Can someone help me understand the current GPU shortage better?

[Justice4None]

The way I understand it, it's due mainly to scalpers using bots to quickly buy up most new stock at bigger retailers before almost anyone else can, then reselling it for astronomical prices. Is there more to it, such as manufacturing problems/delays or something else I can't think of?

[Action_Johnson]

Supply and Demand. 

 

Because of so many people spending so much time at home, computer parts are in unusually high demand, meaning supply can't keep up. Thus the market price for everything skyrockets to even out that curve. 

[Eigenvektor]

There's also the pandemic that has interrupted supply chains world wide, with people having to stay at home etc. This has essentially delayed everything. Combine this with increased demand due to people staying at home and wanting to game + people trying to make a buck by scalping.

[mariushm]

Consoles

Higher shipping costs

 

PS5 and Xbox were released this year and were on demand, due to kids staying at home due to the virus. 

This means that a lot of the manufacturing capacity for reserved to make the CPU / GPU chip of these consoles and also a bunch of GDDR5 memory was reserved (ordered in advance)  so there was less capacity available to make the CPUs and GPU chips  (Ryzen processor chips which are also used in EPYC servers and Threadripper processors).  Because Intel has problems with their manufacturing and can't make low nm processors, AMD has a lot more orders for EPYC processors which use a lot of cpu dies (so there's fewer available for threadripper and ryzen processors) but they're also expensive and profitable compared to regular desktop processors. 

 

Because of this capacity problem, nVidia went with Samsung to make the gpu chips - because TSMC was super busy with AMDs stuff and consoles and phone chips - and my guess is things weren't as great as advertised.

In addition to this nvidia also chose to go with GDDR6x memory which is different than previous memory chips (uses qam encoding instead of the regular stuff used in gddr5 and gddr6) and there's only Micron making the chips, so if Micron screws up and can't make enough memory chips, or enough GOOD / FAST ENOUGH memory chips (because Micron can make memory chips but let's say as an example only 30% may come out capable of reaching the frequencies nvidia wants for 3080 or 3090)

 

Then, there's the issue of shipping - video cards are heavy, due to the heatsinks and fans ... it costs a lot to ship by air, and the profits for video cards are fairly small so manufacturers tend to ship by boat in shipping containers ... but it can take 30 days or so for a container to arrive and clear customs, often more than that.

There's companies literally bidding, paying more, to reserve shipping containers on boats, and sometimes the price is too high to be worth shipping.  

 

[Exidor]

Demand is just part of the problem. Sure we had a demand increase but production dropped off a cliff.....

 

By far the biggest problem is the supply chain disruption due to covid.

Many container ships got scrapped or parked. Many small logistics companies went bust. Right now getting a container shipped is basically double the cost. I need to get product across the Baltic Sea and the costs are more than double of 2019..... Considering the product is bulk and sold by ton shipping was already up to 30% of the price before the increase so do the math..... I am right now scrambling to reorientate to rail but first I need to get a truck to the rail station with the new trucking law in the EU and the added covid shit and brexit shit even that is challenging. I am close to renting a truck and driving the fucking thing myself.

Air fright is even worse as most of it was moved by passenger jets. 

 

Many factories were shut down or partially shut down....

Many small components from wires to RAM chips are in short supply.

 

The news for some reason choose not to talk about it. But many things have been restricted. Many Asian countries even banned rice exports... Some European countries banned potato exports...

Metal and steal exports are banned in some countries.....

It is a complete shit show. And it will take a considerable amount of time to recover.