Nvidia and AMD both announced and released their latest generation of GPUs at the end of 2020. Both companies were immediately hit with supply issues as demand far outpaced supply and production issues caused further constraints. For PC gamers looking to upgrade their systems, finding a GPU this year has been a virtually impossible task.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that he expects supplies will be constrained for at least another year. Jensen said, “I think that through the next year, demand is going to far exceed supply. We don’t have any magic bullets in navigating the supply chain”.
The update will be a disappointment to the many PC gamers who still haven’t been able to source a graphics card for their build. If gamers are able to find a graphics card, the prices are still much higher than the recommended retail prices. Even low-end Nvidia 3000 series and AMD 6000 series GPUs are selling for what a year or two ago would have been high-end prices.
Meanwhile, PC gamers who are looking at consoles to tide them over until the end of the graphics card shortage aren’t finding things easier there. PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles are arguably more difficult to find than graphics cards right now. Microsoft’s Xbox Series S console is the only next-gen console that can be reasonably found at retail price. Although, for many gamers, the Series S is more of a secondary console and certainly not competing with high-end PCs.
Microsoft and Sony are currently trying to supply their consoles for the holiday season. Nvidia and AMD will no doubt be trying to do the same thing for their graphics card supply. Unfortunately, if you’re in the market for a graphics card and don’t want to pay scalper prices, you may have to wait a while longer yet.
