Nvidia graphics cards including the popular RTX 3080 will likely remain in short supply throughout the year.
Nvidia CFO Colette Kress warned as much at a recent investors meeting, as our friends at Techradar reported. “We expect demand to continue to exceed supply for much of this year,” Kress said. Offering a glimmer of hope to those looking to build a new PC or upgrade their GPU sooner rather than later, Kress later added that “we expect our supplies to increase as the year progresses.” So while the chip shortage behind this GPU drought not to mention the ongoing lack of PS5 stock and Xbox Series X stock may not end this year, Nvidia does expect to improve the supply situation somewhat.
That means the difficulties of finding a new 30-series GPU will likely continue, possibly into 2022. Nvidia previously warned that supplies would “likely remain lean” through its fiscal Q1, and now that we’re approaching that milestone (end of April) it’s clear that supply hasn’t improved significantly to meet demand.
TSMC and Intel are also both warning that chip supply issues could last through 2022. The global chip shortage has forced some car manufacturers to scale back production, and consumers have found it near impossible to find new graphics cards, CPUs, PS5s, and Xboxes.
Nvidia does note that despite the issues, supply should still increase as 2021 progresses. “We will see supply continue to increase throughout this quarter as well as throughout the year,” said Kress. Regardless, it’s still going to be difficult to find a new GPU when you have to compete with fellow gamers, cryptominers, and scalpers that are pushing the real prices of GPUs way out of control.
