It's not unusual for supplies of hardware and software products to be limited, but it can be frustrating for those waiting to buy theirs. Nvidia's RTX 30 GPU series is no exception and while supplies are likely to be tight for a while, Nvidia's Chief Financial Officer, Colette Kress, has said the company's graphics cards will become more readily available by Q2 of 2021.
This means that the RTX 30 series will be hard to come by as stock levels are likely to continue to be restricted up until around April or even through May. It's not easy to pinpoint an exact date though, as Nvidia's corporate calendar would put the end of Q1 at the end of April, as opposed to March as is often the case. Overall, it looks as though anyone waiting to get their hands on an RTX 30 GPU is going to have a bit of a wait, which means there will likely be some keen gamers unable to upgrade their systems for upcoming titles.
The announcement was made during the J.P. Morgan Tech/Auto Forum Conference which was held last week. At the conference, Kress confirmed that supplies were likely to remain "lean" through the first quarter, adding that the current supply has not been able to cope with the overwhelming demand. However, she has said that the Nvidia team will be improving supply chains, hoping they can get more stock out to stores as soon as possible.
These constraints have pushed some GPU manufacturers to increase the costs of the RTX 30 graphics cards, particularly in the US. This is likely to be a disappointment to anyone who is on the lookout for one or have been thinking of getting one at the start of 2021. It's hardly surprising that demand is so high. This latest series of RTX GPUs represent a significant leap forward for graphical powers with impressive looking specs to boot. All of which is only going to make fans (especially gaming fans) want one even more.
So, supply does remain tight at this time. We expect the overall channel inventories, meaning the inventories that are with our AIC partners as well as in our e-tail and retail channels will likely remain lean throughout Q1.
Part of the issue with low supplies could also be due to resellers getting their hands on the hardware and reselling it on digital marketplaces for a much higher price. Again, this is unlikely to be good news for potential customers, but hopefully Kress' assurance will come to fruition and stores will start to see supplies of RTX 30 cards by the time April rolls around. It's just worth bearing in mind that it could be a little longer than that, but it may be a good idea to start saving now for when they do become available again.
Source: Seeking Alpha