GPU crisis hits Japan as RTX 5060 Ti and up are in short supply — GPUs sell out as soon as they arrive

Based on a machine translation, a January 10 report from ITmedia, retailers in Akihabara have resigned themselves to ongoing price pressure and supply issues across PC components. Multiple shops are reportedly saying that GPUs are selling out almost as soon as they arrive, with higher-end models becoming increasingly difficult to keep in stock, and there is little clarity on when replacements will be available.

The report describes the GPU aisle as "a little bit spicy," with staff at various retailers telling the outlet that, while demand remains "steady and informed," and few customers are engaged in panic buying, inventory is thin enough that availability has become a big concern. At PC Studio Akihabara Parts Museum, employees said any graphics card that reaches the sales floor tends to sell immediately.

Retailers have had to respond to this by tightening purchasing rules. Dospara Akihabara Main Store and PC SHOP Ark are both displaying notices restricting GPU purchases, regardless of model, with the latter having maintained some form of limitation since late 2025. These measures are not applied to a single SKU or vendor, but stores say the pressure is most severe with high-end GPUs.

In particular, retailers repeatedly pointed to GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and above as the pressure point. ITmedia notes that inventory above this tier is noticeably weaker than for lower-end cards, a trend already expected given year-end conditions but has since become more pronounced. At TSUKUMO eX., the shortage of high-end cards is so pronounced that roughly half of the showcase space has reportedly been covered because there is little product to display. "Radeon is in relatively stock, but it may be a matter of time…" a representative of that vendor said.

Shops are also expressing concern about restocking timelines, noting that the pressure is "much upstream." Another store cited rumors of upstream pricing and distribution issues, saying there is talk that shipments have been temporarily slowed or paused, leaving retailers unable to predict when higher-end cards will arrive.

This January update builds on reports from late December, when Akihabara shops were already limiting purchases of higher-capacity GPUs to one of each SKU per customer group and warning that 16GB-class cards might be difficult to replenish. What has shifted since then is the degree to which the shortage is visible on the sales floor, with one retailer resorting to covering empty shelves with a curtain because there’s no stock to fill them, and little prospect of any arriving in the near term.

While the reporting focuses on Japan, make no mistake: the affected products fall into a category that has been under pressure globally. GPUs with higher memory capacities are more exposed to rising memory costs and constrained — or, let’s face it, virtually non-existent — memory supply, and retailers are now beginning to see those pressures translate into empty shelves. Expect this to get worse throughout the year; we’re just getting started.

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.