When Nvidia launched its RTX 3000 GPUs, the availability of the cards was less than great, with demand far outstripping supply, leading to a shortage. Now a new report suggests the problem is about to get worse. 

European hardware retailer Alternate, which operates in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, has spoken with Nvidia about availability and confirmed that, throughout the first quarter, the cards would be even more difficult to come by than before.

What to Expect?

Alternate spoke with Nvidia about each of the cards, with the following situations:

• RTX 3090: Very few deliveries, but only a few open orders
• RTX 3080: Very few cards coming with many open orders
• RTX 3070: Few cards incoming, but few open orders
• RTX 3060 Ti: Very few cards coming, and a moderately high amount of open orders

The chart is clear: if you’re in the market for an RTX 3080 or an RTX 3060 Ti, chances are you’ll have to sit through quite a wait before a card is available for you due to a high number of open orders and very few card deliveries from distributors. 

The retailer has a waiting list in the order of placed orders. Your luck will be better with RTX 3070 and RTX 3090 cards, as although these also don’t have huge shipments coming, they aren’t nearly as popular and thus have shorter waiting lists.

Multiple Contributing Factors

Of course, the most obvious factor at hand is that demand is far outstripping supply, and Nvidia simply cannot make enough GPUs amidst the current pandemic. But that’s not all, and Q1 is set to be especially bad for two additional reasons:

Chinese new year, and reduced availability of raw materials for making the new cards. Nvidia is unable to source enough raw materials for GPU production, likely due to shortages further up the supply chain — similar to how chip packaging is holding up AMD’s supply due to a shortage of substrate packaging. 

Meanwhile, the Chinese new year is taking place on February 12th, which means many factories will close for one or two weeks — further contributing to the manufacturing shortages.

Prices On The Rise

Alternate goes on to explain that if you had already placed an order previously, your price will remain and you will keep your position in the waiting list — but prices will be on the rise due to the reduced demand.

Dutch retailer Megekko is also filtering open orders and canceling and crediting those with multiple GPUs per order to try and weed out scalpers.

Of course, this is all information stemming from European retailers, but from what we’re seeing, the situation is no different in the US — and both continents’ products come from the same production lines, and the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3080 also appear to be most popular here.