Due to Chip Oversupply, NVIDIA Reportedly Resumes Production of RTX 3080 12 GB

NVIDIA has reportedly resumed production of its GA102-based RTX 3080 12 GB graphics cards, according to a Tweet from GPU leaker Zed__Wang. The reason cited has to do with oversupply of the company’s GA102 chips, which powers the company’s high-end lineup from the RTX 3080 through the RTX 3090 Ti (in all, there are six RTX 30-series cards powered by this chip, alongside the CMP 90HX mining-specific card, datacenter and AI inferencing accelerators A10, A10G, and A40, as well as the company’s RTX A4500, A5000, A5500, and A6000 series for a total of 14 SKUs).

Oversupply, in this case, has more to do with contracting demand – not only is NVIDIA’s next-gen RTX 40-series right around the corner, but the already-announced death of Ethereum’s Proof of Work mining has flooded the market with second-hand RTX 30-series cards. This, alongside the already long-winded shelf-life of the RTX 30-series – which hit the market back in September 2020 – has led to contracting demand for NVIDIA’s GPUs. Rampant inflation and general macroeconomic indicators also do little to instill confidence in the purchase of non-essential products.