Thursday, March 25th 2021
ASUS: "Lower Yields Upstream" Responsible for Lack of NVIDIA Chips
In a recent ASUS investor call from March 17th, a company representative explained the company's financial outlook and what it sees as its successes and failures in Q42020. In it, the company referenced the lack of NVIDIA graphics cards to satisfy demand as one of the major hurdles it has had to face. As the company said, "Our guess is that the gap might have been caused by lower yields upstream. As for when [Nvidia] can increase that yield is something hard for us to predict."
This is likely the clearest indicator we've had since NVIDIA's RTX 30-series launch that there is more than a demand problem for NVIDIA's Ampere graphics cards - there's a yield one as well. NVIDIA could have simply failed to predict demand for its graphics cards in wake of the recent cryptomining craze, and asome theorize a miscalculated allocation of wafers with Samsung on expectations of lower demand post-holiday season. That one doesn't make much sense, as by that time, COVID and its effects on tech market demand were already pretty clear. And while NVIDIA certainly doesn't have all available capacity at Samsung's 8 nm at its disposal, there should certainly be more available capacity for NVIDIA's RTX 30-series than say, for AMD's Navi graphics cards, which have to share the 7 nm wafers with virtually all other AMD products (from CPUs to mobile chips to enterprise solutions). The idea of lower upstream yields than would be ideal for NVIDIA does certainly come as a possible reason - a change in foundry partner comes with certain additional difficulties in adapting the design to that given processes' strengths and issues. As always, we'll just have to wait and see.
Sources:
via TechSpot, ASUS
This is likely the clearest indicator we've had since NVIDIA's RTX 30-series launch that there is more than a demand problem for NVIDIA's Ampere graphics cards - there's a yield one as well. NVIDIA could have simply failed to predict demand for its graphics cards in wake of the recent cryptomining craze, and asome theorize a miscalculated allocation of wafers with Samsung on expectations of lower demand post-holiday season. That one doesn't make much sense, as by that time, COVID and its effects on tech market demand were already pretty clear. And while NVIDIA certainly doesn't have all available capacity at Samsung's 8 nm at its disposal, there should certainly be more available capacity for NVIDIA's RTX 30-series than say, for AMD's Navi graphics cards, which have to share the 7 nm wafers with virtually all other AMD products (from CPUs to mobile chips to enterprise solutions). The idea of lower upstream yields than would be ideal for NVIDIA does certainly come as a possible reason - a change in foundry partner comes with certain additional difficulties in adapting the design to that given processes' strengths and issues. As always, we'll just have to wait and see.
42 Comments on ASUS: "Lower Yields Upstream" Responsible for Lack of NVIDIA Chips
Also:
Nvidia supplied about 9.1 million of standalone graphics processors for desktop PCs in Q4 2020, about a million more than it shipped in Q4 2019, according to data by Jon Peddie Research.
Basically ASUS is not getting enough components to produce stuff (graphics cards in this case). They do not really know why and throw the "maybe yields" claim into the wind.
I wish category:
Where all Strixes go.
I still hold my opinion that we're seeing a shortage of nvidia GPUs mostly because yields at Samsung's 8 nm fab are bad. As for AMD, their allocation at TSMC goes mostly into console chip production and CPUs, that I personally see a lot more of in stock. Ryzen 5000 series have been widely available in the UK for months now (except for Ryzen 9 chips that tend to run out of stock from time to time).
trog
I still find it hard to believe that any AIB or direct manufacturer had difficulties making enough GPUs to feed a lot of the gamer's needs. All the images floating around with tons of current gen GPUs mining shortly after the GPUs launched (and some even before they officially went on sale).....these places didn't just walk into their local Best Buy and purchase carts or pallets worth of GPUs from them.
Now that so much has gone out to places, other than retail, companies are now having troubles keeping up due to supply being spread out amongst all manufacturers. What better way to shrug off the blame of how the company has behaved other than to point fingers at someone else....
So, here's to Nvidia and Samsung. It is all your fault for the shortage of cards that have made it out gamers. AIB partners are now suffering because your inability to drown these companies in enough chips for them to push out mass production. For shame, Nvidia and Samsung. For shame!
When you put it all together, it's hard to reconcile this with all the "rumours and guesses" we hear every time someone asks the vendors "where are the cards?".
You know where they are, lol, come on!
Strategy for Nvidia was to keep supply low and prices high
Oh, who am I kidding, that's why the article exists, I knew this will happen.
A UK Twitter page posted a link to a clothing website that started to sell MSI products. They accidentally listed a 3080 gaming X trio among the products. They apparently sold 5000 units in 1 day but they didn’t actually have any.
Scan UK had about 500 preorders at the start of the year for the 3080 and they still have over 200 that haven’t been fulfilled yet
really bad here right now!
mindfactory.de
Total Gaming GPU Sales Week 12
Nvidia Units 2255 = 67.61%
Radeon Units 1080 = 32.39%
Radeon Top 5 Selling Brand Line
RX 6700XT = +285 Units.
RX 6800XT = 285 Units.
RX 6800 = 270 Units
RX 6900XT = 170 Units.
RX 550 = 50 Units.
Nvidia Top 5 Selling Brand Lines!
RTX 3070 10GB = 690 Units.
RTX 3060 12GB = 470 Units
GTX 1660 Super = 350 Units.
RTX 2060 6GB = 165 Units.
RTX 3090 24GB = 130 Units.
Anyway, I don't think anybody needs a certain monitor resolution, or a certain input. More depends on the size of your panel. I can imagine you'd want 1440p above 25", but below that, I think 1080 is absolutely fine.
In q4 2020 Nvidia supplied 1 mil gpus more than in q4 2019.
A friend/colleague of mine ordered a Palit 3070 in November. She was #28 on the preorder list. Now she's #2, and has been for the last month. If one of the largest retailers of the UK gets only 26 graphics cards of a certain brand during 5 months, then no sales statistic data can tell me that the situation is nice and shiny. Statistics can easily be falsified.