So....let's think critically for 20 seconds collectively.
If AMD has been manufacturing these (through their partners) for a few months, and if they've designed production such that it will stabilize over time, they maybe have a few months of average demand stock. Let's throw out some round numbers so people aren't stupid about this. AMD projects 2 years of sales, 100 units a month, so 2*12*100 = 2400 units sold. Their actual demand is instantly several months of cards, then quickly tapering to their 100 percent average. Think 500 sold in month one, 300 in month 2, then 100 in month 3. This means that to meet demand without any scarcity they need about 6 months of production before releasing anything (600+100+100-500-300=0)
Do any of you understand anything about actual manufacturing, or is this an entire forum of entitled idiots who believe that everything is a paper launch. I mean, if AMD came to the 500 demand with 300 cards, Nvidia came to the 500 demand with half a dozen. That's a paper launch.
This doesn't happen with other stuff because they literally spend months building a release pool. AIBs can't exactly afford to sit on silicon this expensive for months, because the payback terms stack for each step. Nvidia has to pay TSMC. AIBs have to pay Nvidia. Stores have to pay AIBs. If everyone is on 90 day terms, then we could be seeing them having to have floating inventory for months that would be a huge financial issue. Let's thought process that. TSMC manufactures a wafer, and pays for it out of pocket. Nvidia buys a finished wafer, and has a month to separate and distribute the chips. January->February. The AIB gets the silicon, and fabricates a card out of it. March. The card is shipped to a retailer, and it's turned around real quick. It's only a month, so April. That means a chunk of silicon takes 120 days to be in the hands of the consumer...and assuming they pay in cash everyone can start getting paid. So...TSMC is holding the bag for 120+90 days from the moment they pay out the silicon wafer manufacturer...assuming you ignore their repayment terms and customers who use a credit card with their own repayment terms.
Hopefully this illustrates why bemoaning a lack of supply day one is silly...but I'm guessing the entitlement runs too deeply here for people to get it. "My iPhone is available day one" is only possible because Apple can sit on their hardware for months to bank build for release, because their assembly houses can be bought and sold as commodity. Companies that truly have stable demand, like GPUs do right now, need to actually have a plan to build.
So we are clear, this is why I would hazard to say AMD has been building these cards for months...given 2+ minutes of availability. Nvidia probably started building the 5000 series in late December and early January...hence their actual inventory was the first pass of starting processes. That's like having 100 demand and getting 60 because you don't know your process well enough to hit the 120 you actually can get once all of the processes mature and stabilize.
