PC part and console shortages expected to last until second half of 2021

Chimpzy

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Not so great news for people looking to buy one of them newfangled Sonysoft PlayBox Series 5's or upgrade their pc with a spiffy Amdia RRXX 6980.
AMD CEO Lisa Su has indicated that supply shortages for gaming consoles, desktop CPUs, and GPUs will continue until the second half of 2021, with the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Series S most affected.

The news was included in AMD's full-year financial earnings (via Tom's Hardware), which showed the company surpassing its past earning records with a strong Q4. This was in part thanks to the launch of a slew of AMD-powered products, including both current generation consoles, AMD's Zen 3-powered Ryzen CPUs, and RX 6000 series graphics cards.

Supply of all three has been tight since launch, however, and Su expects this to continue being the case until new production capacity comes online. Su also pointed out that lower-cost components for low-end PCs and both consoles will be affected the most given the overwhelming demand, with the prospects for new stock of much higher-priced components looking more positive over the same period.

This is identical to the situation Nvidia finds itself in with stock of its RTX 30-series GPUs, which it says will not be any better before at least April. Nvidia did announce a new RTX 3060 desktop GPU and multiple laptop RTX 30-series chips at CES 2021 despite this.

Stock of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X has been a nightmare since launch, which isn't at all out of the norm for a big, anticipated release of new gaming hardware. Microsoft previously expected stock issues to continue through March, and it's yet to be seen how AMD's plans for increased production later this year will help alleviate issues further.
The writing's been on the wall, of course. It's not so much news as official confirmation of something that was suspected basically since all that hardware's respective releases.
 
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Gordon_4

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And in other news, water is wet I guess. I mean the irony is as a PC gamer we’re a better spot than console gamers are because our rigs may not have the latest and greatest but they still work if we turn some bells and whistles off.
 
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09philj

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Demand for chips outstripping supply has been an off and on problem for years, since demand often spikes to levels well above their capacity to manufacture them. I made this PC during the crypto fuelled period of high demand back in 2018, and paid well over the odds for a couple of components, especially the RAM.
 

gorfias

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Went to Amazon to look at Nintendo Switch. 4 years into it, and they don't have any in stock. It's Reagan's fault.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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Anyone looking for a 3000 series graphics card might have to resort to buying a pre-build pc. It looks like pre-build manufacturers are getting way more access to the market than retail consumers.
 
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Gordon_4

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Anyone looking for a 3000 series graphics card might have to resort to buying a pre-build pc. It looks like pre-build manufacturers are getting way more access to the market than retail consumers.
Well that's one way to do it I guess. Mind you, the cheapest pre-built I've found with a 3080 in it is $5000. I mean, I could spend half that and get a 3090 instead.
 

The Rogue Wolf

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At this point I'd say they're lowballing it- the beginning of 2022 seems more likely. The manufacturers and retailers say that they want to shut out scalpers and miners and get hardware into the hands of gamers, but at the end of the day, a sale is a sale to them. Plus manufacturing capacity isn't going to return to normal in an instant.
 

BrawlMan

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Not planning on getting a next gen console yet, and still enjoying and grateful for what I have. Give me another 2.5 years before I even consider a PS5.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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Well that's one way to do it I guess. Mind you, the cheapest pre-built I've found with a 3080 in it is $5000. I mean, I could spend half that and get a 3090 instead.
A buddy of mine just bought a pre-built with a 3070 and a Ryzen 3700x for $1400.

The case it comes in is a bunch of garbage with no ventilation, so there's a pretty good chance he'll just gut the thing for the parts he actually wants and will sell the rest online, but if he does do that it'll probably be at a loss, so I predict this PC may end up costing him closer to $1600 at the end of the day, which is about $400 more than it should.
 

Gergar12

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Given the US-China trade problems, I doubt this will end by 2021.
 

Gordon_4

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At this point I'd say they're lowballing it- the beginning of 2022 seems more likely. The manufacturers and retailers say that they want to shut out scalpers and miners and get hardware into the hands of gamers, but at the end of the day, a sale is a sale to them. Plus manufacturing capacity isn't going to return to normal in an instant.
Well, is there a way to meaningfully shut them out? Some of the smarter groups of both have probably set themselves up as sole traders and are passing themselves off as resellers to allow them to buy in bulk without looking suspicious and retailers only have so many ways to enforce one per customer or household.

I mean shit it’s like arms dealing. If you’re selling them, eventually they will end up with whomever has the dosh to buy them. For good and for ill.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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Well, is there a way to meaningfully shut them out? Some of the smarter groups of both have probably set themselves up as sole traders and are passing themselves off as resellers to allow them to buy in bulk without looking suspicious and retailers only have so many ways to enforce one per customer or household.

I mean shit it’s like arms dealing. If you’re selling them, eventually they will end up with whomever has the dosh to buy them. For good and for ill.
The least they could do is use things like captchas to make it harder to buy using bots.
 

Chimpzy

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... they don't do that? So what the fuck DO they do???
Maybe some limit purchases to 1 per end-user, but my guess is most do either nothing or halfassed lip service. Probably because as Rogue Wolf already pointed out, a sale is a sale, whether to a scalper or an actual user, and implementing anti-scalping measures takes time and energy (and thus money), so major retailers have little incentive to curtail scalping.
 
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laggyteabag

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Its just a really sad state.

I don't envy anyone who is looking to build a new PC, these days. Having to fork out for a 20-series card, knowing that the 30-series cards are far and away better, for the same price, would absolutely kill me.

The best bet would probably be to just buy a pre-built, as weird as that sounds. At least then, you have options.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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... they don't do that? So what the fuck DO they do???
Nothing, because they don't care. Retailers don't give a shit who buys their products are long as they're being bought. If scalper bots will buy all of their stock within 12 seconds then that's "gucci" as the kids would say.
 

CriticalGaming

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Went to Amazon to look at Nintendo Switch. 4 years into it, and they don't have any in stock. It's Reagan's fault.
Switches have been readily available at my local stores, Walmart, Best buy, Gamestop, etc. i don't know what the online problem is, but check around locally and you shouldn't have too much problem getting a switch right now.
 
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Jarrito3002

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The PS5 will be on the backburner but I have lots of console to keep me good. Plus new Ratchet and Horizon are not even out yet so no incentive for a PS5 right now.
 

CriticalGaming

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Plus new Ratchet and Horizon are not even out yet so no incentive for a PS5 right now.
Demon's Souls,
Final Fantasy 7 Intergrade
All your Ps4 games running better?

No?

Yeah I guess there is no reason to get one right now. Which is good because you CAN'T. So it's a win-win
 

Jarrito3002

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Demon's Souls,
Final Fantasy 7 Intergrade
All your Ps4 games running better?

No?

Yeah I guess there is no reason to get one right now. Which is good because you CAN'T. So it's a win-win
Not much of a souls fan
I still got to beat Remake hell I was going to wait til all of FF7 came out and get it in one fell swoop.
I don't really have a eye for performance. Plus I enjoy them as is while performance boost would be nice its not essential.

And like you said they said I CAN'T get it so no reason for disappointment and stress.