The shortage of graphics cards is a fact, and we realize it when we go to a store to buy. The RTX 3000 and RX 6000 are absent for certain reasons, so we have delved into them and give you our forecast for a return to normality.
It seems that the stage of 2017 was not going to be repeated, but in 3 years the mining boom has been uncovered again, but there are other factors that condition this lack of stock in GPUs. The start date is pointed to November, at which time the first Radeon RX 6000 and NVIDIA RTX 30 were launched on the market. Speculators, miners, manufacturers, who is the real culprit in this situation?
Why is there a shortage of graphics cards in 2021
We have addressed the problem by going to the newspaper library, as well as the current situation we are experiencing. It seems that the situation of the pandemic has been controlled in other countries, but Spain continues to be affected and requires measures to take control. However, is that the problem?
Chip production decline at TSMC and Samsung
Oligopolies often have the same problem: when demand is huge, shortages can occur. In a market where there are many competitors, demand is usually better controlled.
If we go to the semiconductor manufacturing sector, we find 3 main ones: TSMC, Samsung and GlobalFoundries. However, when companies are looking for advanced lithography (less than 10nm) they only find 2 options: TSMC or Samsung.
What happens here is that TSMC and Samsung have many powerful clients: NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Apple, AMD, Sony, Microsoft, Huawei, etc. So far, the most overwhelmed is TSMC, since it must attend to many fronts:
- Manufacture of Qualcomm and Apple SoCs.
- Manufacture of AMD Zen 2 SoCs for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S / X.
- Manufacture of AMD Ryzen, Threadripper and EPYC processors.
- Manufacture of RX 6000 GPUs.
Samsung has several clients other than NVIDIA, which also makes it difficult for it to offer a large production capacity for the manufacture of the RTX 3000. That said, it has managed to stock more products than TSMC.
And is that TSMC and Samsung are the only semiconductor manufacturers that can mass-produce chips with 8nm, 7nm, and even 5nm nodes. So, you have to "die" to them, so the shortage is inevitable, seeing that the market for GPUs has grown a lot.
What solution is there? Create more factories, something that both TSMC and Samsung are working on. Specifically, the Taiwanese manufacturer wants to complete a factory for the manufacture of the 3nm process.
Mining
One of the determinants of a shortage of graphics cards is the increase in demand in a crazy way. In this case, mining has spiked again, resulting in massive purchases of RTX 3000 GPUs.
The big problem with mining is that customers are not demanding 1 or 2 GPUs, but instead looking to build RIGs with more than 10 GPUs. This leaves other customers without product, so:
- Demand> Supply -> product shortage = higher prices.
Many people point to Bitcoin, but the truth is that the boom is in Ethereum, a cryptocurrency that has gained a lot of value. So users have created Discord bots and groups to organize themselves for quick and massive purchases.
Clearly, this produces a shortage in graphics cards, but at Professional Review we do not condemn only one collective. A market cannot depend only on the miners; And if so, it means that the manufacturers are not doing their job.
Resale in marketplaces, forums and platforms: eBay, Wallapop
eBay and StockX are the 2 marketplaces chosen by resellers in order to profit from their RTX 3000 or RX 6000. We have to say that NVIDIA has more presence in the market, in addition to not having as much price premium as the RX 6000.
If you buy for € 700, offers for 900 and the user buys, rest assured that the price of the GPUs will be more expensive. In the end, it is a domino effect in which several reasons come together: low manufacturing, high demand for mining, resale interests ... nothing can come out of this “vicious circle” well.
There is not as much activity on the forums, but eBay, StockX, and Wallapop have been the reseller channels of choice for resellers. The problem is not only that they want to profit, but that users are willing to pay € 200 above their recommended retail price.
Online stores prefer to sell pre-assembled equipment
To a lesser extent, we see how certain online stores decide to buy GPUs and mount them on a PC to sell it at a higher price. Of course, finding the availability of the GPU separately is much more complicated, which can push certain users to buy an entire PC without having to change all the parts.
In this way, the GPU surcharge is hidden by further raising the price of the final PC. The impact of the rise is not so much in the eyes of the consumer, since you are buying a PC assembled and ready to work. And it is that you not only buy a GPU, but a CPU, motherboard, RAM, source, heatsink, etc.
This practice is being carried out by many online stores, so check the final price of the equipment well because it may surprise you.
When will the RTX 3000 and RX 6000 be in stock?
We're sorry to give you bad news, but at the very least, AMD and NVIDIA have predicted that the graphics card shortage will last into the first half of 2021. After the summer, God will tell, but it doesn't look like it can be fixed right away or in the short term.
It has been argued that, because of the pandemic, there are fewer workers in factories, preventing the production rate from being the same as before.
And the graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA for mining? One might think that this would improve the stock, but we would still have a problem: the bottleneck at Samsung and TSMC when it comes to making chips. To all the orders that Samsung and TSMC already have, we should add the NVIDIA CMP and AMD RX 5000 XTB products.
Therefore, what is solved on the one hand, worsens on the other :
- Mining would not affect gaming graphics cards.
- But it would affect the order queue that TSMC and Samsung have.
I need to buy a GPU, what do I do?
This is the scenario that many find themselves in, which is unfortunate and unpleasant. Going to an online store in search of a product, not finding it, or finding it overpriced, is not a dish of good taste for anyone.
The options you have are the following:
- Buy an RTX 3000 or RX 6000 with a premium on an external portal (eBay or StockX). We do not recommend buying second-hand or sealed GPUs from outsiders for warranty or replacement purposes. Beware of buying from StockX US because we may experience customs problems, having to pay duties and VAT (Spain).
- Buy a previous generation GPU (RX 5700 XT or RTX 2000). They are not spared from the overpricing, but they cost considerably less than the Ampere or RDNA 2 GPUs. Of course, we will be buying a somewhat outdated technology whose performance is going to be worse.
- Buy a complete PC or a gaming laptop. They are also not spared from the price premium, but we have seen more availability in the RTX 3000 Mobile. Of course, we know that it is not a solution for many of you, not to mention that AMD plans to launch the RX 6000M in the short term.
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