While we faced a number of stock shortages and supply challenges as a result of COVID-19 throughout most of last year, none have been as enduring as the current constraints of NVIDIA’s RTX 30 series of GPUs. The unfortunate truth is that this situation is unlikely to improve until later this year, with shortages potentially even extending well into May.
How bad is it?
For those unaware, the current demand for NVIDIA’s latest graphics cards is at an all-time high, and as a result, production just doesn’t have sufficient capacity to keep up. Even three-year-old cards aren’t available for purchase, and any time these highly sought-after graphics do appear online, they’re snapped up in mere seconds for an extortionate price. The shortage is also affecting the availability of AMD’s new Radeon RX 6000 series, which along with the RTX 30 GPUs are now almost impossible to track down, let alone buy. Previous generations of graphics cards are also sadly out of the question, as these were read their end of life rites when NVIDIA released its latest offering.
What’s causing the shortage?
A number of factors have been deemed responsible for these constraints, the primary of which seems to be a shortage of the materials required for production, such as wafers and silicone. NVIDIA has also stated that a lack of GDDR6 memory is to blame for the delays. COVID-19, of course, has a part to play in this, as shipping and freight costs have felt a substantial impact due to the restrictions imposed by the virus. Online gaming has also increased exponentially over the past year as the confines of lockdown have continued, generating an even greater global surge for GPUs.
Cryptocurrency is a contributor
What hasn’t helped matters is that the value of popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin skyrocketed in recent months. This has meant any graphics cards that do become available are instantly snatched away by eager crypto-miners, as the GPUs are an ideal way of improving the mining process. This is reminiscent of the GPU shortages we experienced as a result of crypto-mining in 2017, however the big difference is that this time around crypto-miners are not the cause of the shortage, but still a large part of the problem.
How might this impact my G2 order?
While we are still experiencing some challenges due to these NVIDIA and AMD stock shortages, we’re doing everything we can to minimise the impact on customer orders. We’re incredibly grateful for your patience during this time, and assure you any G2 products you have yet to receive will be well worth the wait. If you’d like to find out more about these GPU shortages and how they may affect your order, please get in touch with us.
