AMD Radeon VII Supply Will Be Extremely Limited - Reports (Updated)

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By Zhiye Liu
published

Update 02/10: Gibbo created a new thread on the Overclockers UK forums confirming that the Radeon VII supply is very limited. However, the British retailer expects several hundred more units to arrive in a few weeks, and around 1000 units by the end of February or early March.

Original Article:

A rumor started spreading around the web a couple of weeks ago alleging that less than 5,000 units of AMD's upcoming Radeon VII gaming graphics card will be available worldwide at launch. New reports this week seemingly lend credence to the claims. 

Andrew "Gibbo" Gibson, a representative from British computer hardware retailer Overclockers UK, said yesterday on the company's forum that less than 100 units are being allocated to the UK. Overclockers UK is said to have stacked a total of 44 units with more arriving in the coming days, which would mean the company would have the majority of the UK's allotment. 

A report today from French media Cowcotland says  France and Spain are getting 20 units each. According to the publication, the price for the Radeon VII has been established at 739€ with value-added tax (VAT) included. This translates to $840.06, which falls in line with AMD's MSRP of $699 after subtracting VAT from the price, since France and Spain have a VAT rate of 20 percent and 21 percent, respectively. Although with such a limited amount of units (allegedly), it's hard to picture the Radeon VII selling at that price point.

Rumor has it that due to the restricted time frame, AMD's partners didn't have enough time to prepare their custom models. So whether it be Sapphire, MSI, Asus or Gigabyte, it's expected that every brand will practically sell the same Radeon VII graphics card but in different packaging.

There is no word on when the next wave of Radeon VII shipments will arrive. Chinese factories have halted production in celebration of the Lunar New Year. While the normal downtime is a full work week, some factories extend the period up to three weeks. In a worst case scenario, the next production run could start late February. 

At the moment, there isn't any official information about the availability of the Radeon VII on this side of globe, but we'll keep our ears peeled and keep you updated.

Zhiye Liu
Zhiye Liu
RAM Reviewer and News Editor

Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

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16 Comments Comment from the forums
  • gggplaya
    Paper Launch!!!!!!!!! People are more interested in Navi anyways, even though Navi may not compete in the high end.
    Reply
  • redgarl
    Not really a big deal. Nvidia faced the same thing with RTX.

    The 2080 TI was not even available a month after launch.
    Reply
  • norcalsc
    c'mon AMD, don't act like Nvidia
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    21747633 said:
    c'mon AMD, don't act like Nvidia

    This is not the first time AMD has launched a product with limited quantities. Companies do it to meet a launch schedule as a missed launch can cause more harm than paper launching the product.
    Reply
  • Pat Flynn
    Probably not AMD's fault as there was that chemical contamination at TSMC. It's possible the minimal launch is due to that incident.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    21747930 said:
    Probably not AMD's fault as there was that chemical contamination at TSMC. It's possible the minimal launch is due to that incident.

    According to the report the incident should not have affected their 7nm products. I would guess this is a more limited run of MI50s for consumers that either did not sell or didn't make the cut (they didn't qualify for professional level work). I don't think they are have a line fabbing these only for this purpose.
    Reply
  • mateau
    "AMD Radeon VII Supply Will Be Extremely Limited - Reports"

    SHOULD READ

    AMD Radeon VII Supply Will Be Extremely Limited - RUMOURS"

    OR A MORE HONEST HEADLINE

    AMD Radeon VII Supply Will Be Extremely Limited - CLICKBAIT

    Didn't Dr. Su personally dispel this rumour?

    Or is it just a slow news day?
    Reply
  • mateau
    So what. Why does AMD want to clog the channel with 1000's of Radeon 7 cards if they are releasing NAVI in a few months?

    This is a great play by AMD. It forces nVidia to respond by either binning or clocking up existing RTX GPU's. Then NAVI gets released and nVidia has to resond again to a new generation of 7nm silicon.

    nVidia has enough of a problem with too much in the channel already. This forces nVidia to dump more into their own channel.

    AMD is also selling Radeon 7 on their website, likely to keep resellers from price gouging. And again to keep the channel volumes low.
    Reply
  • TJ Hooker
    @mateau last I saw Radeon 7 is expected to perform roughly on par with a 2080, cost about the same as a 2080, and probably draw a bit more power than a 2080. How exactly is this going to put any pressure on Nvidia to respond? And if availability is poor, the VII poses even less competition to RTX cards.

    I thought the latest rumours on Navi was that it isn't even going to be targeting the high end (at least to begin with), so it might not even be relevant to this discussion.
    Reply
  • knowom
    Wait now suddenly it's OMG they might not have enough of them at launch time to have a good cry about it? I thought the majority of people were boarder line making remarks like the card is a failure and no one will buy it because it's not a Titan for Vega 64 price thus no one would buy it over the GreedForce way it's meant to get paid.
    Reply