Nvidia is having problems with its RTX 3080. Technical difficulties and especially supply bottlenecks accompany the release. This can especially please competitor AMD. However, this gift to AMD is also a challenge for the company to do better.
Nvidia released its fastest graphics cards to date in mid-September. These currently include the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. However, the release of the new GPUs did not go as planned. The difficult start could now unwittingly play into the hands of competitor AMD.
MeinMMO provides reasons and backgrounds on why Nvidia is inadvertently bringing competitor AMD to the best position it has been in for years.
Nvidia has good reasons to be faster than AMD
Nvidia is picking up speed in 2020. On September 1, it announced the new RTX graphics cards, significantly ahead of AMD, which will only present its new cards in October 2020. And Nvidia has many reasons why it started ahead of the competitor:
Market situation: Currently, Nvidia has a high dominance in the graphics card market. Looking at the Steam Hardware Survey from September 2020, one can see how Nvidia and AMD compare: With 73.88%, Nvidia has the largest share of graphics cards among gamers. In comparison, AMD has just 16.29% among gamers. And the numbers have been consistently stable.
Another reason is that with the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 launching throughout the year, many people are also ready to upgrade to be able to play the latest titles with appropriate hardware. There is a kind of “next-gen mood”.
The advantage of the “green camp”: Nvidia shows what interested parties can expect at its GeForce press conference: On September 1, 2020, Nvidia announced its new graphics cards, the RTX 3070, 3080, and 3090 (via GameStar.de). And it promises a lot. According to its own statements, the RTX 3080 is twice as fast as the RTX 2080 and the RTX 3070 is faster than the RTX 2080 Ti, which costs twice as much in comparison. This is said to be the biggest leap between two generations ever.
Fans are excited. In the Nvidia subreddit, discussions about the official press conference are taking place, and some cannot believe that the RTX 3070 is supposed to offer more performance than the 2080 Ti, but for just 499 dollars – the 2080 Ti costs more than 1200 dollars. One user writes: “Whoever bought a 2080 Ti in the last few weeks… that was perhaps a terrible deal, I laugh out loud.”
The assessment of the competition: If AMD were to present a strong product, it would attract the interest of users who are ready to change their hardware with an eye on games like Cyberpunk or next-gen graphics. It is also possible that Nvidia is aware of what the competition has to offer: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang imagines every morning that he has to save his company and that Nvidia feels pressured. According to AMD, the new graphics cards could provide up to 50% more performance per watt (via GameStar.de).
Nvidia preempts this possibility by offering its interested parties two convincing arguments: Significantly or even twice the performance and that for a significantly lower price compared to the current 2000 series.
It not only offers more performance, but also undercuts its previously expensive flagship, the RTX 2080 Ti, in price. Because it currently still costs significantly more than 1200 euros (via Geizhals.de, as of 21.10.20).
Nvidia manages to create great excitement for the next generation, also because competitor AMD remains quiet. The possibility of getting significantly more performance for a significantly lower price than the previous generation is seen by many as a good opportunity. Just before the RTX 3080 release, users (for instance via Quora.com) asked whether it was worth waiting for the new graphics cards. And many users explain that waiting is indeed worth it for various reasons:
- The graphics card offers significantly more performance than the RTX 2080, which is much more expensive
- the RTX 3080 is available for just 700 dollars
Nvidia is therefore able to create high interest in the new 3000 series.
Nvidia creates a great hype but is not able to cope with the rush
This is what happened: The graphics card is given very good performance values by testers. However, the performance is slightly below what Nvidia promised. At the release, Nvidia is unable to cope with the rush: The card is sold out within seconds and bots are ruining interested parties’ enthusiasm. Consequently, users are also angry in relevant forums. On reddit.com and in Nvidia’s own forum, the mood is low. Additionally, some RTX graphics cards are having problems.
But just how big the problems really are is shown by a report from a Danish dealer (via GameStar.de). Of the 8,642 graphics cards ordered by the dealer Proshop, only 416 models have been delivered and another 190 cards are said to be on the way. This raises doubts about whether it is really a demand problem, as Jensen Huang, the head of Nvidia, explains (via videocardz.com), but rather that the problems lie more with the supply by the manufacturer.
There is hardly any hope: Huang also states that it could take until 2021 before there are enough graphics cards, while the PS5 and Xbox Series X are selling extremely well and are already sold out everywhere.
Nvidia’s difficult situation could now benefit AMD
Nvidia’s supply bottlenecks and design problems could now unintentionally play into AMD’s hands. After the short teaser for the RX 6000 graphics cards, there are discussions about performance. It mainly concerns a table from Planet 3DNow, which has been shared via Twitter.
Where do the data come from? Planet 3DNow compared the official benchmarks from AMD with the benchmarks from Eurogamer, HEXUS, and Overclock3D, which had tested RTX graphics cards. This resulted in this table. The FPS figures for the Radeon card come from AMD.
In various forums and under articles, fans are now fiercely discussing the new graphics cards and the possible performance. Many users see the discussion about the RTX 3080 as a great opportunity for AMD. One user writes John Henderson:
[…] so far so damn competitive against the 3080. What matters here is the price. If this [the benchmarks] are of the 6900 XT and [it has] a price of 649 dollars, then AMD wins in high-end. You don’t need an absolute winner in performance. You need a price/performance winner to be more convincing than the competition. I think AMD will definitely be that in this generation.
And user FoXX87 writes in the ComputerBase forum:
I see a huge opportunity for AMD if they price the card correctly. It reminds me of the good old days of the HD 4870 and HD 5870, where AMD was also able to score points with the P/L [price/performance]. If Big Navi has about 10% less performance than the RTX 3080 at the same time with lower power consumption and costs 100 euros less, it has all the arguments on its side. If AMD also offers some OC potential, one could possibly catch up 5% which would make things even more interesting.
The comments show a development: Indeed, the current discussion can be understood. With Ryzen, AMD has achieved a home run in the CPU market, and many hope for the same in the GPU market. With Ryzen, AMD has made up for lost ground, and Ryzen 5000 could even be the opportunity for AMD to position itself at the top of processors. Staying in is worth it.
With “Big Navi,” as users call AMD’s new RX 6000 series, some are now hoping for a similar turnaround in graphics cards.
Where is the RTX 3080? Nvidia is putting AMD in the best position in years
Due to the problems Nvidia is having with its RTX 3080, AMD is suddenly as interesting as it hasn’t been in a long time. And this has various causes:
Benchmarks of Big Navi: Initial benchmarks (via Videocardz.com) confirm that the Radeon RX 6000 series has 4K performance that could even be in reach of the RTX 3080. The benchmarks show performance that is a few percent below or above the RTX 3080.
Many users are willing to sacrifice a few percent of performance to get lower consumption or more memory. For example, Derbe writes in the ComputerBase forum:
My tip: On average, the RX 6900 will be ~10% slower than the RTX 3080 10 GB, in return AMD offers 16 GB Ram and will certainly be more economical, which has been demanded for years. I would prefer to have 16 GB Ram, even if it means having 3-5 FPS less.
The opportunity to score on availability: Should AMD manage to actually have enough graphics cards available, interested parties, with similar performance, might also opt for the red camp. After all, some people are impatient and now ready to spend money on a fast graphics card. Nvidia has ignited enthusiasm for much performance at a fair price, and AMD could now benefit enormously from it.
Especially if AMD could deliver now. AMD has seen what problems arise when there are not enough graphics cards for interested parties. If the performance of the RX 6000 series is only slightly worse but offers more memory, is available, and costs no more than Nvidia’s cards, then AMD is at a huge advantage.
A similar approach is already known from the processor sector: Intel could not keep up with the production of its new CPUs in 2019, and manufacturers and producers are switching to AMD because they have fast and inexpensive processors on offer. This goes so far that Intel is reactivating old processors (via notbookcheck.com).
What is Nvidia doing about it?
The RTX 3070 is coming later: Nvidia has announced that the smallest RTX 3000 card, the RTX 3070, will not be released on October 15 but instead on October 29 (via nvidia.com). This is primarily an attempt to avoid the problems experienced with the release of the RTX 3080. Nvidia itself states in its blog post that this date change is intended to “ensure that our global partners can provide more graphics cards to players on launch day.” For the release of the RTX 3070, it aims to be significantly better prepared for the customer rush than it was during the first 3000 release.
Memory upgrade for the RTX 3080: A possible memory upgrade for the RTX 3080 is also under discussion . With this, Nvidia could try to counter the competitor. Because 10 GB of VRAM could become tight for the ambitions of the card to offer 4K gaming. Websites like PCWelt.de recommend 8 to 12 GB of video memory for gaming at 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels). With a model that has 20 GB of memory, one could circumvent the problem that the RTX 3080 might have in the future.
AMD is in a strong position – but that could become a problem
With the points mentioned, however, the pressure on the manufacturer is also increasing. Due to Nvidia’s supply bottlenecks and a potential release of “Big Navi”, the pressure and expectations on AMD are also growing. And that does not necessarily have to be a good thing.
What users expect from AMD now: Potential buyers are now expecting good performance and significantly better availability from AMD than from Nvidia. And supply bottlenecks are not uncommon when it comes to new graphics cards: The release of the Radeon 470/480 and Radeon 570/580 from AMD caused a mining boom, which meant that the cards were either sold out shortly after release or only available at extremely high prices (via GameStar.de). The current corona crisis is also likely to exacerbate the situation further. Due to corona, there is at least a higher demand for gaming graphics cards (via GameStar.de).
How high the expectations are is reflected in the discussions about the potential performance of the Radeon RX 6000.
Whether this will succeed and if AMD can withstand this pressure remains to be seen over the course of the year, as there is currently no official launch date for “Big Navi”. The graphics cards will be presented on October 28, 2020.
What do you think about it? Did you get an RTX 3080 or would you rather wait for the launch of “Big Navi”?
