A report in the China Times (which has been deleted) stated that NVIDIA is preparing to launch its RTX 3000 series graphics cards (based on Ampere GPUs) sometime in the third quarter. The possible date for this release is likely to be within the time frame of September to October, as most companies expect the COVID situation to be under control by then. According to sources, AIB has begun to clear the inventory of the old RTX 2000 models to make way for NVIDIA's upcoming RTX 3000 series. The price cut is expected to benefit consumers soon.
AIB inventory levels are usually a very reliable indicator of the release schedule, because you will see them decrease significantly in the quarter before release. This is because as NVIDIA partners, they know the expected timeline of the upcoming product and don't want to be trapped by outdated SKUs when it happens. The China Times report more or less confirmed that NVIDIA will launch the consumer version of its Ampere GPU RTX 3000 series in the third quarter of 2020. Here are the relevant parts of the now-deleted article:
After NVIDIA confirmed that the postponed GTC 2020 keynote speech will be held in mid-May, the graphics card market reported that at least three new generation Ampere GPUs will be launched in the third quarter and the second quarter, which will replace the previous generation RTX 2080/2070 high-end graphics card series. The first wave of new products is expected to be on the market before the end of the third quarter, and wait until the first quarter of next year, and there will be new 25-cent coins in the next quarter.
Among the three major Taiwanese manufacturers, Asustek, which took the lead in a sharp decline, has reduced the spot prices of RTX 2060 and 2080 channels to NT$10,000 and NT$16,000 respectively since mid-April, followed by Gigabyte and MSI. Modify the sales price.
The current high-end graphics card market is still dominated by the RTX 20 series Super Edition series. The price of RTX 2070/2080 Super is still above NT$20,000, so the spot price has been reduced to 15,000 yuan. The price of RTX 2080 graphics card has become more attractive (more attractive) people).
Channel dealers estimate that the overall graphics card shipments of the three players will decline in April. Driven by Asustek's leading resource price cuts, the pace of dismantling old products is expected to be slightly faster. China’s graphics card sales ranking will remain as the largest manufacturer in Taiwan, and Gigabyte and MSI are also accelerating the stock of non-super version RTX 20 / GTX 16 series. The goal is to convert the mainstream market to the next-generation RTX 30 series in the third quarter.
-China Times (translated by Google)
According to China Times, Nvidia will launch at least three-layer graphics cards (possibly RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3080 and RTX 3070), but the exact releases may be staggered, at least once every quarter until the first quarter of 2021. The publication also reported that Asustek has significantly reduced Taiwan’s inventory and has introduced spot price cuts to inventory partners in order to get rid of excess RTX 2000 series inventory.
As ASUS cut prices, Gigabyte and MSI began to cut prices in mid-April. These effects will begin to penetrate consumers in a few weeks. On the other hand, AIB is still keeping inventory of non-RTX graphics cards such as GTX 1650 Ti, because these graphics cards are still relatively mobile and may not be replaced in NVIDIA's first wave of new Ampere products.
Channel operators interviewed by China Times also estimated that they expect AIB's graphics shipments to decline after April. As ASUS clears its inventory at an incredible speed, graphics card shipments may enter a relatively calm state before picking up again in the third quarter of 2020. Ampere's arrival is not fast enough. The company plans to launch the Ampere architecture (GET AMPED!) on GTC on May 14 next month.
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