Nvidia ramps up RTX 3080 production to tackle chip oversupply crisis

Sayem Ahmed
RTX 3080 in an empty factory

Amidst Nvidia’s chip oversupply crisis, the company is reportedly set to resume production on RTX 3080 12GB graphics cards in order to get rid of old GA102 chips.

We’ve previously talked in detail about Nvidia’s oversupply issues, in addition to everything that the company is doing in order to alleviate them ahead of the RTX 40 series‘ launch. This next step, which comes just as planned according to what we’ve been hearing back in the rumor mill, is to get rid of GA102 stock, which powers the RTX 3080, all the way up to the RTX 3090 Ti.

Presumably, Nvidia wants to get rid of the stock at the best possible price they can, and that’s meant slashing $1000 off the RTX 3090 Ti last week, and this week, it means producing more of the incredibly popular RTX 3080 12GB models, which only launched in January of this year as a mid-cycle refresh, according to industry insider MEGAsizeGPU.

According to Moore’s Law is Dead, AIB’s already had a tough time shifting stock of Nvidia cards, and were up in arms about the idea of taking on more, next-generation cards like the RTX 4090, without having shifted the 30-series quite yet.

Therefore, with more RTX 3080 12GB models in their sales channels, they will be able to discount them heavily, which is what we assume is going to happen. It’s an effort to clear out the chips ahead of an expected 2022 launch date for mainstream cards like the RTX 4080 and RTX 4070.

With the crash in cryptocurrency prices, you could potentially see powerful cards getting deep discounts on the aftermarket. However, this raises a serious issue for Nvidia, which wants to get ahead of the problem by clearing out its current stock of cards.

We’ll be closely monitoring any movement regarding production and any price drops that will inevitably occur as a result of this, so keep your eyes peeled if you want a GPU bargain, you might just get one.

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About The Author

Dexerto's Hardware Editor. Sayem is an expert in all things Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and PC components. He has 10 years of experience, having written for the likes of Eurogamer, IGN, Trusted Reviews, Kotaku, and many more. Get in touch via email at sayem.ahmed@dexerto.com.