NVIDIA: RTX 30-series Shortages Partly Caused by Insufficient Wafer, Substrate and Component Supply

[Raevenlord]

The current widespread shortages on anything gaming-related (be it gaming consoles or the latest GPUs from both NVIDIA and AMD) are a well-known quantity by now. However, it now seems that NVIDIA's shortages aren't just the result of "outstanding, unprecedented demand", aided by scalping practices, but also from wafer and component shortages. NVIDIA's CFO Colette Kress at Credit Suisse 24th Annual Technology Conference expanded on these issues, saying that "We do have supply constraints and our supply constraints do expand past what we are seeing in terms of wafers and silicon, but yes some constraints are in substrates and components. We continue to work during the quarter on our supply and we believe though that demand will probably exceed supply in Q4 for overall gaming."

There was no further information on exactly which components are experiencing shortages. An educated guess might pin some of these issues on the exotic GDDR6X memory subsystem on high-tier Ampere graphics cards, but there could be other factors at play here. If NVIDIA did underestimate demand for its Ampere graphics cards, though, that will make it that much harder for the company to ramp up orders (and hence production) with Samsung - semiconductor manufacturing works with several months of lead time between orders and their actual fulfillment.





Kress further expanded on NVIDIA's optimism towards solving these supply issues, saying that "We do expect it probably to take a couple months for it to catch up to demand, but at this time, it is really difficult for us to quantify. So, we stay focused on trying to get our parts to the market for this very important holiday season. Each day things continue to improve. But before the end of the quarter, we will be able to provide some more information." That would of course bring joy to a number of customers who are waiting patiently - or not - towards being able to actually spend their money on NVIDIA's latest products. The sight of requested and fulfilled orders with retailers is, after all, a modern horror story.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[lepudruk]

With "Partly" being a keyword here...

 

[fynxer]

Yep, lots of problems in many places.

nvidia is so hot for profit they can't even hold back from selling Ampere cards to upgrading miners. They reported that they sold for approx $175 million to miners.

Also graphic card manufacturers now reportedly allocating 3080 stock to build their own branded gaming PC's like MSI creating extreme scarcity before xmas.

Some retailer are using the scarcity to push prices to almost scalping levels before xmas specially now after AMD's totally failed release of the 6800 series.

nvidia also stop selling their FE cards in the rest of the world except US creating even more scarcity and higher prices in many regions.

Many large retailers are taking to much orders of 3080 with out having any confirmed delivery's creating very long queue. Because ordering is open this way lots of people put in orders at many different retailers trying to get cards creating even longer inflated queues. Then when these people start getting delivery's they scalp the extra cards just because they can make money. So the scarcity is also creating new scalpers, people that would not normally scalp starts scalping making the problem with scalping even worse.

+more +more +more ............

 

[Vayra86]

I don't understand why people think there is a deliberate move here from Nvidia to 'keep GPUs away from the DIY market'.

It doesn't make sense. First they pre-empt a Navi launch and now they don't want to sell? What kind of asylum logic is this?

We've heard the scalper story, now the miner story and the OEM story, as if there is some grand conspiracy to keep GPUs away from general gaming market share. If I were a shareholder I'd be scratching my head hearing that train of thought. Or just shrug and move on.

In the end Nvidia is just another company getting in line to get its stuff produced, and the line is crowded.

 

[Object55]

Strange they misspelled greed with (insufficient wafer,subrtate and component supply)

 

[mb194dc]

GDDR6X shortage is no surprise as only Micron make it.

That is probably why 3060 Ti using regular GDDR6 is rumoured to have the same total launch stock as all the rest of the 30xx series combined.

Not too bothered myself happy to wait 12 or 18 months to upgrade to 4k, HDR and what not anyway.

 

[Vya Domus]

We do expect it probably to take a couple months for it to catch up to demand

This makes no sense, catching up to the demand implies that there is a surplus of wafers and components, that way the you can not only fulfill existing orders but also future ones. Had that been the case, there shouldn't have been a supply issue to begin with. In another words, if they ever "catch up" it's going to be because the demand slows down.

But what I really can't get over is the fact that they still wont admit it's a supply issue not a demand one. Arrogant as usual.

 

[Zmon]

GDDR6X shortage is no surprise as only Micron make it.

That is probably why 3060 Ti using regular GDDR6 is rumoured to have the same total launch stock as all the rest of the 30xx series combined.

Not too bothered myself happy to wait 12 or 18 months to upgrade to 4k, HDR and what not anyway.

To be fair, the 3070 is also using regular GDDR6.

 

[SIGSEGV]

NVIDIA PR bullshit.

 

[Tomorrow]

scalper story

That is still the case. Tho now even scalpers have hard time securing orders lol.

miner story

Well that makes sense. It's easier to ship a bunch of chips to one buyer than ten AIB's.

In the end Nvidia is just another company getting in line to get its stuff produced, and the line is crowded.

By what exactly? Micron is not producing G6X for anyone else at the moment and Samsung is not producing GPU's for anyone else. So i don't buy it.

Also G6X is not the issue. 3090 has the best stock. Partly because of the high initial price and poor value but it also uses 24 of those G6X chips. Considering the memory chip size and ease of production compared to GPU's i highly doubt that's the problem.

 

[Xaled]

Supp-lies issues yeah.

 

[dicobalt]

EDIT: Just managed to buy a 5600X on Amazon after a week of using a stock notification service.

I've given up on trying to get a CPU this year, and I'm upgrading from an ancient i5-3570, and have been trying to get a 5600X. Since I have to wait I think i'll get the cheaper 5600 non-X instead. Then I'll pair that with a cheaper less hyped 3060 non-Ti or 3050 Ti.

 

[TechLurker]

It's also worth mentioning that production facilities and supply lines haven't really expanded between the last big release and now. As well, we're still in a situation where far more people are forced to stay home than ever, and as a result, are trying to upgrade or build home PCs to help pass the time (or use for work in the event the company doesn't let people borrow/rent corporate PCs). So there's a lot more demand than 2-4 years back when more people could instead go out for social pleasures or to workplaces. It's also quite likely that there won't be any real expansion of the supply lines, as even pessimistic predictions put the viral wave as lasting for another year or two (compared to facilities taking 2 years or more to upgrade or expand).

That said, given that we're seeing boutique builders and OEMs selling completed PCs with the newest cards, it seems like those are prioritized for greater, stable bulk sales. Not too surprising given that the DIY market was always lower than the OEM market.

 

[londiste]

nvidia is so hot for profit they can't even hold back from selling Ampere cards to upgrading miners. They reported that they sold for approx $175 million to miners.

C'mon. Nvidia reported that they sold stuff to miners for $175M instead of the planned $150M. As far as we can see the Ampere connection is coming from an analyst and that single opinion got to every news bit as a fact.

 

[stimpy88]

Deflection timed to a T, nVidia. Just as few days after those nasty reports of you selling your stock to Miners.

 

[Solaris17]

I'm sure as a for-profit company nvidia is just beside themselves with grief that they sold all their stock, to miners no less.

 

[Chomiq]

I'm sure as a for-profit company nvidia is just beside themselves with grief that they sold all their stock, to miners no less.

"Look at all these gamers buying 10 gpus at once, we have a bright future ahead of us!". Fast forward to one year later when investors ask why the drop in demand from "gamers" happened at the same time that mining craze slowed down.

 

[Solaris17]

"Look at all these gamers buying 10 gpus at once, we have a bright future ahead of us!". Fast forward to one year later when investors ask why the drop in demand from "gamers" happened at the same time that mining craze slowed down.

I don't think the investors care. At Least not the ones putting in enough money to influence the company's direction; not about gamers anyway. They will care a lot more when nvidia ramps production and the mining craze dies on GPUs maybe architectures from now. And the sales from gamers don't generate near as much revenue.

I don't defend anyone, but to think gamers are what is currently paying people at nvidia is an oversight. In my opinion anyway. It sucks we can't get cards and the prices are ridiculous. I am sure capitalist karma will get them, but it won't be Q1 2021.

 

[RandallFlagg]

I posted this in a different thread earlier, but plenty of gamers are getting their hands on these cards.

Steam survey - 3080 now outnumbers 5500XT and is on par with 5600XT and 5700.

Edit: If it continues to grow at this rate (I don't think it will) by end of Jan it would be on par with GTX 950 and RX 560, and by April it would be around the same number as 2080 / 2080 Super / 2080 Ti users :

 

[Calmmo]

Once i get mine it'll go up to 0.24%

 

[mouacyk]

Who are these 0.23%? Do they also own a Bounce Alert subscription?

 

[MikeSnow]

This makes no sense, catching up to the demand implies that there is a surplus of wafers and components, that way the you can not only fulfill existing orders but also future ones.

Makes perfect sense. Catching up implies they are behind in what they and their suppliers needed to deliver to fulfil the demand. Or, more clearly, the supply level needs to get closer to the demand level.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Hmm wafer and component supply problems? Almost like I have been saying that since the 3080 came out.

 

[Fluffmeister]

I posted this in a different thread earlier, but plenty of gamers are getting their hands on these cards.

Steam survey - 3080 now outnumbers 5500XT and is on par with 5600XT and 5700.

Edit: If it continues to grow at this rate (I don't think it will) by end of Jan it would be on par with GTX 950 and RX 560, and by April it would be around the same number as 2080 / 2080 Super / 2080 Ti users :

View attachment 178021

That's pretty impressive, the cards are out there... but blink and you'll miss them.

 

[RandallFlagg]

That's pretty impressive, the cards are out there... but blink and you'll miss them.

Yeah it actually lends a lot of credence to the high demand argument.

However, I bet most of these are coming in via OEM / Prebuilt market. I haven't seen Dell sell out completely at any point with their Alienwares, for example - and they sell a ton this time of year. At least for the last 3 weeks, if you're buying an entire rig and want Ampere, you have a lot of choices as they are all over the place on Amazon.