"started shipping GPU dies to partners without VRAM attached"
The irony! First, Nvidia rips off OEMs by bundling VRAM at inflated prices. Now that VRAM source prices are inflated, Nvidia does not even want to sell VRAM to OEMs any more. Next, we endconsumers are asked to mod, shall I say, manufacture our own VRAM... Dead GPUs are a gold mine for VRAM modding.
Some retailers may soon stop selling Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs altogether. A German distributor has placed order limits on the RTX 5070 Ti, while the more expensive RTX 5090 becomes scarcer. With inflated memory prices and shortages, GDDR7 VRAM used in graphics cards is harder to obtain.