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Hardware shortages

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Hardware shortages

Unread postby icycalm » 11 Apr 2021 17:46

Still can't find the newest Nvidia cards and AMD processors that launched half a year ago at MSRP. At least 50% markups, if you can find them. I had thought the shortages would last a couple of months, but this is ridiculous. Does the plague play a part, or is it all due to the cryptoboom?

If I get to 50k+ I am buying the stuff anyway, even at 50% up. I have almost all the components for a new PC. All I really need is the graphics and the CPU.
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Unread postby shubn » 11 Apr 2021 21:03

I recall some fairly recent articles saying it may last well into 2022, and that both the wuflu and crypto were to blame. I don't remember the exact articles, I just googled "rtx shortages" or something. I'd forget about MSRP for a while to be honest.

I managed to snatch an MSI RTX 3090 SUPRIM X 24G for 2349 yurocoins, and still had to wait three weeks for it to be delivered (got it last week). The reason I went for the 3090, other than performance, was to bypass the poors, some of whom I hear are still waiting for the 3080 they ordered six months ago. The price of 3090s increased even more recently, at least here in the Netherlands, and they are currently going for anywhere between 2700 and 3200 yurocoins depending on the model (megekko.nl sells the SUPRIM X for €3090 lol). Though at least they are in stock.

As for AMD CPUs, the R7 5800X is in stock here in NL for €450, which I believe is its MSRP, so maybe this model is not affected by the shortages. So that's what I bought. I was originally going to go for an R9, but they're not in stock, and the difference in performance didn't seem important enough to warrant waiting.
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Unread postby icycalm » 15 Jul 2021 23:28

In this search results page you can see AMAZON scalping 3090s now: https://www.amazon.es/s?k=3090

Several brands of 3090s are being sold by Amazon from around 2,300 euros to close to 3,000.

I've never seen Amazon scalp before.

What's the point of announcing new processors, graphics cards, and even crap like the Steam portable, when they won't be able to manufacture any?

Processors seem EVEN HARDER to find than graphics cards at this point!

Even high-end gaming laptops you can barely find any.

This shit is just stupid at this point. They don't even have the crypto excuse anymore, as that market is dormant. There has to be some deeper reason. Has the earth ran out of silicon? The companies stopped liking money? WTF is going on?!
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Unread postby icycalm » 17 Jul 2021 21:04

Inside the GPU Shortage: Why You Still Can't Buy a Graphics Card
https://www.pcmag.com/news/inside-the-g ... phics-card

Nothing too mindblowing, just a plain breakdown of the reasons for the shortages. It cured me of my conspiracy theories at least. And people ARE getting their cards, it’s just the more dedicated people for the time being, who don’t mind investing more time and money than everyone else. Eventually they’ll all get their gear, and it’ll be time for the lazier and poorer.

One thing the article didn’t explain is the CPU shortages. I guess they are made in the same factories.
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Unread postby icycalm » 21 Jul 2021 14:46

As the GPU supply crisis eases it's budget PC gamers who could suffer
https://www.pcgamer.com/gpu-supply-problems-easing/

Dave James wrote:PC gaming analysts are predicting a recovery from supply problems, but at the high end only.


Dave James wrote:If you're trying to find a mid-range graphics card you're out of luck right now. As companies fight to get a semblance of stock on the shelves they're focusing on the high-margin, high-end cards, because they know those will sell. And because, y'know, capitalism.

Almost every day on r/nvidia there's another shot of shelves in Micro Center or Best Buy filled with either GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or GeForce RTX 3090 cards, neither of which you could call 'within reach' in anything but a physical sense.

This might not just be a short term situation either. Head honcho of JPR, Jon Peddie himself, stated that, because "High-End graphics cards (Add-In Boards) maintain MSRP well and can be sold as Mid-Range products for years after production. This may encourage manufacturers to aggressively stock High-End inventory levels to prevent what we saw happen since COVID-19 lockdowns were initiated."

Which could be all kinds of concerning for those of us who can't afford to spend $700+ on a new GPU and have come to rely on mainstream heroes like the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT or GeForce GTX 1650 Super for our gaming rigs.

Traditionally those sorts of sub-$200 graphics cards have been the volume plays for manufacturers, the ones made in greater numbers because they always sold in greater numbers too. But if manufacturers start hedging their bets on future supply issues by overstocking high-end GPUs instead, budget PC gamers are going to be left out in the cold.

EXTRA COMMENTS FROM JPR

However Ted Pollak, the author of the report, elaborated on his thoughts to us, stating that JPR is predicting "additive stocking of inventory at the high-end... not at the expense of the mid-range segment."

Maybe manufacturers will aggressively stock high-end graphics cards as well as the more affordable GPUs, but if the current stock shortage has taught us anything it's that if there are only high-end options available, that's what gets bought. Those would be dangerous learnings however, and potentially ruinous ones for the hobby if manufacturers took that short term effect as a permanent state of affairs.

But it also feels like something that's coming from the top down. Where are the RTX 3050 or RX 6600 cards from Nvidia and AMD, for example? When you have a finite number of GPUs you can manufacture with Samsung and TSMC respectively—and all the expensive, high-margin ones you make are selling out—you're not going to take a chunk out of that supply to instead make the same number of cheaper cards.

Pollak reiterated Peddie's statement that "the high-end cards, if they don't sell, can be sold as mid-range cards a year or more later. This will buffer things a bit. It may affect the margin of the company a little on the GPU part of their business, but if they can't supply all the parts needed in a crunch then their whole business margin is in trouble."

Which does make sense from a long-term viewpoint. But it bears remembering what happened the last time there was a GPU shortage and Nvidia and AMD boosted the supply of cards to compensate. Both were left holding a whole lot of unwanted GPUs when the crypto demand tailed off, and that pushed back subsequent generations quite a way while they tried to drive down stock levels.

Whether the manufacturers will be willing to hold on to extra high-end stock beyond the launch of the next generation GPUs remains to be seen. Certainly that wasn't the approach the last time around.

But times are different now; precisely how different I guess we'll see when the true mainstream GPUs from this generation do launch. If there is ample stock of those alongside high-end cards we'll know that manufacturers are willing to take the potential hit.

In the end though, when the supply shortage is over, it's still going to take a while for the industry to normalise to the benefit of PC gamers with limited budgets. Well, fingers crossed it does eventually normalise anyway.
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Re: Hardware shortages

Unread postby icycalm » 04 May 2022 08:20

3090 down to €1,879 on Nazi Amazon: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Zotac-3090-T ... B08TZD9SH9

It's not one of the best models, but it's still a 3090.

They seem to have a lot of them too. Usually it would say they only have two or three, but now it just says "in stock".

They also have 3090 Tis for a few hundred bucks more.

However, with 4090 coming at the end of the year, it might be a bit too late to get a 3090 now, especially considering how large the speed boost is expected to be.

Next-Gen NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 With Top AD102 GPU Could Be The First Gaming Graphics Card To Break Past 100 TFLOPs
https://wccftech.com/next-gen-nvidia-ge ... 100-tflops

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That said, it's the first time in my life that I am not really excited about any of this. What will I play with the 4090 anyway? I pretty much no longer play artificially stupid open-world games, and there aren't any good strategy/tactics titles coming out that could use the resolution boost. Everything is stagnating because of low subhuman IQ. The only games I am interested in are GMRPGs, and they have no use for 4090s. I mean, you CAN run a twice-larger TaleSpire board with it, but the entire group would have to have 4090s, not just me, so it's pointless, they will never buy it except maybe one-two guys.

I am still following this stuff out of inertia—I've been doing it all my life after all—but I don't care much anymore.

I will of course make an 8K system and run PA on it if crypto goes up.
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