Nvidia CEO: GeForce RTX 3080 and 3090 Shortages To Last Until 2021

Nvidia Teardown
(Image credit: Nvidia)

If you thought it would become easier to purchase an Nvidia RTX 3080 or 3090 by the end of the year, you might be wrong. And it doesn't look good for the RTX 3070, either. Today Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed that the company expects the crushing shortages of RTX 3080 and 3090 graphics cards to persist through the end of 2020, saying:

"I believe that demand will outstrip all of our supply through the year," Huang said. "Remember, we're also going into the double-whammy. The double-whammy is the holiday season. Even before the holiday season, we were doing incredibly well, and then you add on top of it the ‘Ampere factor,’ and then you add on top of that the ‘Ampere holiday factor,’ and we're going to have a really really big Q4 season."

Jensen Huang's answer came during a Q&A with the press to cover the company's GTC announcements. Still, as expected, the topic of the ongoing shortages of GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3090 models bubbled up during the session. In response to a question about the shortages, Huang countered that the company hadn't experienced a shortage of supply, but rather an abundance of demand:

"The 3080 and 3090 have a demand issue, not a supply issue," said Huang. "The demand issue is that it is much much greater than we expected — and we expected really a lot."

"Retailers will tell you they haven't seen a phenomenon like this in over a decade of computing. It hearkens back to the old days of Windows 95 and Pentium when people were just out of their minds to buy this stuff. So this is a phenomenon like we've not seen in a long time, and we just weren't prepared for it."

"Even if we knew about all the demand, I don't think it's possible to have ramped that fast. We're ramping really, really hard. Yields are great, the product's shipping fantastically, it's just getting sold out instantly," said Huang. "I appreciate it very much, I just don't think there's a real problem to solve. It's a phenomenon to observe. It's just a phenomenon."

GeForce RTX 30-series lineup

(Image credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia also recently postponed the RTX 3070 launch to build up supply, but given the impressive 2080 Ti-beating performance at a reasonable $499 price point (per Nvidia), we can expect demand will be even greater than we've seen for the 3080 and 3090.

Huang's assessment of the breadth of the shortage is similar to reports we've seen from several China-based media outfits that predicted the shortages would last until 2021. Those reports also outlined that we could see third-party graphics card makers create bundle deals that force users to buy a motherboard with the GPU to upsell customers. That hasn't happened...yet.

Scalpers have taken advantage, though, and the only way you can find RTX 3080 and 3090 models currently is to either exercise your F5 button (and patience) during the rare few moments of sporadic availability, or pay a scalper a ridiculous premium. We don't recommend the latter, particularly since you generally have no support or RMA option if you go through a scalper. 

As it stands, the RTX 3070 launch, possibly RTX 3060 as well, and the holiday season are looming large. AMD also has Big Navi coming soon, though the GPUs come from a different source (TSMC instead of Samsung) so maybe AMD's launch won't be quite as supply constrained. Still, we expect more of the same from Nvidia for the rest of 2020, and the holiday season isn't going to help. The Grinch appears to be dressed in Nvidia-green this year.

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.

  • Jim90
    Nvidia have problems - and it's clearly a production/correction issue rather than this smokescreen Jensen's laying. Of course, AMD have a bit of an opportunity now (though next gen consoles + Zen3 desktop will have an affect) - still, looking like AMD are in a nice place.
    Reply
  • Olivier_00
    Well. Multiple times I got notifications from newegg and amazon.
    From newegg, I add to the cart and then it's sold out... So until they solve bots problems nobody will have a card, I don't see how... Or you have a ridiculous luck.

    I believe that Newegg and Amazon doesn't care since they sell them... If bots blocked all orders (like buy the card and cancel the order), Newegg and Amazon would fix this but they sell the card so no problem ^^.

    From Amazon, I saw Card x2 prices (the last was Asus TUF 3080 at 1600$CAD without taxes) and it's 500$ above the price. Amazon shouldn't make that happens... But all those cards (above the price) are solds... I don't understand people who buy at that price...

    On Twitch, people claim out loud they sold them x10 the price on Ebay...

    I think we need to be patient...
    Reply
  • Avro Arrow
    I think that people aren't thinking clearly about this. It's not like nVidia is some new kid on the block, they know exactly what they're doing. This shortage is clearly by design to increase demand and I don't get it. There are so many grownup babies that think their life is over because they can't get a... video card. Well, if that's true, they didn't have much of a life to begin with did they? LOL

    This is one of the worst product launches that nVidia has ever had with prices spiraling upward and generational performance bumps tanking. It's pure marketing that's making people want these Ampere cards and people are falling for it hook, line and sinker. People were set up by nVidia with how horrible the Turing series was just so that the (mediocre at best) launch of Ampere would look phenomenal because people can't remember that not long ago the top-tier Titanium card (GTX 1080 Ti) was only $699 while the "80" (GTX 1080) card was only $599. Now the top "80" card is $699 which means that nVidia is jacking the prices right under everyone's nose and they're not seeing it. Initially, I said "BRAVO!" to nVidia for a great launch but then the independent benchmarks came in and proved that nVidia's launch was full of half-truths, special phrasing and specially selected words. I pointed this out a few days later and got attacked by the fools (which, to be fair, I expected) but I got my vindication right here:
    VjOnWT9U96gView: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjOnWT9U96g
    Reply
  • AtrociKitty
    Say what you want about the value of an RTX 2080 Ti, but at least I can use it today.
    Reply
  • thepersonwithaface45
    AtrociKitty said:
    Say what you want about the value of an RTX 2080 Ti, but at least I can use it today.
    Say what you want about the value of a 1070ti, but I'm still using it today 🆒
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    Avro Arrow said:
    I think that people aren't thinking clearly about this. It's not like nVidia is some new kid on the block, they know exactly what they're doing. This shortage is clearly by design to increase demand and I don't get it. There are so many grownup babies that think their life is over because they can't get a... video card. Well, if that's true, they didn't have much of a life to begin with did they? LOL
    Business 101. Piss off a huge chunk of your highend customers who have money in hand by producing too little, because generating a huge unmet demand is better than actually making money by selling your product to people who want it. Some people might not be thinking clearly, but you aren't thinking at all.
    Reply
  • colson79
    Complete BS. They are having supply issues and don't want to admit it. They pissed off TSMC so they had to go to Samsung for their chips and Samsung isn't able to deliver like TSMC can.
    Reply
  • A.Hamster.Gaming
    Ive been doing this since 1997- and I have been an Nvidia fanatic. This pretty much seals the deal on why I am done with their products. In that time I have also become a manufacturing and supply chain expert- there is no acceptable answer to the CEOs comments. Cant predict demand? More like "enjoy setting the prices higher based on inflationary tactics"

    What kind of leader gloats about stock outs? What an idiot.

    I dont care what Radeon cant provide me, it makes no difference if the only difference is if Nvidia cant provide me a card at any price point. Card you have vs the one you cant find- that should be Nvidias next head to head comparison.

    In an innovation year, which is now, these cards have smaller shelf windows, you will be replacing them in 2 years (unlike a non-innovation year which means the card will last 5-7 years depending on your tolerance.)

    Nvidia is just not a consumer friendly brand- plain and simple. Radeon and AMD have always had my back.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    colson79 said:
    Complete BS. They are having supply issues and don't want to admit it. They pissed off TSMC so they had to go to Samsung for their chips and Samsung isn't able to deliver like TSMC can.
    There's no real proof using TSMC would have made any difference as a far as supply goes. We know TSMC is completely booked and will not add any more capacity. If Nvidia had gone with TSMC, who's to say their allocation would have been any better than what Samsung is currently capable of producing?
    Reply
  • A.Hamster.Gaming
    spongiemaster said:
    There's no real proof using TSMC would have made any difference as a far as supply goes. We know TSMC is completely booked and will not add any more capacity. If Nvidia had gone with TSMC, who's to say their allocation would have been any better than what Samsung is currently capable of producing?

    Nvidia is a Tier 1 manufacturer- they get whatever they ask for- just like Apple.
    Reply