Rumor mill: Is Nvidia preparing to delay the RTX 4000 series to December? While it's only a rumor, the oversupply of current-gen cards coupled with frugal consumer spending as the cost of living rises does suggest AMD might beat its rival to market by a month or two.
According to YouTube channel Moore's Law is Dead, which cites industry sources, Nvidia is considering delaying the launch of the RTX 4000 (Ada Lovelace) cards until November or even December. While most rumors from anonymous industry sources should be taken with a heavy dose of salt, there have been signs that a postponement could be on the cards.
The first indication came last month when we heard Nvidia could kill off the RTX 3080 12GB GPU. The move is believed to be due to an excess of unsold RTX 3080 10GB cards, which, thanks to falling prices, now cost the same as the slightly more powerful 12GB variant; a price parity that has left consumers opting for the latter card. Nvidia wants to shift the remaining RTX 3080 10GB GPUs before Lovelace arrives, and the best way to do that is by killing off the 12GB variant, of which there are fewer units.
--- RetiredEngineer® (@chiakokhua) July 1, 2022
Furthermore, a recent report from Asia claimed that Nvidia is facing lower demand for the RTX 4000 series in light of more restrained consumer spending, the result of rising inflation and fuel prices pushing up the cost of living. The company has returned to TSMC from Samsung for its next-gen consumer cards, but it now wants to delay those 5nm orders.
Another factor is the crashing crypto market flooding eBay with cheap former mining cards. Lovelace is expected to carry a hefty premium, and price-conscious consumers may prefer to save a few hundred dollars by opting for a used Ampere card.
If Nvidia really does wait until December to launch Lovelace, it would mean AMD's Radeon RX 7000-series cards arriving first, possibly sometime between October and November.