Due to the global pandemic, there’s a component shortage all over the world and it is almost impossible to find new graphics cards, according to the latest reports there will be no units until late 2022.
We might not see new graphics cards until late 2022
A report confirms that the shortage of graphics cards could extend into the second half of 2022, and leaves open the possibility that it may not be resolved for real until the first quarter of 2023. The information is based on statements from Foxconn’s James Yang and Taiwan’s own semiconductor industry.
The problem is much deeper than it seems because there’s a high demand for graphics cards. It is the result of the cryptocurrency mining boom. To give you a clearer picture, these are the most important aspects:
- The production capacity of the big players in the industry, like TSMC and Samsung, is no longer adequate in its current state. They cannot increase production without receiving more equipment.
- The shipment of new equipment has suffered very marked delays that, according to reliable sources, are as long as 11 months. Yes, we are talking about a delay of almost a year in the shipment of key machinery.
- The nodes with the highest demand today have a minimal margin for improvement in terms of production and success rate per wafer. On the other hand, the margin dedicated to the encapsulation and test processes is also at a minimum, which means that the entire production chain is affected.
- The supply of basic materials for graphics card manufacturing, including substrates and VRAM memory, is also at worrying levels.
- We, therefore, have a number of “bottlenecks” that are severely affecting the semiconductor industry, and which are preventing the big players in the sector from expanding their 200 mm wafer production capacity.
The component shortage is still ongoing
We are talking about limitations that affect several fronts within the industry, creating a huge constrictor effect that is aggravated, as we anticipated, by abnormally high demand, and by the role of speculators and resellers who do not hesitate to manipulate the market for their own benefit.
The lack of graphics cards has boosted the demand for gaming laptops for mining. I have already told you on previous occasions, but the situation we are living in has become really crazy. More and more miners are accumulating gaming laptops with NVIDIA RTX 30 GPUs because it is so profitable right now to mine cryptocurrencies like Ethereum.
