Even in an industry where launch stock shortages are incredibly common, the release of Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3090 and 3080 has still managed to surprise gamers with a combination of very limited stock and incredibly high demand. Now Nvidia have confirmed what many were expecting, that the shortages are unlikely to end before the new year, and may even carry on into 2021.
Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang revealed the news during a press Q&A, stating, "I believe that demand will outstrip all of our supply through the year." Huang says that the combination of the holiday season with already massive demand for the Ampere based RTX 30 Series will give Nvidia a huge end to the year, but the company won't be able to provide sufficient stock for everyone.
Huang described the issues as a demand problem rather than a supply problem. "The demand issue is that it is much much greater than we expected — and we expected really a lot." He refers to the continuing demand as a phenomenon that "harkens back to the old days of Windows 95 and Pentium processors," and that even by ramping up production, Nvidia is simply unable to meet such extreme levels of demand from gamers.
The launch of the RTX 3080 and to a lesser extent the RTX 3090 have been seen by many as a disaster, with stock selling out instantly due to bots, and a market now dominated by scalpers on sites like Amazon and eBay offering the cards for thousands of dollars. Rumors have circulated for some time that Nvidia has struggled with chip yields from the Samsung 8 nm process that Ampere uses, impacting stock availability, although the company says that yields are going well. Positively, Nvidia has delayed the launch of the RTX 3070 to try and build up a larger base of stock for the launch, although the $499 card is expected to sell out almost instantly regardless.
Hopefully the remarkably strong demand for the RTX 30 Series will help remind Nvidia and other hardware manufacturers that adding competitive pricing to strong products is a recipe for sales success. Perhaps AMD will take note and bring equally sharp pricing for its RX 6000 range due to be announced on October 28. The issue of tight supply for new products is unlikely to go away, but as gamers get frustrated with so called paper launches and soft launches, hopefully manufacturers will try and prioritize stock levels a little more. AMD has already suggested that it expects to have better supply of its new cards than Nvidia's launch.
As always, the best advice to minimize the impact of hardware supply issues in the future remains the same - if gamers stop buying from scalpers, they are less likely to try and grab all the stock next time around.
Nvidia RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 are available in very limited quantities now.
Source: Toms Hardware