What you need to know
- Graphics cards have been in short supply for the better part of two years.
- This is due to the ongoing worldwide semiconductor shortage that's crippling supply chains across a great many industries.
- A new report indicates those looking to buy GPUs should expect better luck in late 2022.
Just about anyone who's had the misfortune of attempting to buy one of the best graphics cards between early 2020 and now knows the struggle: Cards are out of stock at all normal retailers, and the ones that are available are overpriced and only listed on eBay. How did things get so bad? A worldwide semiconductor crisis, for starters.
But while industry experts and consumers are getting a better idea of what caused the global chip shortage, most folks still don't know when they can expect to finally have access to GPUs again. A new report from DigiTimes sheds some light on the situation (via WinFuture).
Based on said report, we can expect a risk of continued incremental price hikes as supplies remain strained throughout 2021 and early 2022, with the GPU situation finally normalizing in late 2022. This shift past the midway point of next year would come about because of a few factors: Increased supplies as the world's manufacturers catch up with shortage demands, a potential dwindling of crypto miners clogging the GPU market, and in NVIDIA's case, a change in partners.
According to the report, NVIDIA's reliance on Samsung is slowing it down as the latter company isn't producing enough chips fast enough. However, for the next generation of GPUs, NVIDIA will be relying on TSMC for manufacturing duties, which should help with the yield predicament given TSMC's processes and advantages over Samsung.
