Graphics card availability likely won’t improve until late 2022 — here’s why
Want to buy a GPU? So does everyone else.
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What you need to know
Just about anyone who’s had the misfortune of attempting to buy one of thebest graphics cardsbetween 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? Aworldwide semiconductor crisis, for starters.
But while industry experts and consumers are getting a better idea of whatcaused the global chip shortage, most folks still don’t know when they can expect to finally have access to GPUs again. A new report fromDigiTimessheds some light on the situation (viaWinFuture).
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 ofcrypto 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 onTSMCfor manufacturing duties, which should help with the yield predicament given TSMC’s processes and advantages over Samsung.
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Robert Carnevale is the News Editor for Windows Central. He’s a big fan of Kinect (it lives on in his heart), Sonic the Hedgehog, and the legendary intersection of those two titans, Sonic Free Riders. He is the author ofCold War 2395. Have a useful tip? Send it to robert.carnevale@futurenet.com.
