If you were thinking of getting an NVIDIA graphics card for Christmas, you may have to change your plans.
For several weeks now - if not months - it's been difficult to get your hands on a GeForce RTX 4090, NVIDIA's current top-of-the-range model. Given the price of the graphics card, this isn't such a problem, but since the beginning of November - the situation varies greatly from country to country - it has become very difficult to get hold of a GeForce RTX 4080 and, for a little less time, the scarcity of cards has also affected RTX 4070s. Only RTX 4060s seem to be escaping the shortage. A shortage whose origin we suspected, but which has now been confirmed.
To prepare the ground for the release of the next-generation GeForce RTX - the RTX 50 "Blackwell" - NVIDIA has simply limited its orders with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (or TSMC) in charge of chip production. NVIDIA doesn't have access to unlimited lines at TSMC, and competition from Apple, for example, is forcing the Taiwanese firm to make choices. For NVIDIA, this means choosing between RTX 40 and RTX 50 chips. In fact, while the GeForce RTX 50s are due to be announced in early January at CES in Las Vegas - and marketed in the wake - the chips had to be produced in advance.
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This is more or less what a spokesperson for the firm explained to Tom's Hardware during a conference call organized to present the group's financial results: " The challenge we're facing is how quickly we're able to meet market demands for this quarter ", in other words, the supply of GeForce RTX 40s is not expected to improve for the holiday season. NVIDIA adds: " Don't worry, I think we'll be back on track when we start the new year. So things should be better early next year... but for the RTX 50 generation, of course.
The fact of having to juggle with limited production lines at TSMC makes sense, but let's bet it's not the only explanation. In the past, NVIDIA has always managed to launch a new generation of graphics cards without the previous one completely disappearing from the shelves several weeks/months beforehand. No, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that NVIDIA has cleverly orchestrated the reduction of RTX 40 chip stocks so that these cards don't compete with the new ones. Reducing stocks intelligently also ensures that you don't end up with an overflow of cards that you then have to sell off.
