Nvidia RTX 3000 cards may be even harder to find in the next few months

It looks like Nvidia RTX 30-series GPUs may be even harder to find over the next few months than they were around launch, and that's really saying something.

Dutch electronics retailer Alternate has posted an update for customers looking for the hot new cards, as spotted by Tom's Hardware, and it's bad news for anyone waiting on a fresh surge of supply. Alternate says a number of chip manufacturers have told it that the availability of RTX 3000 cards will get worse, not better, throughout the first quarter of 2021.

Combined with the number of customer orders for each card that Alternate already has open, it's estimating that RTX 3080 and RTX 3060 Ti will both be the hardest to find. Both RTX 3090 and RTX 3070 will have more deliveries and fewer outstanding orders, relatively speaking.

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According to the manufacturers, the worsening supply situation will be driven by two main factors: factor No. 1, a shortage of raw materials used in the creation of the chips, and factor No. 2, many production facilities across Asia shutting down for the Lunar New Year (which falls on this Friday).

As Tom's Hardware points out, normally the facilities would have ramped up production enough so that the supply reaching retailers would remain consistent throughout the holiday, but, well, see problem No. 1 - and a hundred other issues the pandemic has introduced to international manufacturing and trade.

You may have better luck if you're looking to pick up a pre-built PC - check out our guide to RTX 3060 PC stock for your best bet.