It seems like history is repeating itself, if you were one of the lucky few to be able to pick up NVIDIA’s Top card, then you might already be in a rush to get it for a reasonable price, or maybe already too much late. And it is that the green brand has decided to temporarily stop orders to TSMC for the production of the AD102 chip and, therefore, we can say that there will be RTX 4090 shortage. What is this movement due to?
The most powerful gaming graphics card at the moment is the RTX 4090, it is undoubtedly a product with superior performance to any other of its kind in history. It was also the biggest generational leap in raw power that NVIDIA had made in a long time. However, just like buying a Ferrari or a Lamborghini, these are not necessary to drive on the road. In addition, its demand is not as high as other models, especially due to its high price. This led NVIDIA to make a decision that would narrow the lineup of next-gen graphics cards down to a single option. At least for the rest of this year.
RTX 4090 rarity?
The chips are not manufactured by NVIDIA, but are designed and manufactured by a third party. In this generation, it’s about TSMC and its 4nm node or chip fabrication technology. However, the Taiwanese founder has entrusted a number of wafers to NVIDIA to manufacture the AD102, AD103 and AD104 chips for its new generation of graphics cards, although it is not the only one, there is also the H100, which has been oriented towards data centers and, therefore, data centers and supercomputing farms in companies, universities, research centers, etc.
Well, NVIDIA, in order to be able to honor said contracts, made the decision to temporarily stop the manufacture of the AD102 chip and therefore of the RTX 4090, causing its rarity. In other words, this is not a launch cancellation as happened with the 12GB RTX 4080, so the model should resume production once all H100 contracts have been fulfilled and supplied to all its clients. However, we should not ultimately neglect theThe appearance of an RTX 4080 Ti with 20 GB which would fall in price and specs between the current 4080 and 4090.
Unfortunately, and as usual with all products, the scarcity of the RTX 4090 can be a golden opportunity for resellers to go on a killing spree by selling the product well above its official price, taking advantage of the lack of units to the public, a practice which, unfortunately, has become usual in recent times. Although with the current situation and according to rumors, NVIDIA’s goal would be eliminate excess inventory in RTX 30 stores which are still available all over the world.
