RSColonel indicated a dearth of Nvidia parts to buy. There may be a reason.

Reader beware: These unsubstantiated rumors are from a site that does not like Nvidia business practices. So, they could overstate things. However, in general, their predictions have been fairly accurate (hence their site name "SemiAccurate"). Presumably, moles inside Nvidia have made this information available to the author.


The "Semi-accurate" site (no fan of Nvidia) is rumoring that the current line up of Nvidia cards is about to be withdrawn.

They rumor this has been building for two years. The Nvidia chips perform well but are physically too big to be profitable at current GPU price points.

Nvidia Leaving High End Rumor

Another article indicates the current parts shortages are artificial. Nvidia would lose money if they sold parts at the current price points.

Fake Shortage Rumor


All in all, if you read the long articles, they indicate Nvidia needs the 300 series to do very well -- so they can sell it at a very high price. They can make speedy cards; but, they cost too much to make compared to similarly speedy ATI cards. Thus, the Nvidia product line has become unprofitable.

Rumors FWIW.

Very interesting Allen. Thank God for competition otherwise we will see some really high prices.

Most interesting. Hello Ati I guess, but the long term implications of reduced competition wouldn't be good. The upside would be that TWIMTBP would stop being an artificial problem for Ati Customers.

Kind of fun if the company goes under of which the Logo is gracing my new case to be...

More fuel for the fire.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/17717

An update on the subject:



Partners Drop GTX2xx Cards

Good link. Follow the conversation below and and this Xbit story for a bit more of the story as seen on the internet.

Allen, I know you're a huge ATI fan and all, but you must be smoking something really good if you believe this. ATI spends years running well behind the curve, bleeding money the whole way (AFAIK they still aren't profitable), but suddenly nvidia is on the verge of going under just because Charlie Demerjian says so? Seriously...

What exactly does all this mean for current 200-series owners? I have a GTX295 card that I bought at a very high price not so long ago. I planned on this card running for 18 months to 2 years. Do I need to change my plans and opt for an ATI model?

-Skater

Well, it should work for those 18 months - 2 years. If it breaks and you need a replacement... then hopefully they will make enough for them.

I would be pissed if my GTX 260 died and I did not get a replacement.

I guess this just temps me to upgrade sooner. I wanted to keep my video card for at least two years.

Gee, I thought I was pretty clear in my original post regarding the source and the likelihood of overstatement

No, I don't think Nvidia is "going under". Charlie is right a lot, though. I do think they may have withdrawn some G200 cards from the market because they are not profitable -- heck, that's been corroborated by multiple sources now. I put this post up because some here were wondering what happened to the availability of 2xx cards they wanted to buy.

I assume most Nvidia fans will wait for the 300 series, if they can't get a 2xx.

The Fermi (300) chip is rumored to be 40-50 percent more transistors than the one in the HD5870 and it has a wider GDDR5 data bus. So, it will cost a lot to make. It will probably be very fast and regain Nvidia's fps crown -- so, it will sell at a large profit margin to those who want the fastest at any price and Nvidia will cruse along as usual.

ATI's all-new architecture is coming out next year according to ATI road-maps (assuming no delay). That will create an interesting match up with Nvidia's all-new 300 series. As I don't need a new graphics card now, I might be waiting for the new ATI architecture before getting a new card myself.

Gone in a couple of weeks? And the article was published in mid-October? I just got off the phone with Digital Storm They have plenty of GTX 295s and 285s and it's almost mid-November. They're expectiing a "big shipment" of Radeon 5870s next week. They did acknowledge a shortage of 5870s but I could still order a PC from them and get a 5870, no problem.

The rumors have "converged" on limited availability of HD58xx at the end of November. It is rumored a little less than half the HD58xx cards go to OEMs for installation in new systems. That squares with Digital Storm's claim that a shipment is due next week.

It is rumored HD58xx shortages will be a dim memory in about 10 weeks. We'll see on that one -- as it is based on "spin" from TSMC.

I don't know which school of business you went to but higher manufacturing costs don't necessarily mean higher profit margins. Especially in a business as competitive as video cards. For example if something costs $100 to make and ship to final distribution and a similar quality (not the same) costs $85 to make and ship to final distribution but sells for $200. Then they have a 55-65% profit margin built into the MSRP...Is the other company going to sell for that same profit margin...heck no they are going to match the final MSRP just to make their product competitive.

In the beginning Nvidia had a lower cost of manufacturing for at least as good if not better product than ATI. Then they bought a few companies that were struggling in debt and AMD bought out ATI...nevermind you probably know the history.

Anyway back on track...high cost of manufacturing does not equal higher profit margins. I don't care what business you are in.

We actually agree totally.

I was indicating that Nvidia believes it has a "fan base" that will pay high prices for the "fastest". And, it probably does. Thing is, their cards do have to be the fastest, or they cannot make the money.

Right now, Nvidia is in a bind because the HD5870 is faster and cheaper to make than the G285 while being equal and cheaper to make than the two GPU G295. Thus, Nvidia cannot lower prices enough on those expensive cards to be competitive -- and still profit.

Things will be much worse for Nvidia with the G300 if it is not faster than the HD5870. So, Nvidia probably will not release it until it is faster.

As you indicate, high manufacturing cost will "limit" profit in "normal" competitive situations.