It turns out that Nvidia, one of the world’s leading GPU developers, built too many GPUs and is now gearing up to put them on sale in the lead-up to the RTX 40 series.
“Because we were building for such a vibrant market, we found ourselves with excess inventory,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call.
“Our strategy is to sell in well below the current sell-through levels in the marketplace to give the channel an opportunity to correct. We’ll do that for a couple of quarters or so.”
The GPU shortage has plagued PC gaming for the past two years, tying in with the global chip shortage and leading to the shortage of just about everything, including new gaming consoles like the PS5 and the Xbox Series X.
But as you may have been able to tell, it has gotten much easier to get GPUs over the past few months. Two years ago, for example, the Gigabyte RTX 3060 sold for around $999 on Australian parts websites like Scorptec, PC Case Gear and Mwave.
Now, the fairly mid-range card (less powerful than the 3070 or 3080 but cheaper) is at a much more economical $649, having dropped in price alongside other cards. Also, yes, telling on myself now, I bought that card for that price two years ago. They were tough times.
But let’s come back to the present: as originally reported by The Verge, Nvidia says it has too many GPUs now.
“We’ve implemented programs with our partners to price-position the product in the channel in preparation for our next generation,” Huang added on the earnings call.
Does this mean we’re about to see GPUs come down in price in the leadup to the much-awaited RTX 40 series, due out this year? Possibly, but as The Verge points out, do keep in mind that discounts are up to the retailers and partners. Glancing over Australian PC part websites right now, prices across the RTX 3060, 3070 and 3080 graphics cards categories seem to be widely slashed and on sale. Of course not every card is on sale, but there are quite a few that are.
On top of Nvidia making too many GPUs, the graphics card maker has announced that it will be introducing a new product to reach “a new segment of the market”, but we’re not sure what this could be. It may end up being GPUs for handheld devices like the Steam Deck and Ayaneo, but that’s just speculation.
“Automotive is becoming a tech industry and is on track to be our next billion-dollar business,” Huang also added.
Revenue in Nvidia’s automotive business was up by 45 per cent since last year and 59 per cent since the previous quarter. The company has partnerships with a range of automotive brands, fleshing out their operating systems and platforms.
We’re pretty excited for Nvidia’s RTX 40 series, which is due to be revealed sometime in late 2022.
You can read Nvidia’s second quarter financial results on its website.
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