market will end up being 'whatever the data centers consider obsolete' soon. We might have to contend with buying used data center CPUs and GPUs soon."

Okay, so that's going a bit far. And yes, others are quick to note that you can't just stick an old data center GPU in a PC and run it – there are issues around the implementation and cooling, display output (which isn't needed for a data center card), and the fact that many of these AI GPUs simply can't run games at all. But the point remains: consumers are indeed getting the short end of the stick due to the AI boom, and that's been the case since the invention of the likes of ChatGPT and other LLMs.

It doesn't sound like the situation is going to get any better next year, and that's just another worry to throw on the towering pile of memory price concerns that has been steadily growing in height as this year progresses.

• A source at a major Chinese chip maker says the firm "expects the global memory shortage will last for at least another three years"
• On top of that, analyst firm TrendForce is suggesting "meaningful price increases" are coming for RAM in the final quarter of 2026
• The cloud giants in the US are providing the increased demand that's pushing up Q4 pricing

A source at one of the big Chinese memory chip makers has warned that the firm anticipates the RAM shortage will last through until the end of the decade — and we've heard some gloomy nearer-term news from TrendForce, too.

TweakTown highlighted a post from Jukan on X (who works at analyst firm Citrini Research), which in turn pointed to a report from The Wire China.

This cites an employee at YMTC in China who said that the company "expects the global memory shortage will last for at least another three years". YMTC has just pushed up pricing for its chips, the source says — to no one's surprise — and is shifting its production towards chips with a higher profit margin.

Jukan ties this specifically to NAND production — for SSDs — but the quoted comment refers more broadly to the memory crisis (meaning RAM sticks as well). As TweakTown points out, though, the purported impact on SSDs is particularly relevant seeing as YMTC is now the third biggest global NAND chip supplier behind only Samsung and SK Hynix.

Other predictions, such as from analyst firm TrendForce, forecast NAND supply coming back into balance later in 2027, but that notion is very much being questioned here.

Speaking of TrendForce, Jukan also flagged a new report from the company that labels DRAM supply as 'very tight', noting that: "Suppliers' early-stage discussions on 4Q26 contract pricing point to meaningful price increases, suggesting strengthening demand momentum, particularly from US CSPs."

In other words, the big cloud service providers (CSPs) are the main force behind the increased demand that's pushing fourth-quarter RAM pricing to meaningful price hikes.

Analysis: negative chatter continues to align

'Meaningful' price rises for RAM sounds ominous, mainly because memory pricing has already risen painfully over the last few months. If you recall, going by the German market, DDR5 memory is a ridiculous 544% up on the price it was before the RAM crisis began — so the thought of further increases feels, well, even more ludicrous. But here we are.

We can seemingly expect SSDs to get more costly as well, going by the leak from YMTC, although it's worth noting that it's in the company's interest to talk up its future prospects and profits (as it heads into an IPO). That said, this isn't an official statement, but a leak (though it could have been intentionally leaked, cynics would doubtless argue).

The fact of the matter is that more memory-related misery is believable enough these days, as all predictions are very much slanted towards more price hikes for the remainder of 2026 and into 2027. The view that we have at least another three years of this crisis to weather — taking us all the way to 2030 — is one also shared by other analysts and industry figures, including Nvidia's CEO (and those in the world of SSDs).

• Those buying an RTX 5090 at Micro Center now have to fill out a declaration form
• This includes having a government-issued photo ID scanned by the retailer
• Some approve of the policy as it's an anti-scalping measure, but others view it as an annoyance or a pointless move

If you're buying an Nvidia RTX 5090, or a PC with the graphics card inside, over in the US, you may have to fill out an official form to declare that you don't intend to export and resell the GPU – or at least you will at Micro Center.

PC Gamer spotted the 'advanced computing product purchaser declaration' which a Redditor was forced to complete and sign – including a scan of their driving license for ID – when buying a PowerSpec AI90 workstation PC with an RTX 5090.

The Micro Center store was in Tustin, California, but someone else posting on the Reddit thread claims that the same form has been introduced at the Columbus, Ohio store.

Apparently this is a new policy that only started this week at Micro Center (but seemingly other retailers already follow this practice in the US, including Central Computers).

In case you hadn't guessed, this move is about trying to prevent scalpers from buying up the RTX 5090, or PCs containing it – which can be around the same price as the standalone GPU these days, and are sometimes the only way of getting this graphics card at all – in order to sell it on to China and turn a profit.

Analysis: a pain in the neck, or a valid anti-scalper tactic?

As some of the commenters on Reddit are quick to point out, this form isn't legally binding, and there are question marks over how any of this might be enforced. Somebody breaking the terms of the agreement is likely to just shrug their shoulders about the consequences, perhaps.

However, as PC Gamer notes, the use of the ID check is certainly a deterrent of sorts for GPU exporters. And what this is doing is preventing people who are making a short trip to the US buying an RTX 5090 and selling it on when they get back home for a hefty mark-up. Those people won't be able to provide a US address and government photo ID that can be verified as belonging to them, of course.

The fact remains that it's a bit of a pain for Micro Center's customers to have to go through this form filling and ID check, although that said, some of the folks on the above Reddit thread don't have a problem with the process given that it's an anti-scalping measure. Others are concerned about having to give a retail store personal information for an unnecessary reason as they see it, or they're just annoyed and think it's a waste of time. As one Redditor put it: "This is ridiculous."

Going by the Reddit thread, another measure Micro Center enforces is that there's only one purchase of an RTX 5090 GPU per customer full-stop, forever. Once you've bought one, you can never buy another, we're told.

• Micron has warned that the RAM shortage will get much worse in 2027 and 2028
• Then coming to the end of the decade, robots are going to put more strain on memory supply
• So-called 'physical AI' could need 200GB+ of DRAM and multiple terabytes of storage per unit, Micron predicts

Micron just published its latest financial results, complete with some predictions for the future of the RAM crisis that aren't going to prove very comforting for consumers.

Wccftech reports that Micron, which is one of the three big memory chip makers, just revealed its results for fiscal Q4 2026 with predictably booming profits — and some not-so-obvious predictions about the RAM shortage.

As flagged on X by Eric Jhonsa, a portfolio manager for a Dutch asset corporation, in Micron's accompanying guidance the company observed: "We expect memory and storage supply-demand conditions to be much tighter in calendar 2027 and 2028 than they were in 2026."

Micron also said: "Even with additional industry DRAM cleanroom space plans, with robust demand trends including new upside requests from customers, we do not have line of sight to when supply and demand will return to balance."

Also highlighted on X by Shay Boloor, who is chief market strategist at Futurum Equities, Micron made the point that even if the current AI bubble deflates, lessening RAM demand for servers in data centers as a result, there could still be a high level of demand from 'physical AI' — meaning robots.

We're told that "humanoid robots could need 200GB+ of DRAM and multiple terabytes of storage per unit with several physical AI customers already sampling next gen products", and that this could become a "significant driver of memory and storage demand by the end of this decade."

Analysis: robot RAM drain

In short, Micron is saying that RAM supply is going to be tight not just in 2027 — which has been a widespread prediction — but also in 2028. Granted, 2028 has been forecast as a gloomy year in general, but from what Micron is saying here, the company is putting this year on a level with 2027 in terms of the memory shortage, and next year is set to be pretty dire by all accounts.

This is feeding more into the RAM crisis lasting until 2030 narrative (one of the earliest mentions of this came from Nvidia's CEO), and the comment about robots further reinforces this. Even if the demand to drive AI falls away somewhat so data centers aren't gobbling up so much memory, the overall strain on RAM supply may remain due to an uptake of robots, which will also need a lot of memory.

The one thing I would say is that Micron may be exaggerating somewhat in terms of talking up the timeframe on the usage of robots here. After all, in these kinds of forecasts, it's in the firm's interest to build up its future prospects and drive more investment.

Clearly, though, Micron is in a very strong position, and robots are something that's on the radar. And with there being a great deal of doubt as to whether the AI bubble is going to burst at all — depending on who you listen to — this is just another concern for consumers (alongside robots taking over jobs to boot).

It seems clear enough that RAM won't be reaching affordable pricing levels for a long time yet.

• Borderless Gaming is a tool that's sold on Steam
• It just got an add-on to easily fudge DLSS 5 to work with various PC games
• Reviews of the tool have turned rather colorful, as those who still hate DLSS 5 and all it stands for are chipping in

You can't have missed all the chatter about experimenting with Nvidia's DLSS 5 in all sorts of different PC games, and if you've felt the urge to join in but have been too intimidated by the idea of fudging the tech to work, a solution is now at hand.

VideoCardz noticed that Borderless Gaming, a tool that's sold via Steam – it's used to facilitate gaming in a borderless window, as the name indicates – now has DLSS 5 support. Or, as the developer put it: "DLSS 5 Neural Rendering for Everyone."

The dev notes that: "DLSS 5 Neural Rendering is now available in Borderless Gaming – without replacing game DLLs, modifying game files, or needing a game-specific mod. Install the effect, select the preset, and apply it to your game."

Borderless Gaming applies DLSS 5 directly through its own BGFX pipeline, the developer explains, rather than forwarding requests to Nvidia's DLLs.

In short, this is DLSS 5 being fudged in about as no-fuss a manner as can be, save for the fact that you have to buy and install the app, of course. This implementation shouldn't be confused with native DLSS 5 support, because it's simply a workaround to bring the neural rendering technique into play (with variable results as you might expect).

Note that the Borderless Gaming app doesn't actually come with this built-in, but after installing the tool itself, you need to also download the appropriate effect (DLSS5-NR v0.2.1 currently) from GitHub here (installation instructions are provided at that link).

Analysis: catching some of the DLSS 5 hate

According to the developer, this implementation can work on a wide range of GPUs – not just the officially supported RTX 5000 models – and an RTX 3090 can hit around 30fps typically with DLSS 5 turned on. Obviously the frame rate will vary massively depending on the game and graphics settings, but the gist is that you can get something playable on the RTX 3090.

It's a neat enough solution by the looks of it, although as ever, if you're curious, I have to issue my usual warning about third-party apps here: download and use them at your own risk.

Borderless Gaming is an app that's been around for a long time, but the Steam reviews have turned distinctly colorful of late – with some of that color revolving around this latest move with DLSS 5. As one reviewer puts it: "Added DLSS 5 for no reason but to make games look worse... Slop." (Hence the above clarification that DLSS 5 isn't actually added to the app itself at all).

Nvidia's DLSS 5 was controversial when it was first announced, although the reception to its neural rendering trickery has warmed up considerably since it went live in a game (NBA 2K27). There are still haters out there, though, as the Steam reviews for Borderless Gaming illustrate.

It's also a fair question whether Nvidia might take action against projects like this, which are going further in terms of tweaking and playing about with DLSS 5 tech. It's likely that for now, with DLSS 5 getting a greater level of positivity from many of the gaming experimenters out there, Team Green might let it slide – at least for the time being.

• Nvidia Smooth Motion has been modded onto RTX 3000 series GPUs
• The experimental mod allows driver-level frame generation in unsupported games
• Nvidia hasn't officially implemented this and other features on older RTX hardware yet

Modders continue to find new ways to implement Nvidia's latest technologies on older hardware, and now it's been done with Team Green's driver-level frame generation.

As reported by Wccftech, Nvidia Smooth Motion has been unofficially made to work on RTX 3000 series GPUs, with a new NVSmooth30 mod available on GitHub, confirmed to work on an RTX 3050 laptop and an RTX 3080 desktop GPU.

Nvidia's Smooth Motion functionality is essentially identical to AMD's Fluid Motion Frames, meaning that it enables frame generation in games that don't have official support for it — a tool that is most useful for older games or games running in emulators.

The mod works by modifying Nvidia's driver-level frame generation DLL (Dynamic Link Library) file, labeled NvPresent64, bypassing the usual compatibility checks that would stop it from working on Ampere GPU hardware, aka RTX 3000 series GPUs. It also works by "conservative metadata retargeting" from Ada Lovelace (RTX 4000 series) and targets Ampere instead.

The creator says that all users need to do is place the DLL file into the relevant game's folder and use the Nvidia Profile Inspector app to enable Smooth Motion. The process is very simple, but this is an experimental project, so it runs the risk of game bugs and crashes, or potentially other issues — and must not be used in online games using anti-cheat (doing so could result in a ban).

Gamers want new features, but new GPUs are unaffordable

Nvidia has been quite impressive with its latest technologies, notably with DLSS 5 Neural Rendering (which I saw at Gamescom 2026), and Smooth Motion has been one of many over the last few years.

The GPU market is in complete disarray due to the RAM crisis, which means prices for GPUs for both AMD Radeon and Nvidia GeForce GPUs are way too high for most people to consider an upgrade. Features like Multi-Frame Generation, Dynamic Frame Generation, and Smooth Motion are those that PC users would love, but can't use on older hardware.

Modders have consistently proved that these features can be backported in some way, with some even going as far as porting DLSS 5 onto the RTX 4080 (despite the performance hit).

DLSS 5 Neural Rendering coming to older hardware in the immediate future is unrealistic — but Nvidia has previously told me that it does plan on adding backwards compatibility at some point, though it's likely to come to 4000-series models first, and then we'll have to hope for 3000-series later in the future, if it's even possible.

But it feels as though features such as Frame Generation, and specifically Smooth Motion, deserve backporting attention now more than ever, as users are stuck with older GPUs.

Doing so would put Team Green in the good books of many PC gamers, and keep players from relying on unofficial mods to achieve better performance and enjoy GeForce hardware to the fullest extent.

• XMG has announced price rises for its laptops due to the increased cost of components
• The laptop maker points out that DDR5 RAM for laptops is now close to 6x the price it was before the memory crisis
• We're also hearing that Micron has pulled the plug on its 2GB modules of GDDR7, and Nvidia's supply of VRAM could feel an impact from this

The RAM crisis sadly keeps rolling on and finding fresh pricing misery to heap on us, and that includes new laptop hikes and a hint that Nvidia GPUs could be in yet another spot of bother.

VideoCardz spotted the development with laptops, as manufacturer XMG announced on Reddit that its notebooks are subject to price hikes of either €100 or €150 for most models, or €300 in one case (that's for a Schenker portable, which is XMG's parent company, so it's all under the same umbrella).

Some laptop upgrades have got pricier, too, with a €120 premium on an RTX 5090 configuration, and as XMG observed: "The reason [for the price rises] is another increase in purchasing costs. This is no longer just about RAM and SSDs: PCBs, electronic components, CPUs, graphics cards and video memory are also contributing to the higher cost level."

In other words, everything is subject to price inflation, including the motherboard and associated chips, as well as the mentioned key components.

XMG highlighted data drawn from Geizhals (which tracks German retail prices) showing that DDR5 RAM for laptops is close to 6x the price it was before the memory shortage began (in mid-2025).

The laptop maker also made it clear that discrete GPUs and GDDR7 video memory have become more expensive, as have the prices of AMD and Intel laptop processors.

Also on the subject of GPUs, Wccftech reports that another slight worry is that Micron is no longer making 2GB modules of GDDR7 video RAM which are used in some Nvidia RTX 5000 GPUs.

Uniko's Hardware flagged up this news in a post on X, noting that these chips have "reached end of life" and that this is the case for all Micron 2GB modules, with only 3GB GDDR7 chips now listed on the memory maker's website.

With Micron apparently no longer supplying Nvidia with those 2GB modules, that means more of a squeeze on the availability of video memory for RTX 5000 graphics cards, at least in theory. This could hit stock levels and put a bit more pressure on pricing (which is already climbing fast).

Analysis: yet more pressure

We need to season the claims around Micron here, as this isn't a definitive statement from the company itself, and more to the point, it's only a minor supplier for Nvidia's gaming GPUs. Team Green gets the majority of its GDDR7 from Samsung and SK Hynix, and so the impact here should be relatively slight.

However, I'd argue that any impact is bad news given the current climate which is rapidly worsening for GPUs, particularly those from Nvidia which are heading upwards at a rate of knots for some models. The RTX 5090 has got completely ridiculous, the RTX 5080 is similarly out of hand, and even the RTX 5070 is now feeling the pricing heat, with a 30% price rise compared to two months ago in the US (and a similar picture elsewhere).

So, even small extra pressures are really not going to help Nvidia's GeForce GPUs here.

As for the laptop price hikes, this is a sign of the RAM supply times, and XMG is following other makers who have had to jack up prices (like Dell for example, which just bumped up the XPS 13 in a roundabout way).

It's a commendable level of transparency from XMG here, with the company making it clear that it isn't turning any extra profit from these laptop price increases. XMG also observed that other factors are in play with increased costs for notebook makers, and that includes rising air freight costs (due to conflicts in the Middle East) and difficulties with shipping by sea, too.

• Apparently Nvidia's not launching RTX 6000 GPUs until 2028
• A leaker claims that these graphics cards have been delayed from the 2027 debut Nvidia originally planned
• Pushing back these GPUs makes sense given the RAM crisis, and some gamers are happy to wait anyway

Nvidia has pushed back its timeframe for launching next-generation graphics cards for gamers, and we're now hearing they won't arrive until 2028.

As ever, all this is theoretical – Nvidia hasn't uttered a peep about its RTX 6000 GPUs officially – but according to Kopite7kimi, a well-known leaker on X (via TweakTown), these products are now destined for a 2028 release which "means they have postponed again."

In other words, Nvidia was supposedly looking at a launch for next year, but the leaker now believes that isn't the case.

Another leaker, Moore's Law is Dead on YouTube, recently said that Nvidia is planning a 2027 launch for the RTX 6000 series, so this directly contradicts that idea. However, it's possible that this was the case, but Team Green has only just changed its mind.

Analysis: a sensible move

Of course, both of these assertions are just rumors, and we need to regard them with an equal amount of caution – but I think it makes more sense for Nvidia to delay the release of its next-gen GeForce GPUs until 2028.

Why? I have three predictable words for you: the RAM crisis. With the memory shortage – which also impacts video RAM – rapidly worsening as 2026 progresses, and predicted to descend further into nightmarish pricing territory in 2027, next year seems like a bad move for launching a family of next-gen GPUs.

Especially when you consider that the first graphics cards to emerge will doubtless be the flagship RTX 6090 and the 6080. How expensive will they be in such a climate, given that the RTX 5080 is already exorbitantly priced? The latter has reached around $1,500 in the US at this point, and is at similar levels in other regions, such as £1,350 in the UK (that's the cheapest GPU in both cases at the time of writing, I should make clear). And let's not even talk about the RTX 5090 which has got completely ridiculous.

Remember that these next-gen GPUs are going to require more memory to be an upgrade over their predecessors, and are also likely to use more expensive VRAM modules.

3GB modules will likely be used by Nvidia, or maybe even 4GB or 6GB chips, which as Wccftech reports, are rumored to debut in the next year or two (which would align with a 2028 release for RTX 6000, in theory). That's according to another prominent leaker over in Asia, Golden Pig Upgrade, as posted on Weibo.

All expectations are for the RTX 6000 series to be pricey, which is why launching them at what might be the height of the RAM crisis – 2027, going by current predictions – doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The following year seems a lot more likely, when hopefully the crisis has started to settle down and pricing is at least stabilizing to some extent (although some believe we're looking longer term for that to happen, more towards 2030).

Whatever the case, some gamers are getting jaded with the market. One of the replies to Kopite7kimi's post on X simply says of the next generation of Nvidia GeForce GPUs: "Nobody cares, nobody can afford it anyway." Others – like this Redditor, who says "I'd rather they delayed the launch to consumers" – indicate that they're happy enough to wait due to pricing or stock issues (launch quantities of GPUs would likely be thin on the ground).

The other question is whether we'll see those RTX 5000 Super refreshes that have been long rumored. I'm doubtful at this point, and I think Nvidia may be inclined to rely more on the AI and software side of the equation, principally DLSS 5, to impress gamers, rather than new (stupidly pricey) hardware.