3 ms·

If (like me) your on a long waiting list to get a new Nvidia GPU or AMD processor this piece sheds some light on the issue from a supplier perspective.

2sk21 6y ago
I need a PC at some time and was thinking of waiting until the new year to get it but it looks like it might actually be a very long wait even in 2021
post_break 6y ago
So far the only way I've seen people get one is by standing outside microcenter before they open. My friend is doing that just this moment. He snagged me a 3060ti, he's probably about to get another GPU for himself. The bots online have been ridiculous and scalpers see blood in the water.
Jaygles 6y ago
Over the past three weeks I've had 7 store pages on auto refresh trying to catch a 5950x in stock. I've finally got one on order but it's a pre-order and its earliest ETA is Jan 12th. I guess this gives me time to try and order the GPU I want. It isn't just CPUs and GPUs though. The cooler I want won't be in stock until July per the manufacturer. I had to get lucky to get the PSU I wanted. People are employing crazy techniques to get each piece of their machine, not just the critical components. Scalpers are magnifying the issue. The scalping problem will be solved eventually when supply catches up, but the longer that takes, the more stock the scalpers will obtain, thus prolonging the time window scalping will be profitable. I didn't know what I signed up for last month when I decided to do a build but I sure as hell wasn't expecting this. I only need the GPU now so at least the end is in sight.
- jrockway 6y ago
  I built a new machine back in August and the PSU was the hardest part. I tend to only buy Seasonic power supplies, but there just weren't any in stock anywhere. I ended up finding an Asus power supply on B&H and it served me well, but I really hate deviating from my approved vendor list. (So far it has treated me well. It's a 1200W unit and I can pull 1000W from it without any problems at all. The same cannot be said of other non-Seasonic units I've had over the years. I was plagued with flakiness with a Corsair 1000W unit many years ago. I wasted so much time debugging that problem; finally connecting an oscilloscope to the 12V rail and noticing that the 12V rail fell to 10V when running AVX instructions. That explains why the computer just hard powered off when I hit an AVX workload :) ECC memory was also in a bad state then, so I suffer with non-ECC memory. So far, that is also treating me well. Can't worry about bit flips you don't know about! (taps forehead)
  - BlueTemplar 6y ago
    Yeah, I'm now happy to have switched my decade-old 400W Corsair to a (perhaps oversized) 750W one just before Covid hit. It didn't solve my RAM issues (memtest just hangs with 2×8 Go, and the PC randomly reboots with 4x8 Go), and so overclocking is still out, but at least I don't have to worry about my PSU anymore...
    - jrockway 6y ago
      I've had consistently bad luck with memory, though I never went out of my way to check which chips the module was using, or whether the modules were on my motherboard's QVL. I did both of those things with my most recent build and things are working better than usual. I haven't heard of a lot of problems with power supplies causing bad memory; usually the memory itself is just bad. RMA that stuff and re-roll.
theandrewbailey 6y ago
I wanted a new GPU so I could run Cyberpunk 2077. Turns out that even people with those GPUs are having issues, so by the time I find one, the game should be sufficiently patched. I have a massive Steam backlog, so I'm not too frustrated.
- bserge 6y ago
  Have you tried overclocking the everloving shit out of your current card? I mean throw everything at it, best thermal paste/pads, cooling, hardware mods. Genuine question, as that's what I do before deciding to buy a new, well, anything :D Surprisingly, it works pretty well... A few burned out GPUs and motherboards over two decades seems like a good risk/reward ratio.
  - kingosticks 6y ago
    But if it goes (really) wrong, you have nothing until the supply issues are resolved. Sounds like a bad plan right now. Especially if there's a perfectly good Steam backlog to get through (when is there ever NOT a Steam backlog!).
    - deadbunny 6y ago
      It's literally impossible to kill hardware with standard overclocking these days.
      - kingosticks 6y ago
        For obvious reasons I have zero intention of trying to prove you wrong.
      - gizmo385 6y ago
        If you're _just_ overclocking, then I think that's safe to say. However, the OP was referring to things like installing new thermal pads and installing hardware mods. That sounds meaningfully more risky to the lifetime of your card :)
      - 6y ago
kyriakos 6y ago
I find Nvidia GPU's in Europe in stock on retailers often, 3060/3070 mostly but the prices are 500 to 700 euro - well above the recommended retail price.
csomar 6y ago
It's interesting because I live in Tunisia (which has lots of challenges for importing stuff, one of them is lack of foreign currency) but the new Ryzen series is widely available including the 5950x. You can find it in most of the gaming suppliers (like this one https://skymil-informatique.com/processeur-amd/3357-amd-ryzen-9-5950x.html https://skymil-informatique.com/processeur-amd/3357-amd-ryze...). The RTX series are also available, though I'm still waiting for AMDs. Do you they have per-country quotas?
mjevans 6y ago
I just want to enter a global waiting queue where the actual supply is raffled or rationed out by a lottery of sorts. E.G. mid-November AMD confirms all the parts will exist and opens pre-orders; I enter for the CPU and GPU I want. Based on how many weeks go by unfulfilled I get that many spots in the drawing. A new batch clears customs in my country. Sequential drawings are run until the requested parts are depleted. I am sent a token from AMD that I can use at a retailer to buy the indicated stuff

2sk21 6y ago

I need a PC at some time and was thinking of waiting until the new year to get it but it looks like it might actually be a very long wait even in 2021

post_break 6y ago

So far the only way I've seen people get one is by standing outside microcenter before they open. My friend is doing that just this moment. He snagged me a 3060ti, he's probably about to get another GPU for himself. The bots online have been ridiculous and scalpers see blood in the water.

Jaygles 6y ago

Over the past three weeks I've had 7 store pages on auto refresh trying to catch a 5950x in stock. I've finally got one on order but it's a pre-order and its earliest ETA is Jan 12th. I guess this gives me time to try and order the GPU I want. It isn't just CPUs and GPUs though. The cooler I want won't be in stock until July per the manufacturer. I had to get lucky to get the PSU I wanted. People are employing crazy techniques to get each piece of their machine, not just the critical components. Scalpers are magnifying the issue. The scalping problem will be solved eventually when supply catches up, but the longer that takes, the more stock the scalpers will obtain, thus prolonging the time window scalping will be profitable. I didn't know what I signed up for last month when I decided to do a build but I sure as hell wasn't expecting this. I only need the GPU now so at least the end is in sight.

jrockway 6y ago
I built a new machine back in August and the PSU was the hardest part. I tend to only buy Seasonic power supplies, but there just weren't any in stock anywhere. I ended up finding an Asus power supply on B&H and it served me well, but I really hate deviating from my approved vendor list. (So far it has treated me well. It's a 1200W unit and I can pull 1000W from it without any problems at all. The same cannot be said of other non-Seasonic units I've had over the years. I was plagued with flakiness with a Corsair 1000W unit many years ago. I wasted so much time debugging that problem; finally connecting an oscilloscope to the 12V rail and noticing that the 12V rail fell to 10V when running AVX instructions. That explains why the computer just hard powered off when I hit an AVX workload :) ECC memory was also in a bad state then, so I suffer with non-ECC memory. So far, that is also treating me well. Can't worry about bit flips you don't know about! (taps forehead)
- BlueTemplar 6y ago
  Yeah, I'm now happy to have switched my decade-old 400W Corsair to a (perhaps oversized) 750W one just before Covid hit. It didn't solve my RAM issues (memtest just hangs with 2×8 Go, and the PC randomly reboots with 4x8 Go), and so overclocking is still out, but at least I don't have to worry about my PSU anymore...
  - jrockway 6y ago
    I've had consistently bad luck with memory, though I never went out of my way to check which chips the module was using, or whether the modules were on my motherboard's QVL. I did both of those things with my most recent build and things are working better than usual. I haven't heard of a lot of problems with power supplies causing bad memory; usually the memory itself is just bad. RMA that stuff and re-roll.

theandrewbailey 6y ago

I wanted a new GPU so I could run Cyberpunk 2077. Turns out that even people with those GPUs are having issues, so by the time I find one, the game should be sufficiently patched. I have a massive Steam backlog, so I'm not too frustrated.

bserge 6y ago
Have you tried overclocking the everloving shit out of your current card? I mean throw everything at it, best thermal paste/pads, cooling, hardware mods. Genuine question, as that's what I do before deciding to buy a new, well, anything :D Surprisingly, it works pretty well... A few burned out GPUs and motherboards over two decades seems like a good risk/reward ratio.
- kingosticks 6y ago
  But if it goes (really) wrong, you have nothing until the supply issues are resolved. Sounds like a bad plan right now. Especially if there's a perfectly good Steam backlog to get through (when is there ever NOT a Steam backlog!).
  - deadbunny 6y ago
    It's literally impossible to kill hardware with standard overclocking these days.
    - kingosticks 6y ago
      For obvious reasons I have zero intention of trying to prove you wrong.
    - gizmo385 6y ago
      If you're _just_ overclocking, then I think that's safe to say. However, the OP was referring to things like installing new thermal pads and installing hardware mods. That sounds meaningfully more risky to the lifetime of your card :)
    - 6y ago

kyriakos 6y ago

I find Nvidia GPU's in Europe in stock on retailers often, 3060/3070 mostly but the prices are 500 to 700 euro - well above the recommended retail price.

csomar 6y ago

It's interesting because I live in Tunisia (which has lots of challenges for importing stuff, one of them is lack of foreign currency) but the new Ryzen series is widely available including the 5950x. You can find it in most of the gaming suppliers (like this one https://skymil-informatique.com/processeur-amd/3357-amd-ryzen-9-5950x.html https://skymil-informatique.com/processeur-amd/3357-amd-ryze...). The RTX series are also available, though I'm still waiting for AMDs. Do you they have per-country quotas?

mjevans 6y ago

I just want to enter a global waiting queue where the actual supply is raffled or rationed out by a lottery of sorts. E.G. mid-November AMD confirms all the parts will exist and opens pre-orders; I enter for the CPU and GPU I want. Based on how many weeks go by unfulfilled I get that many spots in the drawing. A new batch clears customs in my country. Sequential drawings are run until the requested parts are depleted. I am sent a token from AMD that I can use at a retailer to buy the indicated stuff