Nvidia is expecting its GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 stock to remain tight through the remainder of the year and beyond. The news came from Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang, who has a complete picture of manufacturing speed, as well as the logistics of bringing the product to market. The problem is being billed as a demand issue rather than a supply one.
Nvidia's RTX 30 Series was described by Huang as the biggest generational leap ever for its powerful GPUs and the public took notice. Demand for every new Nvidia GeForce card has been off the charts. Within seconds of the RTX 3080 launching, it sold out. The same scenario played out with the top-priced RTX 3090, also selling out very quickly. Part of the issue with the RTX 3080 was said to be from bots and scalpers, although that explanation was not given when the RTX 3090 sold out. Instead Nvidia stated that it didn't expect its top-end card to sell quite as well as it did.
Nvidia has ramped up production as far as possible, but admits it still won't be able to keep up with demand. During the Q&A segment of Nvidia's 2020 GPU Technology Conference (GTC), CEO Jensen Huang, stated that he believes demand will continue to surpass the company's supply throughout the remainder of the year. As reported by Tom’s Hardware, Huang referenced the Holiday season as an extra pressure, as well as what was referred to as an 'Ampere factor.' Ampere is the name of the technology powering the latest GPUs, which feature breathtaking performance advances at a range of prices that start at $499.
What Does This Mean For Nvidia & AMD?
Nvidia has previously said it expected demand to be high, even though the company was still caught off guard by the huge amount of sales that drained stock nearly instantly. Even if Nvidia had known about the incredible interest in advance, it may not have been possible to produce the advanced tech required quickly enough to satisfy buyers. While Nvidia seemingly did a good of a job creating and promoting, and is likely to be thrilled by the initial success, it also likely regrets the missed opportunity to sell even more.
Meanwhile, this provides AMD more time to enter the race with its AMD Radeon RT 6000 Series, which is launching at the end of October. Some gamers might have held off on any new graphics card purchases to find out what sort of challenge Big Navi would present, and some of this Nvidia hunger will undoubtedly benefit AMD. With the RTX 3070 also anticipated to sell quickly, being the lowest priced new GPU from Nvidia, the fervor for gaming appears to only be increasing.
Source: Tom's Hardware