Nvidia RTX 3080 seekers could face shortages through July

Are you still waiting for your chance in line to buy one of the new Nvidia RTX 30-series graphics cards? We have some bad news for you once more.

You’ll likely have to hold out a bit longer to check one out, as a new report indicates that shortages of Nvidia’s latest GPUs might go on until at least mid-summer or July at the earliest.

“Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards are still in short supply, which is unlikely to ease by the third quarter of this year, according to sources at graphics card makers,” notes Digittimes in its latest report.

Citing issues such as the supply chain industry strains from the pandemic, as well as shortages of GDDR6 memory, and Samsung’s problems with producing Nvidia’s Ampere GPU, the publication believes that the shortages facing gamers and PC enthusiasts could go on until the third quarter of 2021. This usually begins in July and goes through September.

That is quite the opposite of what Nvidia’s own Chief Finacial Officer, Collette Kress indicated. Previously, at a conference, she hinted that the shortages would be improved by the second quarter of this year, saying that “e-tail and retail channels will likely remain lean throughout Q1.”

But the root of the shortage issues goes beyond just problems in the industry. It’s well known that so-called crypto-miners are snatching up the available stock of the GPU for use in obtaining digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. One miner even used 78 of Nvidia’s RTX 3080 graphics cards to earn over $20,000 a month.

Since then, Nvidia has discouraged this behavior by introducing a driver update that can detect such mining and throttle the 30-series GPUs when this occurs. They also released special CMP-series graphics cards, too catered to the audience.

So-called scalpers are also profiting, too from impatient buyers who go on to get the GPU from other retailers like eBay. They often buy up the GPU and then resell it for double the price. It has become a $15.2 million dollar industry, according to some reports.

At any rate, DigiTimes reports there is some hope. Apple has released its 5nm and 7nm manufacturing strain on TSMC, the manufacturing and design company used by Nvidia. But it looks as though the RTX 3060, RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, RTX 3080, and RTX 3090 will still be hard to come by for a while.

You might be better off trying to buy one of the new prebuilt systems with the GPUs inside, or try your hand at an RTX 30-series mobile laptop, too.

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