Nvidia held a bunch of announcements during its GPU Technology Conference (GTC) today, including the introduction of its new Ampere-based RTX A6000 GPU for professional users, a new A40 GPU for data centers, and more. During the event, the CEO of the company, Jensen Huang, also said during a chat with the press that the company expects to see supply shortages for the RTX 3080 and 3090 till the end of 2020.
The RTX 30 series GPU line-up was unveiled last month with a heavy focus on the performance improvements over the previous generation at a much more affordable price point. However, the launch of the much-awaited offerings was less than ideal thanks to heavy demand and scalpers hoarding cards. The company even apologized for the hiccups faced by potential customers. While the company did promise to work with retailers to improve the situation, the CEO said today that the “3080 and 3090 have a demand issue, not a supply issue”.
“I believe that demand will outstrip all of our supply through the year. Remember, we"re also going into the double-whammy. The double-whammy is the holiday season. Even before the holiday season, we were doing incredibly well, and then you add on top of it the ‘Ampere factor,’ and then you add on top of that the ‘Ampere holiday factor,’ and we"re going to have a really really big Q4 season”
The executive also likened the demand of the GPUs to the launch of Windows 95 , saying that the demand was beyond the firm’s expectations and that it wouldn’t have been possible to ramp up production at this pace even if they expected demand of this kind. “I appreciate it very much, I just don"t think there"s a real problem to solve. It"s a phenomenon to observe. It"s just a phenomenon”, Huang added.
The company also recently announced that it is delaying the availability of the upcoming RTX 3070 GPU to avoid supply shortages and launch-time hiccups. Considering that the company boasts of a $499 card that beats the RTX 2080Ti in terms of performance, demand is likely to be higher than expected.
Source: Tom’s Hardware