Can't Buy AMD's Radeon RX 6000 or Ryzen 5000? Blame Apple and Consoles!

AMD
(Image credit: AMD)

It is not a secret that it is extremely hard to get AMD's latest Radeon RX 6800/6800 XT graphics cards and Ryzen 5000-series processors (see our article on how and where to find Radeon RX 6800 XT and how and where to find Ryzen 5000). Officially, the company says that demand for these parts is so high that it greatly exceeds supply. Meanwhile, a media report says that AMD cannot get additional chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. because the foundry is busy making chips for Apple's latest devices as well as new consoles from Microsoft and Sony.  

Leading-Edge Capacities Fully Booked

TSMC can process a relatively limited number of wafers using its leading-edge 5 nm and 7 nm process technologies. Therefore, all of TSMC's clients that need these nodes sign wafer purchase agreements to allocate a certain number of contract wafers per quarter. Such agreements are signed many quarters before (and in case of alpha customers, who get access to leading-edge processes ahead of everyone else, years before) actual production starts and cannot be changed overnight. Large companies tend to commit for huge volumes, whereas smaller players usually allocate a lower number of wafers. 

For Q4 2020, all of TSMC's 5-nm and 7-nm capacities have been booked, according to a report from Commercial Times, which did not disclose its sources. TSMC's board of directors recently approved a plan to expand its leading-edge capacities, but it will take months before new equipment is installed.  

Apple's Need for Chips

In the recent years Apple and Huawei's HiSilicon were TSMC's alpha customers for leading-edge nodes and could access these technologies before others. Now that TSMC cannot supply chips to Huawei, Apple booked all of the foundry's 5-nm capacity for its own A14 system-on-chips for iPhone 14 and iPad Air 4 as well as M1 SoCs for the latest Macs, the report claims. The story says that TSMC is contracted to ship 150,000 wafers containing A14 SoCs and 18,000 wafers with M1 processors in Q4 2020. These numbers cannot be verified as contractual obligations are confidential.  

Since Apple's A14 does not have a built-in modem, it is paired with Qualcomm's X55 modem that is made by TSMC using one of its 7 nm manufacturing technologies. Since Apple sells boatloads of iPhones and Qualcomm itself ships tons of its own 7-nm mobile SoCs to various customers, the company became TSMC's largest 7-nm client in Q4 2020. Qualcomm's shipment of X55 modems to Apple alone is projected to total 80,000 wafers this quarter, Commercial Times reports. 

The New Consoles

AMD is considerably smaller than Apple or Qualcomm in terms of volumes, so it never allocates (or rather cannot allocate) the number of wafers that SoC companies do. Meanwhile, in Q3 and Q4 2020, the company has to supply certain pre-ordered 7 nm SoCs for Microsoft's Xbox Series X/S as well as Sony's PlayStation 5 game consoles. Since AMD has supply agreements with its console partners, it has to prioritize production of their SoCs over its own CPUs and GPUs in a bid to enable Microsoft and Sony to ramp up production of their new game machines. 

Commercial Times claims that AMD is contracted to ship around 120,000 wafers containing SoCs for the latest game consoles (40,000 to Microsoft and 80,000 to Sony) in Q4 2020. Meanwhile, AMD's contracted 7 nm allocation for the fourth quarter is about 150,000, the report says, which essentially means that 80% of AMD's 7 nm wafers will be used for consoles. 

Can't Get Enough?

Demand for PCs, computer hardware, game consoles, and other digital devices is indeed very high these days as many people now work from home and entertain themselves at home. Such demand could not be predicted several quarters ago, so it is not particularly surprising that there are shortages of the latest hardware and game consoles.  

If the numbers reported by Commercial Times are correct, then most of the 7 nm chips produced for AMD this quarter will go to Microsoft and Sony as per contracts, whereas some previous-generation 7 nm products will be shipped to PC OEMs in accordance with obligations. As a consequence, only some wafers will be left for AMD's new Radeon RX 6000 as well as Ryzen 5000-series products. Keeping in mind that TSMC's 5 nm and 7 nm capacities have been fully booked for Q4, AMD cannot order any additional wafers just now.

A Huge Grain of Salt

While the claim that AMD cannot get enough Big Navi and Vermeer chips because TSMC's production capacities are busy making chips for Apple (the company still consumes 7 nm SoCs), Qualcomm, Microsoft, and Sony sounds reasonable, it should be noted that the number of wafers shipped by TSMC to its clients cannot be verified. Furthermore, actual allocation of wafers to a particular company is a trade secret and nobody will ever confirm it. 

If the numbers published by Commercial Times are inaccurate, then the whole story either contains inaccuracies, or is completely wrong. 

But What About Nvidia?

AMD is not the only company that cannot meet demand for its latest products these days. Nvidia's latest GeForce RTX 30-series 'Ampere' graphics cards are in very tight supply (see where and how to buy an RTX 3080, 3070 or 3090). Since it is so hard to buy the new cards from official channels, the scalping industry flourished in the recent months. 

Nvidia produces its GA102 and GA104 graphics processors at Samsung Foundry using 8N process technology. It is unknown how much capacity Samsung has for its N8 node and how many wafers for Nvidia it can process. Meanwhile, Nvidia said that demand for its latest GeForce RTX 3070/3080/3090 products greatly exceeded its ability to supply, which is why shortages would continue into 2021. 

Bottom Line

It is evident that demand for high-tech products is high these days as people spend more time at home. Some products are in short supply because of insufficient production volumes and others are rare because of scalpers (yet again, scalpers can only make profit if a product is in tight supply). But the sad fact is that numerous companies that cannot meet demand for their products now are also not going to meet it for quite some time.

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • mitch074
    Not only is Apple the last IT stuff maker I'd buy (bad previous experiences and bad consumer practices in general, I go Xiaomi now), they are preventing me from buying the stuff I want... Bad Apple.
    I hope my RX480 from 2016 can hold on a little while more.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    Admin said:
    AMD cannot get enough Big Navi and Vermeer chips as TSMC is busy serving ... Microsoft, and Sony.
    So don't blame AMD, blame AMD?!?
    Both consoles use AMD chips and if selling console skus is more profitable for AMD then selling high skews then, no wonder.

    Edit:
    Wait, aren't the console based on previous nm node?
    Reply
  • PillowOfWinds
    No, blame AMD and NVIDIA for launching new hardware knowing that its quantity wouldn't be enough to saturate the market, leading to new artificial prices imposed by scalpers.
    Also, with Apple you can always preorder an iPhone or a Mac directly on their site, instead of having to waste your time monitoring different shops for a new drop, effectively participating to an F5 refresh "lottery system".
    Reply
  • sizzling
    PillowOfWinds said:
    No, blame AMD and NVIDIA for launching new hardware knowing that its quantity wouldn't be enough to saturate the market, leading to new artificial prices imposed by scalpers.
    Also, with Apple you can always preorder an iPhone or a Mac directly on their site, instead of having to waste your time monitoring different shops for a new drop, effectively participating to an F5 refresh "lottery system".
    From what I’ve read NVidia and AMD launches had similar stock levels to prior launches. Producing high volumes of stock is very financially risky. The unprecedented demand is therefore a significant factor.

    This seems to be a perfect storm. The pandemic has caused significant increases in sales of entertainment technology. With great CPU, GPU and console launches within a couple of months of each other it looks like supply chains have been overloaded.
    Reply
  • clsmithj
    sizzling said:
    From what I’ve read NVidia and AMD launches had similar stock levels to prior launches. Producing high volumes of stock is very financially risky. The unprecedented demand is therefore a significant factor.

    This seems to be a perfect storm. The pandemic has caused significant increases in sales of entertainment technology. With great CPU, GPU and console launches within a couple of months of each other it looks like supply chains have been overloaded.
    Take that what you read about AMD having similar stock levels to prior lauches and throw it out.
    AMD launch was no where near the same as their NAVI launch last year on July 7.

    This "unprecedented demand" is created when you reduced your stock to extreme low levels than what you had before.

    Retail stores barely got any stock, and the ones that did were the regionally located stores like Micro-center. Larger retailers like Best Buy got zilch.
    Online retailers like B&H got zilch, ShopBLT got zilch.
    Amazon and Newegg barely got any and sold out in under a minute, likely by scalper bot community monitoring their site.
    AMD's shop site sold out in under a minute.

    Last year, on July 7, 2019. After I watched Steve's Hardware Unbox review of the RX 5700 XT, and seen how well the card did in Forza Horizon 4 against the RTX 2080 Ti. I immediately went to AMD's website and ordered a RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary Edition GPU without any hassel. I didn't have to spam the shopping cart icon, of F5 refresh, none of that non-sense which people talked about this time, in large due to AMD barely providing stock for Big Navi.

    Last year the Made by AMD and the AIB partners RX 5700 and 5700 XT reference cards where readily available.
    The custom AIB models did not come out until a month later, and when they did they were priced reasonably between $399 to $449 and in-stock.

    This year, barely any stock for reference cards. AMD allowed AIB partners to release their custom cards only a week after the reference launch, which barely any AIB partner provided (I seen one AIB reference from photo of someone who managed to get a PowerColor RX 6800 from Micro-Center) with them having no stock.

    Right now due there barely being any available, the prices of the few are being dictated by scalpers and 3rd party resellers making a profit on this artificial high demand AMD created by not providing enough stock.
    Reply
  • PillowOfWinds
    sizzling said:
    From what I’ve read NVidia and AMD launches had similar stock levels to prior launches. Producing high volumes of stock is very financially risky. The unprecedented demand is therefore a significant factor.

    EVGA has implemented a queue system for purchasing the 3xxx cards, at the moment the queue for the 3080 FTW3 Ultra has not even advanced by 24 hours from release day (September 17th).
    In two months and half after launch they still haven't satisfied the product's demand from the first day!

    So I can't possibly believe the NVIDIA had similar stock levels to prior launches.
    Reply