AMD and PC vendors delay products amid GPU shortage

[Matthew DeCarlo]

It would seem that several PC vendors are feeling the effect of AMD's limited graphics card supply. The company's 40nm Radeon HD 5000 series and 55nm Radeon HD 4000 series video cards are both tight in supply at the moment. The former is said to be the result of low yields on TSMC's 40nm process, and the latter is reportedly due to AMD's conservative stance toward the sales of its 55nm graphics cards after the launch of its 40nm products.

The dry stock of GPUs is forcing PC makers to delay their mass shipment schedules by about two months, to the first quarter of 2010. AMD isn't escaping unscathed, either. Sources of DigiTimes say that the shortage has also caused a delay in the company's mass shipment of Mobility Radeon HD 5000 (Manhattan) series GPUs. AMD has moved the shipment date of its new notebook graphics chips from the fourth quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/36844-amd-and-pc-vendors-delay-products-amid-gpu-shortage.html

 

[Shalimar]

Shortages suck... but at least it wasn't a vapour launch like so many others over the years.
Hopefully they'll get it sorted quickly so we can have a good supply before the holidays!

 

[slh28]

This is probably one of the reasons why AMD aren't the market leader... they made a great product at an unchalleged price point yet can't get it out to people who actually want to buy it!

 

[Wagan8r]

While I can understand the shortage of GPUs due to TSMC, I don't understand their limiting of the 55nm parts. A sale is a sale. It would be like Sony halting production of the PS2 after the PS3 came out.

 

[ken777]

TSMC needs to get their act together. Sounds like there's a shortage of Nvidia products too. Just listened to their earnings call today, and they kept saying "supply constrained". They said they shipped everything they had, and were still significantly short of filling all the demand. Sounds like next quarter might be same too.

 

[Xclusiveitalian]

They should be pumpin those babies out to make more money, shortages are never good for business especially for the future when companies cant trust you to deliver.

 

[skitzo_zac]

It's a shame that they can't deliver the terrific 5000 series to those who want it, but good to see that the demand for it is there.

I just hope that potential 5000 series customers don't go and buy an Nvidia card due to the shortage, Nvidia have really annoyed me lately.

 

[Kibaruk]

This has to do with the change of old hardware with the introduction of windows 7, most changed to direct x 11 ready video cards and powerfull enough to not have to replace it until next windows to come.

 

[pomonasi]

i agree that shortages are never good. they definitely should take advantage of the demand with supplies. with no nvidia counterparts, i think amd is missing out on a great chance to significantly increase market share. not to mention, once these customers convert, customer retention is historically cheaper to market than new customers (learned that from professional selling class in college. hehe)

 

[Beggars]

You know your company has some serious issues when they create a product, but can't keep up with the demand. Could it be because the process of which they create the 40nm chips isn't efficient enough due to it being new technology and all?

Maybe they should just raise the price a little bit to reduce demand for it

 

[buttus]

It's funny how tight Nvidia and TSMC are and it's equally funny how there is suddenly very poor yields on these chips just as AMD already has a full DX11 card that could clean house this Christmas and Nvidia's card isn't out until next year. This "shortage" can only benefit Nvidia and hurt AMD. No conspiracy there. huh?

 

[JieMan]

Its really a shame to see AMD suffer another blow, as its not bad enough to be trailing there CPU competitors, now they have an opportunity to capitalize on one of the most successful launches in there GPU division with NVIDIA far off in the horizon with there solution. just a shame, I'm sure they would have loved to put all that lost money to R&D

 

[klepto12]

this really bothers me why would AMD even release the cards in the first place if there was going to be a mass shortage its not fair to all the customers who dont get a product because they are always sold out i mean come on they could have atleast stocked them up to like a million and then release them to the public so you dont have months of waiting to get a video card that should have been there when you had the money in the first place.

 

[IvanAwfulitch]

buttus said:
It's funny how tight Nvidia and TSMC are and it's equally funny how there is suddenly very poor yields on these chips just as AMD already has a full DX11 card that could clean house this Christmas and Nvidia's card isn't out until next year. This "shortage" can only benefit Nvidia and hurt AMD. No conspiracy there. huh?

No, it's really not a conspiracy because, if it were, they'd have been sued already for unfair business practices just like Intel or Apple. Yes, this can only benefit Nvidia, but that's all because of AMD's business decisions and the way the wind blows. They're focusing on making a quality product that can compete with Nvidia's quality, but they're neglecting their supply.

AMD has a quality line of products again just like in their early days. Now they just have to get it together with their supply and perhaps their advertising, and they'll soon have a bigger market share. I love both companies to be honest. The Radeon cards have always been fantastic. My first graphics card was a Raeon PCI 9250. My second card was the 9600gt.

 

[zaidpirwani]

This is BAD.... shortage at this time of year will not help the consumer at all. There should be a fine on such companies/people who are responsible for the delay, as this could mean that people will be set back for about 2 months because of this....

 

[Puiu]

Those who want an DX11 card will just have to be patient until they find one.
@wagan8r: they are limiting the 55nm shipments because they need the prices of the lower end card to be high enough to ensure that high end cards like the 5000 series don't seem too expensive to buy. It's a good strategy if you want the profit for each individual card to grow although this also means that they will sell a bit less.

 

[freedomthinker]

This kinda sucks , sometimes you wish AMD would just keep it smooth for a while for sales to boost . Instead of letting Intel screw everything up for em ?

 

[PUTALE]

man, i guess this helps nvidia a bit but if TMSC cannot ramp up the 40nm production, they are going to be facing a big challence once nvidia released fermi.

 

[fref]

Man, this is bad for ATI, but I'm sure nVidia is very happy about the situation. I have customers waiting for 5850 and 5870 video cards. I'm sure some will cancel their order for the ATI cards and ask for an nVidia card that's available right now instead. Too bad, because ATI's latest generation is really awesome!

 

[fref]

PUTALE said:
they are going to be facing a big challence once nvidia released fermi.

Then again maybe not. If TSMC's production problem isn't fixed by the time Fermi is ready, I guess this will be affecting nVidia too, no?

 

[ET3D]

I'm not at all sure about NVIDIA being happy with the situation. Their new chips are bigger than ATI's, so will suffer even lower yields. My guess is that without the yield problem they might have had a few salvageable parts they could sell this year or at the very least ship to reviewers to build more hype. I'm guessing part of the delay is trying to build more redundancy into the chips to get them to actually work, and considering whether they can come to the market with lower performance chips.

 

[slh28]

Still, I guess ATI's yields are better than the reported 2-3% from the nvidia GT300's

 

[Guest]

"I just hope that potential 5000 series customers don't go and buy an Nvidia card due to the shortage, Nvidia have really annoyed me lately."


No we dont.. Well.. i bougth the 5770 instead og 5870 ..just building a new game-rig and looking forward to months of waiting... not really me.

From the start, i ordered the 5870, but after 3 weeks, the shop just dumped my order without further notice and made a 20$ raise in prices ...so i gave up on waiting and bougth the 5770...