Paper Launch? Radeon RX 6800, 6800 XT Out of Stock

News
By Aaron Klotz
published

You can't find AMD's Radeon 6000 series cards anywhere.

AMD Radeon RX 6800
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

With the launch of AMD's highly anticipated RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT today, everyone is chomping at the bit to grab one of AMD's shiny new graphics cards. According to our Radeon RX 6800 and 6800 XT review, both cards provide impressive performance with speeds that often surpass those of the RTX 3070 and 3080 respectively. 

Since this morning, customers have been rushing to buy their cards before stock runs dry. And run dry it certainly did, as all RX 6000 series cards are out of stock everywhere as of this moment. All that is left are thousands of angry customers.

AMD's subreddit has exploded with anger and disappointment at the issues pertaining to the Radeon shortage. A few people are reporting their local MicroCenters barely had ten to 12 RX 6800s and RX 6800 XT's available for purchase, which if true, is just as bad as the RTX 3080 launch just a few months ago. Many are blaming AMD for the situation and saying it was a paper launch (which technically it wasn't). To make matters worse, the scalpers are back as well, with RX 6800s and 6800 XTs showing up at around $1000-$1500 on eBay. 

This is very unfortunate, especially if you trusted in AMD that it would learn from Nvidia's mistakes and provide enough volume for over 10 minutes. In a Twitter post nearly a month ago, Frank Azor, AMD's Chief Architect, was confident at AMD's ability to provide enough stock on launch day, making future buyers excited. Obviously, things didn't go according to plan so far.

So what should you do as a buyer? In short, this is a bad time to build a high-end gaming PC. If you're desperate to grab a GPU during this holiday season, whether as a present or as an upgrade for your gaming rig, there is a high chance you'll have to settle with a previous generation card from either AMD or Nvidia. However, we're following stock on all the new cards on our articles on how and where to buy an RTX 3080, 3070 and 3090 and how and where to buy a Radeon 6800 and 6800 XT.

Or you can buy a prebuilt already equipped with a RTX 3070, 3080 or 3090. Nvidia themselves have stated they will not have enough sustainable stock (for the DIY market) until January of 2021 at the earliest, and that is still the case today with outlets like Newegg.com being completely out of stock of 3070s, 3080s and 3090s at the time of this writing. It should be expected that AMD will have the same issues with how its RX 6000 launch has been going thus far.

Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Freelance News Writer

Aaron Klotz is a freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering news topics related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

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21 Comments Comment from the forums
  • SyDiko
    Let the scalpers sit on their price-gouged inventory and lose money. As PC gamers wait until things go on sale at retailers before pulling the trigger. I'm loving my 5700XT and will so for a year or two. :)
    Reply
  • NightHawkRMX
    I think just about every launch in 2020 has been a "paper launch"
    Reply
  • Mfarooq360
    This might be an issue of too much competition where one brand releases a card and waits for the others' response before making better cards and then waiting for the others' response.
    Reply
  • jc65
    They didn't have enough CPU's for their launch, why would you think graphics cards would be different?
    Reply
  • punkncat
    I guess "paper launch" is the go to buzz word for 2020?
    Reply
  • purple_dragon
    AMD's launch was definitely worse than Nvidia's. I attempted to buy a 3080 and at least I could attempt to add a card to the cart. Now I tried getting a 6800 XT and they went from not listed to sold out instantly. Nvidia wasn't much better than AMD but they were better. If Nvidia was a paper launch then AMD never left the paper factory!
    Reply
  • thepersonwithaface45
    purple_dragon said:
    AMD's launch was definitely worse than Nvidia's. I attempted to buy a 3080 and at least I could attempt to add a card to the cart. Now I tried getting a 6800 XT and they went from not listed to sold out instantly. Nvidia wasn't much better than AMD but they were better. If Nvidia was a paper launch then AMD never left the paper factory!
    Well, I think they both got hit the same in this regard.
    Take for instance the people that could get a 6800XT in their cart, but then it got removed at checkout.
    Same thing with walmart and their ps5 launches- I had one digital and one disc version in my cart on 4 separate drops, but everytime I hit the checkout button they got removed because they sold out.
    I don't think it's on AMD and NVIDIA (aside from production) but rather the retailers they sell them through. In your case, I think it went both ways, with people not getting it in their cart and people getting it in their cart but them selling out before check out was completed.
    These websites need some security for sure.
    But I've pretty much accepted my fate in terms of GPUs this year, and I'll wait until next year when the new 4k displays start coming out. Maybe even TI versions of the 3000 series as well.

    As for ps5s, I'll be trying tomorrow on walmarts website and if that doesn't work out, then I'll be at gamestop around 4am before work on black friday and see what's up.
    Reply
  • Thomas Wells
    SyDiko said:
    Let the scalpers sit on their price-gouged inventory and lose money. As PC gamers wait until things go on sale at retailers before pulling the trigger. I'm loving my 5700XT and will so for a year or two. :)
    Unfortunately Ebay buyers have more money than sense. These scalpers know there are so many people who either 1. don't have the time to sit on their computer for hours at a time to get a new piece of tech or 2. Just don't want to wait until they can buy their own. It all adds up to scalpers being the front line on ALL future high tech purposed until the retail outlets do something to combat the botting.
    Reply
  • BrushyBill
    SyDiko said:
    Let the scalpers sit on their price-gouged inventory and lose money. As PC gamers wait until things go on sale at retailers before pulling the trigger. I'm loving my 5700XT and will so for a year or two. :)

    Exactly this! I've had this conversation with a couple friends already. Everyone jumping on this scalping bandwagon is going to feel the hit to the wallet in coming months. Eff'em all...
    Reply
  • BrushyBill
    Thomas Wells said:
    Unfortunately Ebay buyers have more money than sense. These scalpers know there are so many people who either 1. don't have the time to sit on their computer for hours at a time to get a new piece of tech or 2. Just don't want to wait until they can buy their own. It all adds up to scalpers being the front line on ALL future high tech purposed until the retail outlets do something to combat the botting.

    Not entirely true. If you've been watching Ebay the scalpers really aren't selling much. You can find 3080's there now for a decent price even, (under $900usd). No one is buying, so the prices are dropping. Sure they sold a few initially but that market is no where near as big as you make it out to be.

    Edit: And I'll add. I honestly feel that "scalping" has been unnaturally inflated this year because of all the hardship due to covid. Lots of people sitting thinking about fast money. They just don't realize that the market for that sort of thing is truly small. The scalpers from before filled that niche and competed with each other. This year an influx of scalpers and the same size market of dipsticks that would pay so much. Pretty much equates to the first few making some cash while the rest end up sitting on stock and/or reducing prices.
    Reply