GPU restock fail: what’s the point of releasing new graphics cards if nobody can actually buy them?
Opinion: more salt for the salt god
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When the newAMD Radeon RX 6700 XTdropped on March 18, it crashed websites and promptly flew off the virtual shelves within an hour of being listed. In more ordinary times I’d have enjoyedAMD’s phoenix-like rising popularity. I’d enjoy watching theNvidiaor AMD launch events, and the new tech that will feature in upcoming graphics cards.But months are flying by and the ‘great GPU drought’ feels endless. Tensions are getting high amongst consumers, and I am so very sick of seeing new GPUs released into a market where nobody can buy the damn things.
I realize that current hardware shortages are hardly an issue unique to PC builders. BothSonyandMicrosofthave faced similar issues sourcing chips for the latest PlayStation and Xbox consoles, which has resulted in pretty muchanynext-gen gaming hardware being near impossible to purchase.And of course, there are other ongoing issues faced by all parties such as scalpers using bots to buy large quantities of online stock to resell at an inflated price. This can partly be blamed on retailers opting to stock less physical inventory due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s hard to fault them when public health and safety are at the front of everyone’s mind, but this is still contributing to the overall issue.In fact, if you’re looking for a suggested solution to anything in this opinion piece then i’d turn back now because you won’t find it. I’d like to think that smarter people than myself have sat in board rooms and scratched their heads over how to solve the issue, so the shortage itself is almost certainly something we just need to ride out.What I’m specifically frustrated about is the new GPUs being released when so many gamers can’t get their hands on any of the ranges that were released months ago. It’s very difficult to be excited about these new products with the ever-growing pessimism that actually buying one in the next few months is nearly impossible. Even olderNvidia Turingand AMD Navi graphics cards have vanished or increased in price due to demand.
Thisshouldbe an exciting time for PC gamers, but if you head over to your computing forum of choice, you’ll find a lot of depressed tech fans that can’t upgrade their outdated hardware orfirst-time builderswho are now considering buying an expensive pre-built unit orgaming laptop.Some degree of bitterness is to be expected. When GPUs like theNvidia GeForce RTX 2070andRTX 2080were released, many people had the belief that the upgrade from the previous generation couldn’t be justified by the insanely high prices, and that waiting for the 3000 series to drop was the more sensible option.And of course, game developers are now releasing games that were better optimized for these powerful new graphics cards, which only adds salt into the wounds. This is only a handful of titles so far (seeCyberpunk 2077orWatch Dogs: Legionfor examples), but we’re going to see more games emerging with newer GPUs listed in the ‘recommended hardware’ sections over the coming year.Most of these games will still be playable at much lower settings on an oldGTX 1660orRadeon RX 560of course, but you’ll find you’re no longer the target demographic for game devs chasing things like ray tracing.
The only winners outside of chipmakers and GPU manufacturers in this currently are scalpers, who utilize bots to buy up as much available stock they can the minute it goes on sale and thenresell them at hugely inflated prices on eBay.We’re even starting to hear tales of price gougers buying prebuilt systems, ones that carry the much sought-after current-gen GPUs and/or CPUs, to take them apart and sell components separately at a profit. The shortage is so bad thatcrypto miners have been seen buying up gaming laptopsto squeeze every available drop out of the current Ethereum boom.Speaking of crypto miners, whether we like it or not, miners are gonna mine and there’s little we can do to stop it. At the end of the day, manufacturers get the say in how they sell their products and who they choose to market to. Given both sides are unlikely to lose customers in the long term, they don’t need to care about who is actually getting the scarce quantity of GPUs – as long as AMD or Nvidia is getting paid.In fact, AMD went as far as to publicly state itwon’t be blocking any kind of workloadin response toNvidia’s hash rate limiterthat features in theGeForce RTX 3060to try and combat miners using the card. This shouldn’t be surprising as AMD is known for its open-source drivers, and trying to prevent a GPU from being used in mining certainly felt likeNvidia was playing with fire anyway. The Titanic was the ‘Unsinkable Ship’ after all.
All of this frustration can wear you down after long enough, and I, like many others, simply do not enjoy the fanfare of another addition to an already elusive GPU family being paraded around. It’s like being denied service in a crowded Mcdonald’s, with your only chance at get any food being if you choose to pay $30 for a single Big Mac in some dodgy back alley after the store is closed.
The lineup that was announced and subsequently released back in 2020 worked well across a variety of budgets, and if done correctly, older GPU models should have become cheaper as people sold them on for an upgrade. Everyone could have been happy with a budget-appropriate GPU. Now you’re lucky if you can even find a GTX 1070 Ti.
I’m very aware that this is some tragic fantasy world that had high expectations. I didn’t expect such a positive outcome to actually occur, given how much of a pessimist I actually am, but that won’t help me not feel bitter and frustrated about how long this situation is dragging on – and indeed, how much longer itcouldgo on.
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If recent GPUs had been postponed until the current stock issues had been resolved then perhaps more manufacturing efforts could have gone into churning out the desiredGeForce RTX 3080orRadeon 6800 XT. Models like theRTX 3060are a fantastic option for folk looking for a 1080p graphics cards for their first build, but I simply cannot get excited about it knowing that people likely can’t get their hands on one, let alone anRTX 2060at retail price.With any luck, the crypto market will crash soon and a ton of second-hand GPUs will flood online auction sites, but it’s unlikely that they will list below the suggested retail price. For now, I’ll apologetically keep posting news about upcoming graphics card release events until the market stabilizes and we can all stop shaking our fists at the general state of things.
Jess is a former TechRadar Computing writer, where she covered all aspects of Mac and PC hardware, including PC gaming and peripherals. She has been interviewed as an industry expert for the BBC, and while her educational background was in prosthetics and model-making, her true love is in tech and she has built numerous desktop computers over the last 10 years for gaming and content creation. Jess is now a journalist at The Verge.
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