Nvidia warns GPU shortage will likely continue "for much of this year"

RTX 30-series graphics cards
(Image credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia graphics cards including the popular RTX 3080 will likely remain in short supply throughout the year. 

Nvidia CFO Colette Kress warned as much at a recent investors meeting, as our friends at Techradar reported. "We expect demand to continue to exceed supply for much of this year," Kress said. Offering a glimmer of hope to those looking to build a new PC or upgrade their GPU sooner rather than later, Kress later added that "we expect our supplies to increase as the year progresses." So while the chip shortage behind this GPU drought – not to mention the ongoing lack of PS5 stock and Xbox Series X stock – may not end this year, Nvidia does expect to improve the supply situation somewhat. 

Back in February, Dutch electronic retailer Alternate said that it had heard much of the same from several chip manufacturers. Between a shortage of raw materials – largely driven by manpower and supply line constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – and the Lunar New Year holiday in Asia, where many chips are produced, Alternate's sources predicted that chips and related electronics would be scarce for some time. 

The entire RTX 30-series line has been affected by this shortage. Nailing down an accurate, retail RTX 3060 price or RTX 3080 price has been especially hard to do given their popularity, and it didn't take long for GPU buyers (and scalpers) to jump on the others too, clearing stock out, and distorting the going RTX 3070 price and RTX 3090 price beyond recognition. Hell, the launch of the RTX 3070 was even delayed in the hopes of ensuring an adequate supply of available cards after the initial 30-series launch was bought up almost instantly. And now here we are. Nvidia's forecast is clear: until the production bottlenecks are addressed, Nvidia GPUs will remain rare. 

It's often easier to find pre-built machines with RTX 30 series packed in. Here are the best pre-built RTX 3080 PC deals and the latest RTX 3070 laptop prices available.

Austin Wood

Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.