Previous GPU launches

[LOST TALE]

Are shortages a normal part of GPU launches? Which GPU launches have you observed and not observed it in?

[Wheresmehammer]

No, they are not normal.

[jaslion]

A little. They would be hard to get in the first month and at a higher price then would be a bit harder to get for the correct price in the second month but available and by month 3 prices would be normal and they would be widely available.

[minibois]

Thusfar I've only observed GPU launches first-hand for four years.

AMD: 6000-series, 5000-series, 500-series (didn't see the 400-series launch first hand)

Nvidia: 3000 series, 2000 series (didn't see the 1000-series launch first-hand).

 

 

Of course I don't have to mention 6000 and 3000 series, that is still fresh in our minds.

With AMD 5000 & 500 series I didn't notice a short supply at launch, because those weren't high-end cards. Of course 500-series supply ran dry shortly afterwards, because mining.

With Nvidia 2000 & 1000 series, I noticed a short supply on the high end cards (mainly the 2080 Ti and 1080 Ti) at launch, with the other cards being okay to get.

These shortages didn't last as long as the projected shortage right now.

 

Of course during the mining craze, there were comparable levels of "no stock", but that's something different.

 

The main pattern that I see here, is that supplies will be short if the new cards beat the old ones, since an RTX 3070/RX 6800 and up beat the previous highest end cards.

Obviously this is also a different scenario, because COVID-19, making production & transport much more difficult, together with people's added interest in computer parts.

 

To add onto that with CPU shortages, that was mainly something I noticed with i9 (desktop, not HEDT) and Ryzen 9 chips and of course Ryzen 3 3100X/3300X, but less so with older chips. 

 

[Jurrunio]

shortage always follow GPUs that are attractive to buyers and based on new designs (usually). GTX 1660Ti, people didnt like the price so no shortage. RTX 2080, it's just another 1080ti (cuz RT games are few at that time) so only a little bit of shortage. 2060 and 2070 are literally deemed too bad for RT and faced serious competition from used 1080, 1070ti and 1070. I dont recall these two being under supplied either.

 

[DailyProcrastinator]

Covid is a lot bigger of a factor than people are talking about. Seems like a lot of people forget this. Also demand has greatly increased over Covid, these are two major factors.

 

I won't pretend like I was the source, but I was mentioning this exact thing back when covid started to unfold in March. New product production is going to to take longer, and the distribution is slower. This is a given.

 

Waaaaaay to many people are getting hung up on this, if you have hardware currently it is easy to just wait for availability.  

[-rascal-]

I remember there was a bit of a shortage with the launch of the Radeon HD 4800 series (e.g. HD 4870).

Only for 1 or 2 months, though.

 

Same with the Radeon HD 5870 / 5850.

I remember that one...because I couldn't get a hold of one for mooonths 

 

[LOST TALE]

4 hours ago, jaslion said:

A little. They would be hard to get in the first month and at a higher price then would be a bit harder to get for the correct price in the second month but available and by month 3 prices would be normal and they would be widely available.

how many years of experience is this based on?

[LOST TALE]

3 hours ago, -rascal- said:

I remember there was a bit of a shortage with the launch of the Radeon HD 4800 series (e.g. HD 4870).

Only for 1 or 2 months, though.

 

Same with the Radeon HD 5870 / 5850.

I remember that one...because I couldn't get a hold of one for mooonths 

 

6000 and 7000 series were fine?

[-rascal-]

21 minutes ago, LOST TALE said:

6000 and 7000 series were fine?

 

I don't recall...

 

I bought a HD 6870 for my second PC, not a flagship HD 6970, though.

 

HD 7970 got trumped by the GTX 680 at launch because it had a higher power consumption, and had the edge in performance, etc.

They had stock but limited, and then the GTX 680 released a few weeks later, and took the king spot from it.

Plus, I didn't get a reference card, instead I bought a Sapphire Dual-X HD 7970 shortly after they released...then a Sapphire Vapor-X HD 7970 to run in Crossfire 

 

Then...as time went by, the HD 7970 edged out the GTX 680 / GTX 770 with driver improvements...and the later chip improvements to give us the HD 7970 'GHz Edition' and eventually the R9-280X. FYI the original HD 7970, HD 7970 'GHz Edition', R9-280X, R9-280X w/ Boost all used the same Tahiti XT GPU core.

 

 

 

[jones177]

They are normal. 

 

It took me 2 months get a 1080 ti and the 2080 ti took a month but I went for my second choice.

 

If you look around these forums you will notice that lots of people have cards. 

 

I think it is worse this time but look at the times we are in.

[05032-Mendicant-Bias]

It is normal.

I remember older launches with stocks lasting hours.

from 2016 to 2018 it was even worse than today. For years miners were buying GPUs in bulk to put them in warehouses and farm bitcoins. When GPU hit the shelves, they were two to three times MSRP. In 2018 I was finally able to buy a new GTX1070 in my region and it still costed twice MSRP despite being a two years old card. My AMD cards all died in the meantime and I couldn't wait any longer to upgrade from my poor GTS450.

Personally I got lucky this time and was able to buy an Asus 3080 TUF at launch for MSRP. I expected MSPR cards to be available only at launch or years after release, and I was able to pick the first option :)

 

I'm more surprised people believed AMD claims that they would have stock of 6800 cards... Nvidia rightly got criticised for supplying 3080s in the tens of units.

[BTGbullseye]

22 minutes ago, 05032-Mendicant-Bias said:

I'm more surprised people believed AMD claims that they would have stock of 6800 cards... Nvidia rightly got criticised for supplying 3080s in the tens of units.

AMD did have stock, but they took on demand left over from the failed 3000 series launch in addition to the normal increased demand for their GPUs. Even though they had close to 10x the number of units shipped, it still came nowhere close to meeting demand, and they never claimed it would.

[jaslion]

10 hours ago, LOST TALE said:

how many years of experience is this based on?

From the gtx 200 series and hd 4000 series ish for me

[LOST TALE]

On 11/19/2020 at 8:26 PM, -rascal- said:

I don't recall...

 

I bought a HD 6870 for my second PC, not a flagship HD 6970, though.

 

HD 7970 got trumped by the GTX 680 at launch because it had a higher power consumption, and had the edge in performance, etc.

They had stock but limited, and then the GTX 680 released a few weeks later, and took the king spot from it.

Plus, I didn't get a reference card, instead I bought a Sapphire Dual-X HD 7970 shortly after they released...then a Sapphire Vapor-X HD 7970 to run in Crossfire 

 

Then...as time went by, the HD 7970 edged out the GTX 680 / GTX 770 with driver improvements...and the later chip improvements to give us the HD 7970 'GHz Edition' and eventually the R9-280X. FYI the original HD 7970, HD 7970 'GHz Edition', R9-280X, R9-280X w/ Boost all used the same Tahiti XT GPU core.

Was the HD 7970 at launch  400$ or 500$ ?

[-rascal-]

11 hours ago, LOST TALE said:

Was the HD 7970 at launch  400$ or 500$ ?

 

HD 7970 was ~$300 USD.

I remember getting my Sapphire Dual-X through NCIX Canada for $419.99 CDN.

[LOST TALE]

17 hours ago, -rascal- said:

 

HD 7970 was ~$300 USD.

I remember getting my Sapphire Dual-X through NCIX Canada for $419.99 CDN.

How much was the 680?