NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 GPUs Might Potentially Be Short In Supply Around The Globe, 4070 & 4060 Series Affected The Most

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 40 GPU supply has been significantly narrowed down by the firm as partners start to express concern about potential shortages.

The "GPU shortage" situation has spawned multiple narratives in the markets, which we'll discuss ahead, but for now, let's examine how the shortage fiasco is unfolding. Supply chain sources are reporting that NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace SKUs within the GeForce RTX 40 GPU family can face a market shortage as soon as next month, given that Team Green has "strictly" confined the production lines, with supply dropping down by up to 50%. In terms of specific SKUs, the GeForce RTX 4070, & GeForce RTX 4060 series are rumored to be affected the most.

Now, there are different viewpoints from various sources about the reason behind the actual shortage, but Taiwanese media outlets report that NVIDIA has started to focus on its AI supply chain with anticipation of the Blackwell lineup.

Suppliers such as TSMC have shifted their production facilities towards catering to the AI hype, which is why the NVIDIA Ada Lovelace "GeForce RTX 40" GPUs have seen a drop in supply levels, causing a potential shortage. It is said that a "crowding effect" is created within the supply chain, and the only way to avoid it is by compromising consumer-level products.

However, there's another interesting claim made by sources in Asia, notably BoardChannels via (Harukaze5719), which claims that NVIDIA has seen a drop in GDDR6X supply from respective memory manufacturers, which is why consumer GPUs have taken a hit. It is said that the GDDR6X batch received by NVIDIA previously had "quality control problems, "which created a bottleneck in the supply chain, ultimately compromising the overall production. The report also suggests that this issue is short-lived, claiming that NVIDIA has already sorted it out.

UDN cites a different situation with the GeForce RTX 4060 series including the 4060 Ti and 4060 already being tight in supply and seeing widespread price increases which have now extended to the higher-end cards such as the RTX 4090, RTX 4080 & RTX 4070. This reduction in supply has been done to avoid excessive inventory outflows close to the launch of the next-generation GPU launch "RTX 50 series" as NVIDIA and its partners faced a lot of trouble with past RTX 30 "Ampere" inventories.

Pie chart of discrete GPU market share based on the Steam Hardware Survey of June 2024:

All credit goes to u/The_Zura on Reddit who made this chart: https://t.co/YAhUYMNnlu pic.twitter.com/EuE1t2I7rJ

— Sebastian Castellanos (@Sebasti66855537) July 28, 2024

According to Steam's Hardware Survey, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 40 "Ada" GPUs make up 21.3% of the share while RTX 30 "Ampere GPUs make up 32.7% share. The older Turing "GeForce RTX 20" GPUs make up 22.2% share but that's also accounting for the 12% share of the GTX 16 series which was the value addition in the entry-level segment and remains a popular option among budget gamers.

Despite the different narratives, it's only evident to see NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace SKUs see a drop in supply, given that not only is the lineup set to be replaced with the upcoming RTX 50 series release, but consumer interest is declining for the RTX 40 "Ada" series, only making it justifiable for the firm to reduce production. We can potentially see a "temporary" price bump with existing RTX 40 GPUs, but for now, this isn't certain yet.