The rollout of Nvidia's 30 Series of graphics cards has been challenging for all parties involved, to say the least. Despite initial 30 Series cards releasing as far back as September 2020, no card in the line is in stock as of March 2021. Further, Nvidia 30 Series card shipments continue to sell out near-instantly, only for resale cards to appear on eBay and other grey markets with their prices raised to the extreme. As if the status quo wasn't bad enough, it's being reported that shortages should be expected through 2021.
A new report from Digitimes claims that 30 Series cards are going to remain in short supply through the third quarter of 2021. A specific reason for continued shortages isn't provided, but there are references made to Nvidia's issues supplying specific components required to produce 30 Series cards. Specifically, that Samsung is struggling to create enough graphics circuits to meet the demands of Nvidia for its 30 Series graphics cards.
These shortages have previously been confirmed by Nvidia, but only in an ambiguous way. Nvidia said in January that it expected inventories to "remain lean" through the first quarter of 2021. That doesn't mean that it expected improvements going further into the year, of course. And if Digitimes' report is accurate, then the shortages Nvidia mentioned for Q1 will be lasting for at least another two quarters.
Again, just because Digitimes' report says shortages are expected to last through the third quarter of 2021 doesn't mean that they'll improve afterward. And even if they do improve, it's unlikely to improve fast enough to meet demand through the entire year. Further, there's no guarantee that 30 Series production will improve in 2022, either. Exactly how long-term the shortages will remain is completely unknown. Exactly what the problem is and how it gets solved is a mystery many would like to know.
Just because shortages will likely remain in place through 2021 doesn't mean that new 30 Series cards won't be sold, however. Stock for the Nvidia GeForce 3080 RTX gets resupplied occassionally, as does stock for the 3090, 3070, 3060 Ti, and 3060. It just sells out so quickly that it may seem like no stock is being made available, but there's still a chance.
With the delays being what they are, some PC gamers are already questioning whether it would be best to settle for their current configuration until Nvidia's 40 Series cards eventually launch, the hope being that by then, Nvidia will have designed a card and established partnerships that won't face such severe limitations. At this point, anything seems more realistic than waiting for an Nvidia 30 Series graphics card to reliably become available.
Source: Digitimes (via DSO Gaming)