NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series Blackwell Availability

[trinibwoy]

Every single Nvidia launch is like this (except the 40 series if I remember correctly, you could basically just buy those), I think it’s a deliberate choice to have short term shortages. Apple chooses to stockpile devices before putting them on sale. Just two different ways of selling products, there’s no conspiracy just plain old supply management.

Apple’s logistics chain is configured for massive stockpiles of inventory. It’s unlikely GPUs have the same setup. In order for there to be no shortages of a GPU at launch you would need to have sufficient inventory to fully absorb the day one rush in every region. How many GPUs would that take?

If Nvidia shifted all 40 series wafers over to 50 series the 5080 should have decent supply soon. If not then it was clearly an intentional decision to use that capacity elsewhere.

 

[iroboto]

Naturally, which is why I am confident we don’t really know the details of how AIBs do business with Nvidia.

Every single Nvidia launch is like this (except the 40 series if I remember correctly, you could basically just buy those), I think it’s a deliberate choice to have short term shortages. Apple chooses to stockpile devices before putting them on sale. Just two different ways of selling products, there’s no conspiracy just plain old supply management.

Not deliberate. Anything with high demand in electronics has this issue today. You can only make so many. In a global economy, high demand will always outstrip supply at the start. It takes a while for supply to meet demand.

At the end of the day it always comes back to margin. There is always an optimum ROI for the amount of chips you can build where you maximize the number of chips and for the best price point. Anything more or less than that number is suboptimal.

That’s just reality. If you try to meet all the demand upfront you’re likely paying for massive costs for no additional value.

 

[Cappuccino]

Not deliberate. Anything with high demand in electronics has this issue today. You can only make so many. In a global economy, high demand will always outstrip supply at the start. It takes a while for supply to meet demand.

At the end of the day it always comes back to margin. There is always an optimum ROI for the amount of chips you can build where you maximize the number of chips and for the best price point. Anything more or less than that number is suboptimal.

That’s just reality. If you try to meet all the demand upfront you’re likely paying for massive costs for no additional value.

Except it isn’t always the case with all electronics.

Either Nvidia is simply unable to figure out how to avoid shortages after selling GPUs for decades, or this is just a choice they’ve made. I think it’s probably the latter.

That said I don’t think it matters anyways, we probably will have normal supply in a few weeks.

 

[Cappuccino]

LOL
This is how silly shite start, user used a crappy 3rd party cable:

https://hardforum.com/threads/rtx-5090-fe-molten-12vhpwr.2039669/

I mean the fact remains that this basically never happens with the standard 8pin cables, third party or not.

 

[arandomguy]

I mean the fact remains that this basically never happens with the standard 8pin cables, third party or not.

Do we have actual numbers for incidence rates? Ancedotally these are just 7900XTXs with likely third party cables -

https://www.reddit.com/r/cablemod/comments/1grqyra/gpu_cable_melted_and_killed_my_7900_xtx

https://www.reddit.com/r/cablemod/comments/1fibjmm/gpu_power_cable_melted

https://www.reddit.com/r/PcBuild/comments/17r6820/what_could_cause_my_pcie_cable_to_melt_in_my_gpu

https://www.reddit.com/r/AMDHelp/comments/1bpopn3/melted_a_gpu_cable_connection_on_my_7900xtx_image

Might just be the higher power draws - https://www.overclock.net/threads/melted-power-socket-on-r9-295x2-can-it-be-repaired.1701918/

Or maybe not with this "lower power" Nvidia - https://linustechtips.com/topic/1135592-power-cable-melted/

 

[iroboto]

Either Nvidia is simply unable to figure out how to avoid shortages after selling GPUs for decades, or this is just a choice they’ve made. I think it’s probably the latter.

That's not really fair. If the total demand is 20M units, are you saying they should have 20M units ready at launch? It doesn't work like that. The larger the chip the fewer chips per wafer you can produce. You hit manufacturing limits.

 

[homerdog]

I mean the fact remains that this basically never happens with the standard 8pin cables, third party or not.

It's probably not a defective card. Maybe a defective cable, but the dude clearly installed the thing improperly. And that is potentially much more of a problem with 12VHPWR with so much current on so few pins (compared to 8pin connector). If one or two pins have an imperfect connection on a 12VHPWR connection, it is big problem. Can't believe the OP seemed at least somewhat aware of this and twisted the cable around anyway. Looks like he didn't even cut the ziptie before applying torsion.

 

[Cappuccino]

Do we have actual numbers for incidence rates? Ancedotally these are just 7900XTXs with likely third party cables -

https://www.reddit.com/r/cablemod/comments/1grqyra/gpu_cable_melted_and_killed_my_7900_xtx

https://www.reddit.com/r/cablemod/comments/1fibjmm/gpu_power_cable_melted

https://www.reddit.com/r/PcBuild/comments/17r6820/what_could_cause_my_pcie_cable_to_melt_in_my_gpu

https://www.reddit.com/r/AMDHelp/comments/1bpopn3/melted_a_gpu_cable_connection_on_my_7900xtx_image

Might just be the higher power draws - https://www.overclock.net/threads/melted-power-socket-on-r9-295x2-can-it-be-repaired.1701918/

Or maybe not with this "lower power" Nvidia - https://linustechtips.com/topic/1135592-power-cable-melted/

I am guessing it’s just super high power draw GPUs. I found out recently that one of my 8 pins was unplugged halfway on my 3080ti lol, no melting happened.

I’ve never known cablemod cables to be bad, what on earth is happening there?

 

[Cappuccino]

That's not really fair. If the total demand is 20M units, are you saying they should have 20M units ready at launch? It doesn't work like that. The larger the chip the fewer chips per wafer you can produce. You hit manufacturing limits.

I don’t think it’s that controversial to expect at least most demand to be satiated at launch. I’m not asking for 100% but I mean MCs were getting single digit shipments lol.

It's probably not a defective card. Maybe a defective cable, but the dude clearly installed the thing improperly. And that is potentially much more of a problem with 12VHPWR with so much current on so few pins (compared to 8pin connector). If one or two pins have an imperfect connection on a 12VHPWR connection, it is big problem. Can't believe the OP seemed at least somewhat aware of this and twisted the cable around anyway. Looks like he didn't even cut the ziptie before applying torsion.

Yeah I guess I just dislike how these new connectors are. Why are we switching anyways, what’s wrong with 8 pin?

 

[homerdog]

Yeah I guess I just dislike how these new connectors are. Why are we switching anyways, what’s wrong with 8 pin?

IDK how practical it would be to have four 8pin connectors. But putting 50amps through 12 conductors/pins would make me nervous. There is little margin for error. One thing goes wrong and you end up with a 5090 BBQ edition.

 

[arandomguy]

The flip side of this is wouldn't the new standard have a much higher margin of safety for the lower power cards?

You do get a clean single connector for the entire line as well, instead of ranging from 1x6 pin to now potentially 4x8pins.

My understanding also is that Dell was one of the proponents of this. So perhaps this decision also needs to viewed through the lens of of OEMs doing large scale prebuilts.

I'm also wondering if the sense pins have practical benefits.

 

[trinibwoy]

That's not really fair. If the total demand is 20M units, are you saying they should have 20M units ready at launch? It doesn't work like that. The larger the chip the fewer chips per wafer you can produce. You hit manufacturing limits.

You also need to store all that inventory somewhere for months. Inventory that’s not generating revenue.

 

[Albuquerque]

Well, 50 amps through 12 pins is a bit over 4A per pin. USB-C can carry 100W max, and uses a grand total of two power pins... Yoy ever stop to look at how tiny USB-C pins are?

I think we're OK.

 

[Potato Head]

Did someone actually ask how Nvidia benefits from restricting their sales and paper launching?

-They limit the production of GPUs and paper launch at an MSRP
-First batch sells out instantly
-Then they wait for partners to raise their price due to the scarcity and improve their "shitty" margins
-Suddenly they're the only vendor who is selling cards at MSRP or anywhere close
-Their cards are then guaranteed to sell first, and they then control exactly how many GPUs partners get vs what they get.

The amount of money over MSRP that idiots are willing to pay means that Nvidia sells to the "cheap skates" while the partners improve their margins with the high rollers.

It's a complete joke... multiple thousands of $$$s for a GPU.

First problem off the top of my head - Nvidia doesn’t manufacture anything. They buy FE cards from a partner. Typically this has been MSI, who basically supplies all the OEMs.

Second thought, FE has typically sold above MSRP because that way Nvidia wasn’t competing against their own customers.

 

[Potato Head]

What hoops? They announced cards knowing full well there'd be no supply. They know prices will get jacked up. The term paper launch exists for a reason..

Nvidia has better products to sell now.

You had better hold onto your chair when the Switch 2 comes out. Nintendo could fill warehouses for a year and they will still instantly sell out.

Have you not noticed nobody has AMD 7800 or 7900 GPUs either? Did AMD paper launch? Are they limiting supply to drive up prices also? Oh wait, AMD is basically making nothing on graphics, all their billions are coming from AI compute. Just like Nvidia they are prioritizing their important customers, and as a retail consumer you aren’t on that list.

 

[Potato Head]

Show me a PDF detailing the prices Nvidia charges to AIBs throughout a products life and I’ll concede to you completely on this.

Now you’re becoming completely ridiculous.

 

[Cappuccino]

Now you’re becoming completely ridiculous.

Nothing I’ve said is ridiculous, we don’t know how the relationship between AIBs and Nvidia are structured. Saying we “know” anything about how much the dies go for is just untrue.

 

[iroboto]

I don’t think it’s that controversial to expect at least most demand to be satiated at launch. I’m not asking for 100% but I mean MCs were getting single digit shipments lol.

Logistics.

It’s the same reason we don’t put all the materials at the work site when constructing a building. Everything arrives just in time, it reduces transport costs, it reduces theft, it also reduces leaks, reduces storage costs.

So after Nvidia made the announcement? They probably started manufacturing. The container is filled and shipped and off it goes. Directly to be sold.

The AIB partners also likely don’t house massive warehouses, so they ship what they finish as well.

My LCS received a decent shipment from gigabyte and all of that got distributed.

 

[arandomguy]

I feel the launch supply issue is somewhat a perspective issue.

For example let's say you know initial demand is 100 units and your production/shipment rate is 10 units per week.

1) You launch at week 1. 10 buyers will get it week 1. 10 buyers will have to wait until week 10. The rest are somewhere in between.

2) You launch at week 10. Everyone gets to buy it at week 10.

Week 10 might be more "fair" from an outcome perspective for all buyers but as you can see you're effectively delaying everyone getting it by 10 weeks.

As an aside I feel this disconnect in perspective with respect to multiplatform game launches as well. In reality you're basically delaying at least 1 platform to have a simultaneous launch across all platforms.

 

[Remij]

You had better hold onto your chair when the Switch 2 comes out. Nintendo could fill warehouses for a year and they will still instantly sell out.

Have you not noticed nobody has AMD 7800 or 7900 GPUs either? Did AMD paper launch? Are they limiting supply to drive up prices also? Oh wait, AMD is basically making nothing on graphics, all their billions are coming from AI compute. Just like Nvidia they are prioritizing their important customers, and as a retail consumer you aren’t on that list.

Difference is that when Switch 2 sells out.... 10 million people are happy... not 6 people who waited 27 hours outside of a microcenter.

And yeah Nvidia is prioritizing their important customers... I'm waiting for you guys to figure that one out.