Nvidia can have shifted a few of its production away from the RTX 4090 and to its high-performance computing solution, the H100 Hopper. This might mean bad news for gamers.
If Nvidia is de facto scaling back on the production volume of the RTX 4090, are we going to find yourself with one other GPU shortage?
Nvidia
In response to a rumor first shared by MyDrivers, Nvidia may indeed have modified a few of its orders made to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Nvidia turns to TSMC for the production of lots of its different chips, and depending on needs, it might shift some orders as required. This doesn’t cause an instantaneous change out there, though, but it might probably affect it in the long run.
Nvidia cooperates with TSMC each on its high-end AD102 chip, present in the RTX 4090, and on the GH100. The latter is a GPU that belongs to the Hopper lineup and serves a distinct role as a high-performance computing (HPC) chip. While the AD102 is present in consumer-level GPUs, the GH100 is certainly not; Nvidia advertises it as an answer for data centers that’s able to handling essentially the most demanding workloads. Despite these differences, each the chips are made on the identical fabs, which suggests that TSMC should have the opportunity to modify lanes from the AD102 to the H100.
Why would Nvidia decide to dial back the production of the RTX 4090, which is well the perfect graphics card available at once? The reply is likely to be so simple as wanting to make a greater profit. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 launched with a listing price of $1,599, however the Nvidia H100 GPU can cost within the tens of hundreds of dollars, with some versions of it being sold for as high as $39,000 — although the typical price will probably be closer to $10,000 to $15,000, as reported by Tom’s Hardware.
Seeing because the chips are similar by way of complexity, and the production shift can likely be refrained from much effort (even though it’s unclear how difficult it is likely to be for Nvidia to vary its order), it is sensible as to why Nvidia would go for the chip with the upper profit margin.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
This does leave gamers in a precarious position, since the demand for the RTX 4090 might remain higher than the availability. All of it relies on just how much Nvidia can have shifted its priorities within the GH100’s favor.
There’s also the query of price. The RTX 4090 is a really expensive GPU, and Nvidia doesn’t plan to bring those prices down, so lowering the availability of that graphics card leaves room for scalpers to push the costs up even further. We’ve seen all an excessive amount of of that in the course of the GPU shortage and we’d hate to see it come back in any major way.
Now, for the excellent news — it’s too early to start out worrying. We don’t know whether Nvidia actually has reallocated a few of its production orders; it could just be a rumor. Even when it has, the overwhelming majority of consumers won’t be buying $1,600 graphics cards left and right. Unfortunately, those that aim for the highest and get an RTX 4090, might at some point soon see an uptick in pricing if Nvidia has indeed modified its plans.
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