2026 is shaping up to be one of the worst years ever for new graphics cards as Nvidia's RTX 50 Super Series refresh rumoured to be pushed out to 2027

2026 is shaping up to be one of the worst years ever for new graphics cards as Nvidia's RTX 50 Super Series refresh rumoured to be pushed out to 2027

As we approach the midpoint of 2026, it's clear that this year hasn't been a vintage year for GPU launches. The market has seen only a few minor revisions of existing graphics cards, offering little in the way of groundbreaking advancements. Now, a new rumour suggests that one of the most anticipated updates — Nvidia's RTX 50 Super Series — might be delayed until 2027.

According to reports from Videocardz, the Taiwanese website Benchlife has shared insights that indicate the RTX 50 Super GPUs are unlikely to launch before early 2027. Previously, there were whispers of a late 2026 release, but it seems those hopes are fading. The RTX 50 Super Series is now expected to debut at CES 2027 in January at the earliest.

So far in 2026, the notable GPU launches include the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE and the Nvidia RTX 5070 12 GB for laptops. The RX 9070 GRE is essentially a revised version of an existing GPU with slightly reduced performance, while the RTX 5070 12 GB is more of an upgrade with increased video memory. Nvidia's announcement of the RTX 5070 was minimal, appearing only as a mention in the release notes of a driver update.

Other contenders for new GPU releases in 2026 include the Intel Arc Pro B70 and Nvidia's RTX Spark. However, the Intel Arc Pro B70 is a $1,000 AI-focused GPU with gaming performance comparable to a $400 desktop graphics card, making it a niche product. Meanwhile, the RTX Spark is an APU that combines CPU and GPU cores, essentially a rebadged version of the DGX Spark chip introduced over a year ago and finally launched in October.

Looking ahead, the AMD Radeon RX 9050 is expected to be released later in the year. However, this budget GPU is supposedly based on the same Navi 44 chip as the RX 9060 and RX 9060 XT, offering little in the way of new features. Similarly, a purported Nvidia RTX 5050 9 GB is also in the works, but it's just a tweaked version of an existing GPU.

AMD's underwhelming Radeon RX 9070 GRE looks set to be the most exciting GPU launch in 2026. If AMD delays its next-gen RDNA 5 graphics chips until late 2027 or even 2028, and if Nvidia's RTX 50 Supers do arrive in early 2027, it's unlikely that Nvidia's actual next-gen graphics architecture, Rubin, will be released much earlier than RDNA 5.

This means that 2026 is almost certainly going to be a lean year for new GPU launches. Even 2027 might not offer much in the way of significant upgrades, especially if both AMD and Nvidia push their next-gen architectures to 2028.

If AMD's RDNA 4 and Nvidia's Rubin slip to 2028, the best we can hope for in 2027 is more of the same — tweaks and revisions of existing GPUs, including the RTX 50 Super Series.

For those who managed to secure an RTX 4090 at or near its MSRP when it launched in October 2022, it's worth noting that the card is still the second fastest GPU on the market today. It’s likely that by the time a faster GPU is released, the RTX 4090 will have been the fastest or second fastest graphics card available for over six years. That’s an impressive performance run.