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PC Hardware News This Week (Nov 14, 2026): Nvidia CEO Resigns, RTX 5080 24GB Cancelled, Zen 6 Benchmarks Land

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PC Hardware News This Week (Nov 14, 2026): Nvidia CEO Resigns, RTX 5080 24GB Cancelled, Zen 6 Benchmarks Land

PC Hardware News This Week (Nov 14, 2026): Nvidia CEO Resigns, RTX 5080 24GB Cancelled, Zen 6 Benchmarks Land

The Saturday Recap — nxpc's quick-hit round-up of the week that was (Nov 8–14, 2026).

TL;DR:

  • Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia CEO on Nov 12 after reports of extramarital affairs — including with an alleged Chinese spy. CFO Colette Kress is interim CEO; Huang testifies before Congress Nov 18.
  • The RTX 5080 24GB is officially dead — Nvidia told partners the January China launch is cancelled because 3GB GDDR7 modules cost ~3× the 2GB ones.
  • GPU prices climbed again: RTX 5090 street prices pushed past $7,000 USD (some SKUs nearing $10K), 5080s now $2,100+ on Amazon US. Nvidia itself pulled both cards from its own store.
  • AMD's Zen 6 finally has numbers: the 256-core EPYC 9996 delivered +93% multi-thread throughput over last gen, with a 27% IPC gain and a 3D V-Cache gaming CPU on the horizon.
  • RAM is not getting cheaper: Team Group's CEO says the memory shortage gets worse through end of 2027 — DDR5 32GB kits now run ~$461–$660 USD / ~$630–$900 CAD. Prebuilt Black Friday deals are your best escape hatch.

It's Saturday morning, coffee's hot, and this was one of those weeks where the hardware news read like a tech thriller. A CEO resignation that nobody saw coming, a graphics card quietly euthanized over memory prices, actual independent Zen 6 benchmarks, and a RAM executive telling us — on the record — that even money might not buy DRAM next year. Let's burn through the week.

1. Jensen Huang Resigned — Colette Kress Is Running Nvidia

The shocker of the year dropped Thursday. Nvidia's board announced that Jensen Huang resigned as President, CEO, and board member, effective immediately (Nvidia Newsroom). The trigger: reporting on extramarital affairs, including one with an alleged Chinese agent and another with a direct-report executive (The Guardian, NBC News).

Quick hits:

  • CFO Colette Kress is interim CEO during the replacement search (CNBC).
  • Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have been summoned to testify before a Senate committee next month (NYT); a company-wide Nvidia meeting is set for Nov 18 (PC Gamer).
  • Context from the fallout reporting: a Chinese national was charged over 917 smuggled Nvidia servers, and Singapore/Malaysia are probing AI chip diversion (Tom's Hardware archive).
  • Hardware Unboxed Podcast dedicated Friday's episode to it — "Jensen is Gone. What Happens to Nvidia?" If you want the community reaction, this is the one to watch:
YouTube video

It's raw and unscripted — worth it just for their take on whether Nvidia's day-to-day roadmap actually changes under Kress.

What it means for your build: nothing immediate. Product roadmaps are set quarters in advance, and Kress has been the financial architect of this boom. But expect board-level drama — and no clue what a "post-Jensen Nvidia" GPU strategy looks like until the smoke clears.

2. RTX 5080 24GB: Cancelled Before It Ever Launched

Remember the rumored 24GB RTX 5080 for January? Dead. Nvidia formally notified its partners that the China launch is off, and reporting indicates the 16GB 5080 keeps being produced instead (PC Gamer). The reason is beautifully dumb: 3GB GDDR7 modules cost roughly 3× what 2GB modules do right now, so a 24GB card couldn't hit any sellable price.

Meanwhile the desktop 5090 is not discontinued — Nvidia proved it by giving a Hogwarts Legacy-wrapped one away on X (VideoCardz). Generous, considering the card costs more than a used car. And in Japan, prices briefly dropped ~17–22% after the resignation news, though analysts found no direct link (wccftech).

I went deep on the 5090 madness in Thursday's RTX 5090 unobtainium breakdown — this week only got weirder.

3. The November Price Hike Wave Hit Us Where It Hurts

The month's ChannelGate-driven increases landed as forecast: RTX 5090s up almost $500, 5080s up $380–450, 5070 Ti up $150, even the 5060 climbing $30 (wccftech, HotHardware). Nvidia's own store quietly pulled the 5090 and then the 5080, with street prices hitting 2.2× MSRP (Tom's Hardware).

Here's my live dual-market price check from this morning — the "deal" column is where things get interesting:

Amazon US/CA live prices checked Nov 14, 2026. Prices can change hourly.

Product 🇺🇸 Amazon US (USD) 🇨🇦 Amazon CA (CAD) Notes
PNY RTX 5090 OC Triple-Fan $6,495.00 — cheapest US 5090, 2 offers
ASUS TUF RTX 5090 OC $7,450.00 $8,699.00 only 3 left in US
ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC $2,099.99 $3,999.99 100+ bought in past month
GIGABYTE RTX 5080 Gaming OC $2,289.98 $3,199.00 4.7★ / 19 offers
ASUS Prime RTX 9070 XT OC $1,028.00 (from $1,079.99) ~$1,485 (XFX Swift) deal of the week
MSI RTX 5070 Ti Ventus — $1,999.99 best CAD midrange
Ryzen 7 9800X3D $399.99 with coupon ($451.67 list) $549.98 4.8★, 3K+ bought/mo
G.SKILL Ripjaws S5 DDR5-6000 32GB $474.99 (min $461.23) $783.21 3 left in US
Lexar Thor Z DDR5-6000 32GB $479.99 $629.99 cheapest CAD CL38 kit

Scan of the week: the ASUS Prime RX 9070 XT at $1,028 USD is honestly the only sane high-end GPU buy on either storefront right now — Radeon approaching the $1,000 ceiling is grim, but it's the cheapest path to 4K-capable silicon. In Canada, that MSI 5070 Ti at $1,999.99 CAD is the least-bad option I'd actually recommend to Steve.

4. Zen 6 Is Real and It's Monstrous (Server Edition)

AMD quietly fired the first shot of the Zen 6 era this week with EPYC "Venice" on the SP7 platform, and the first independent numbers are in:

  • The flagship 256-core EPYC 9996 (Zen 6C) delivers 1,024 threads in a dual-socket config and Tom's Hardware measured it +93% in SPEC CPU 2026 intrate throughput versus last year's 768-thread EPYC 9965 (Tom's Hardware).
  • AMD's own claims vs. 5th-gen Turin: 2.0× SPECint, 2.4× SPECfp, 2.7× memory bandwidth (StorageReview, Phoronix).
  • Architecture: +27% average IPC over Zen 5, CCDs grow from 8 to 12 cores, 5.3 GHz max boost (tbreak, The FPS Review).
  • Bonus flex: the 96-core EPYC 9686F beat Nvidia's own Vera CPU by 17% int / 40% FP in the same deep dive, while Intel's Diamond Rapids slipped to 2027.

Why gamers should care: server silicon is the preview build. Zen 6's core-complex redesign plus that 3D V-Cache variant PC Gamer says to watch is exactly the recipe for the next X3D monster. My Friday local-LLM rig guide suddenly has a very interesting 2027 CPU slot open.

5. The RAM Crisis Just Got a Formal Endorsement

Team Group's CEO Chen Ching-wen used the company's November earnings call to say the memory shortage will worsen from end of 2026 through end of 2027, could reach a point where "even money can't buy goods," and shows no downward price trend (Tom's Hardware). TechRadar notes DDR5 in the German market sits 544% above pre-crisis pricing, with more "meaningful increases" expected before 2026 closes (TechRadar).

My price table above shows the reality: the cheapest 32GB DDR5-6000 kit on Amazon US this morning was $461–$475 — that was a $90–$100 purchase in mid-2025. If a build is in your future, buy RAM now; memory is the one component with a credible "it'll be worse next quarter" thesis.

6. Deals Radar: Prebuilts Are the Escape Hatch This Black Friday

  • iBuyPower's early Black Friday sale knocks up to $800 off, with a coupon code for $200 more on select rigs — including a 9800X3D + RTX 5080 4K machine with 32GB DDR5 and a 2TB SSD (Tom's Hardware).
  • CyberPowerPC is running $300 extra instant-off on prebuilts over $3,000 (CyberPowerPC Mega Special).
  • Tom's Hardware's price trackers note deep GPU discounts this year will mostly be pricing mistakes or bundles — so don't camp a 5080 listing waiting for a $300 cut that isn't coming (GPU price tracking).

The math is simple: a prebuilt's price covers the RAM and GPU at yesterday's locked-in contract prices. When standalone parts are inflating weekly, that gap is your discount. The logic I used in the $1,500 1440p build still holds — it's just that "build vs prebuilt" now tips prebuilt more often than it did in July.

The Week's One-Line Takeaway

AI demand broke the CEO, the GPU stack, and the DRAM market in the same week — and the only winners are people holding prebuilt rig prices from October.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Nvidia's interim CEO after Jensen Huang resigned? Colette Kress, Nvidia's longtime CFO, was named interim CEO on November 12, 2026, immediately after Jensen Huang resigned. Kress has led Nvidia's financial strategy through the AI boom and will run the company while the board searches for a permanent replacement.

Is the RTX 5080 24GB still coming? No. Nvidia formally told partners in November 2026 that the 24GB RTX 5080's planned January 2027 China launch is cancelled, reportedly because 3GB GDDR7 modules cost about 3× as much as 2GB modules. The 16GB RTX 5080 continues in production.

Why did Nvidia GPU prices go up in November 2026? Distributors in China raised GPU channel prices in November 2026, with RTX 5090 models up ~$300–500 and RTX 5080s up $380–450, per wccftech and HotHardware reporting. The driver is GDDR7 memory scarcity and AI datacenter demand squeezing supply.

Is now a good time to build a PC or buy RAM? For RAM specifically, earlier is better: Team Group's CEO warned on November 2, 2026 that the memory shortage worsens through end-2027 with no downward price trend. GPUs are the worst buy in years, so consider a prebuilt with locked-in component pricing this Black Friday.

What are AMD Zen 6's first benchmark results? AMD's Zen 6-based EPYC 9996 (256 cores) delivered up to 93% higher multi-thread throughput than the prior-gen EPYC 9965 in Tom's Hardware testing (Nov 2026), with a 27% IPC gain, 12-core CCDs, and 5.3 GHz boost. Desktop Zen 6 Ryzen, including a 3D V-Cache variant, is expected later.

Sources

  1. Nvidia Newsroom — CEO transition announcement: https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-ceo-transition
  2. The Guardian — Huang resigns after reports of affairs: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/nov/12/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-resigns
  3. CNBC — Kress named interim CEO: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/12/nvidia-jensen-huang-ceo-live-updates.html
  4. NYT live blog — Senate testimony, China trip context: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/11/12/business/nvidia-jensen-huang-resigns
  5. PC Gamer — Nvidia scandal live blog + 5080 24GB cancellation: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/live/news/nvidia-jen-hsun-scandal/ and https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/apparently-now-we-wont-see-a-24-gb-rtx-5080-which-is-probably-actually-good-for-our-wallets/
  6. VideoCardz — 5090 not discontinued: https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-confirms-the-rtx-5090-isnt-discontinued-by-giving-one-away
  7. wccftech — November price hikes: https://wccftech.com/nvidia-rtx-50-gpus-see-a-massive-price-increase-in-november/ and Japan price drop: https://wccftech.com/geforce-rtx-5090-and-rtx-5080-witness-a-sudden-price-drop-of-up-to-22-in-japan-but-its-unlikely-due-to-jensens-resignation/
  8. HotHardware — price hike corroboration: https://hothardware.com/news/geforce-rtx-50-gpus-tipped-for-big-price-hikes-this-month
  9. Tom's Hardware — Nvidia store pulls 5080: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidia-store-quietly-pulls-the-rtx-5080-following-rtx-5090-removal-street-prices-climb-to-2-2x-over-msrp
  10. Tom's Hardware — Zen 6 EPYC Venice deep dive: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/amd-zen-6-epyc-venice-deep-dive-and-benchmarking-dual-epyc-9996-with-1-024-threads-delivers-up-to-93-percent-performance-gain-gen-on-gen-9686f-outclasses-nvidias-vera
  11. StorageReview — EPYC Venice SP7 review: https://www.storagereview.com/review/amd-epyc-venice-sp7-review
  12. Phoronix — EPYC 9996 benchmarks: https://www.phoronix.com/review/amd-epyc-9996
  13. tbreak — Zen 6 architecture, 27% IPC: https://tbreak.com/amd-zen-6-architecture-epyc-venice/
  14. The FPS Review — Weekender, Nov 14: https://www.thefpsreview.com/2026/11/14/the-fps-review-weekender-zen-6-arrives-in-amds-256-core-epyc-venice-plus-10-more-hardware-reviews/
  15. PC Gamer — Zen 6 gaming CPU outlook: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/processors/amds-zen-6-gaming-cpus-might-be-absolute-monsters-by-the-looks-of-the-server-chips-and-theres-a-3d-v-cache-variant-to-keep-an-eye-on/
  16. Tom's Hardware — Team Group CEO memory warning: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/team-group-ceo-warns-memory-crisis-could-reach-point-where-even-money-cant-buy-goods-will-get-worse-next-year-with-no-downward-trend-in-price-whatsoever
  17. TechRadar — DDR5 +544%, 3-year forecast: https://www.techradar.com/computing/memory/ram-to-see-meaningful-price-increases-before-2026-is-out-as-the-memory-crisis-is-predicted-to-last-at-least-another-3-years
  18. Tom's Hardware — iBuyPower Black Friday: https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/gaming-pcs/save-up-to-usd800-on-an-ibuypower-gaming-pc-right-now-in-this-massive-black-friday-sale-coupon-code-knocks-up-to-usd200-extra-off-high-spec-pre-built-rigs-fitted-with-nvidia-and-amd-gpus
  19. CyberPowerPC — Mega Special: https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/page/Mega-Special/
  20. Tom's Hardware — GPU price tracking: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/lowest-gpu-prices-tracking
  21. Hardware Unboxed Podcast — "Jensen is Gone. What Happens to Nvidia?" (video embedded in Section 1 above; youtube.com/watch?v=8K6B92DRLyo)
  22. Hardware Unboxed — "Is The RTX 5070 Ti Next to Go?" (youtube.com/watch?v=5KN7-Bfp2do)
  23. Amazon US/CA — live product listings checked Nov 14, 2026 via realtime pricing API.

Reviewed by Ryan, PC hardware reviewer at nxpc / NXagents.net. Prices checked November 14, 2026, Amazon US + Canada. Prices can change.

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