EVGA to Stock 'Thousands' of Nvidia RTX 3080 Ampere GPUs Soon

News
By Paul Alcorn
last updated

Here come the cards...at least some of them

(Image credit: EVGA)

Update 9/21/2020 10:50am PT: EVGA reached out to clarify that while it does have thousands of GPUs incoming, they will not all be available this week. We've amended the text below:

Nvidia's launch of the GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards have left many feeling left in the cold as the cards sold out almost immediately. We could see some improvements soon, though. According to EVGA's global product management director Jacob Freeman (via Twitter), the third-party GPU maker could stock 'thousands' more Nvidia RTX 3080 cards, with stock coming in every few days. That gives us at least a glimmer of hope that supply will improve, though we fully anticipate the shortages to persist for some time.

It's encouraging that EVGA will have more custom RTX 3080 graphics cards coming to market, and it also bodes well for other GPU makers restocking their arsenals, too - it's likely that EVGA isn't the only company that will receive more stock over the coming weeks. That said, it's anyone's guess how many hundreds of thousands of cards will be needed to satiate near-term demand, and how long that will take. Some predications peg the shortage to last until early 2021, but at least it appears that more cards will trickle in over the coming weeks. 

Freeman's comments came amid a string of different responses to EVGA's customers via Twitter, and seemingly confirm that the company will have a not-insignificant number of graphics cards shipping soon. 

Freeman outlined that the company's restocking efforts will span its own site, Amazon, and 'many' different etail and retail sites. However, the company isn't giving a specific time or date for availability yet. 

Nvidia's Ampere 30-series launch surely felt like the 'paperiest' of paper launches, with many retailers selling out in seconds. However, Newegg reported that the 3080 launch drove more traffic to its website than it sees on Black Friday, making it hard to determine if the shortages were due to an abnormally restricted number of GPUs being stocked for the launch, or if overwhelming demand simply exacerbated the typically-limited amount of stock we see during a product launch. 

The nearly-instantaneous sell-outs were exacerbated by scalpers and resellers using increasingly-sophisticated bots to snap up inventory in seconds. Nvidia has also issued a statement on the matter that outlines the steps it is taking to correct the supply issues. 

EVGA has a pretty impressive line of graphics cards, like the RTX 3080 XC3 and FTW3 Ultra Gaming that you can see here. The company says it will provide more updates as stock becomes available. We do have to temper our expectations, though, as some estimates predict limited supply until the early months of 2021. In the meantime, head to our Where and How to Buy an RTX 3080, 3090 or 3070 article for more tips on how you can score Nvidia's Ampere cards. 

Paul Alcorn
Paul Alcorn
Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech

Paul Alcorn is the Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech for Tom's Hardware US. He also writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage, and enterprise hardware.

See more GPUs News
19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • InvalidError
    RTX3080 - launched Oct. 16, 2020, general availability some time in 2021.

    Doubt there is enough time left in 2020 to ramp up 3070-3090 productions enough to meet holidays demand, especially if the new generation turns out to be as popular with ETH miners as early numbers on the RTX3080 hint they may become once someone tweaks the algorithm specifically for them.
    Reply
  • hotaru.hino
    Here's hoping that EVGA has something in place to mitigate bots. But I'm sure it'll be the same song and dance.
    Reply
  • DookieDraws
    InvalidError said:
    RTX3080 - launched Oct. 16, 2020, general availability some time in 2021.

    Doubt there is enough time left in 2020 to ramp up 3070-3090 productions enough to meet holidays demand, especially if the new generation turns out to be as popular with ETH miners as early numbers on the RTX3080 hint they may become once someone tweaks the algorithm specifically for them.
    I was thinking the same. Hope we're wrong, though. I am more interested in the 3070 and 3060, and am hoping there will be plenty of stock for those GPUs. Never understood why there isn't enough stock on initial releases. It's like they're testing to see how well they're going to sell, before ramping up manufacturing. I suppose that does make sense, somewhat. But considering BIg Navi is soon to be released, you'd think NVIDIA would want to flood the market with these new GPUs, to avoid losing sales to AMD.
    Reply
  • RareAir23
    To @hotaru.hino's comment, whether or not it'll be the same song and dance as last Thursday morning depends on 1 thing really. The 1 thing that made Thursday so successful for the bot users/scalpers: a date and time. The reason these bots were so successful that day is because nVIDIA blew all non-bot users chances of getting cards when they announced a date and time. You see, for these bots to have the greatest success they need to be programmed and scripted properly ahead of time to get the most out of them. eVGA and Jacob F there are playing coy about that right now and that is wise. If the bot users/scalpers don't have a date and time to program/script their bots to they then have to ready them on the fly as soon as they see In Stock alerts at say NowInStock.net. That takes time. That gives us a limited time window to possibly get one. There you have it and until next time I am out!
    Reply
  • hotaru.hino
    DookieDraws said:
    Never understood why there isn't enough stock on initial releases. It's like they're testing to see how well they're going to sell, before ramping up manufacturing. I suppose that does make sense, somewhat. But considering BIg Navi is soon to be released, you'd think NVIDIA would want to flood the market with these new GPUs, to avoid losing sales to AMD.
    Unfortunately the reality is that the $700+ market for video cards is relatively dry compared to the $200-$400 market. Flooding the market with millions upon millions of GPUs at this cost wouldn't really be in their best interest, especially since they can make a lot more 104 and 106 GPUs and really push the volume out the door.

    And let's be honest, if a company has a hot product they can sell, as long as it continues to sell, they wouldn't give a wooden nickel to what else goes on in the world.

    RareAir23 said:
    To @hotaru.hino's comment, whether or not it'll be the same song and dance as last Thursday morning depends on 1 thing really. The 1 thing that made Thursday so successful for the bot users/scalpers: a date and time. The reason these bots were so successful that day is because nVIDIA blew all non-bot users chances of getting cards when they announced a date and time. You see, for these bots to have the greatest success they need to be programmed and scripted properly ahead of time to get the most out of them. eVGA and Jacob F there are playing coy about that right now and that is wise. If the bot users/scalpers don't have a date and time to program/script their bots to they then have to ready them on the fly as soon as they see In Stock alerts at say NowInStock.net. That takes time. That gives us a limited time window to possibly get one. There you have it and until next time I am out!
    At this point a time frame really doesn't matter. They know the GPUs will trickle in and all they have to do is repeated checks of inventory across the internet and the moment one is in stock, a massive flood of botters will swoop in for the kill.

    There's even a service dedicated to this: Bounce Alert.
    Reply
  • kal326
    That’s not really a reassuring number given it’s all retail channels.

    On the bot front has anyone considered the alternatives to screw with scalpers? I know a lot of eBay auctions are already getting flooded with massive $70k plus bids.

    Wouldn’t it be easy enough to continue to up bid to the sky these auctions effectively making them unsellable or as hard as possible to do so? It only takes an army of angry consumers and junk eBay accounts to keep bidding them beyond the realm of reasonable scalping. Keep doing this on all fronts to where it’s more hassle to scalp than it’s worth.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    DookieDraws said:
    Never understood why there isn't enough stock on initial releases. It's like they're testing to see how well they're going to sell, before ramping up manufacturing.
    Just-in-Time / LEAN manufacturing would easily explain that: by minimizing inventories across the manufacturing and distribution chain, you minimize warehousing costs and the time it takes for flawed/defective inputs to get caught by end-users so you may be able to take corrective action (ex.: adding thermal pads on VRAM) before tens of thousand more units come off the assembly line, which is what could happen with a "flood the market" launch, then you end up having to scrap or rework months worth of production.

    A slow production ramp also has the benefit of lower tooling costs since you have fewer production lines running longer.
    Reply
  • hotaru.hino
    InvalidError said:
    Just-in-Time / LEAN manufacturing would easily explain that: by minimizing inventories across the manufacturing and distribution chain, you minimize warehousing costs and the time it takes for flawed/defective inputs to get caught by end-users so you may be able to take corrective action (ex.: adding thermal pads on VRAM) before tens of thousand more units come off the assembly line, which is what could happen with a "flood the market" launch, then you end up having to scrap or rework months worth of production.

    A slow production ramp also has the benefit of lower tooling costs since you have fewer production lines running longer.
    I'm also suspecting that system builders have also placed their quantity orders and NVIDIA and their board partners have to honor those first over loose cards to put on the market.

    So maybe there were a lot of cards in stock, but they were destined for somewhere else.
    Reply
  • csm101
    i will wait until the 3080 hybrid arrives. you cant beat water when in comes to cooling a vga card. (CPU may be) i did inquire about it and as per the answer i got the 3080 hybrid will come most probably after 3070 launch.
    Reply
  • Chung Leong
    InvalidError said:
    Doubt there is enough time left in 2020 to ramp up 3070-3090 productions enough to meet holidays demand, especially if the new generation turns out to be as popular with ETH miners as early numbers on the RTX3080 hint they may become once someone tweaks the algorithm specifically for them.

    Ethereum hash is memory hard. One Radeon VII or two RX 5700 XT will easily outpace the 3080--probably even the 3090.
    Reply