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Nvidia Corp. announced the release of new gaming cards and laptops Tuesday amid a global semiconductor shortage that has disrupted the supply of its popular videogame equipment.
The chip maker announced a more entry-level Ampere architecture gaming card, the RTX 3050, which will be available starting Jan. 27 at a suggested price of $249. Previously, Nvidia’s
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lowest-end 30-Series card was the RTX 3060, which was announced in last January at a starting price of $329.
“With 75 percent of gamers still playing on GTX GPUs, the 3050, which also includes second-generation RT cores as well as third generation Tensor cores for DLSS and AI, represents a compelling upgrade opportunity to step up to RTX,” the company said in a statement.
Read:For the videogame industry to grow, it needs to first grow up
At the other end of the spectrum, Nvidia announced the coming release of its flagship BFGPU, or “Big, Ferocious graphics processing unit,” RTX 3090 Ti, an upgraded version of the RTX 3090 announced in September with a suggested price of $1,499. Nvidia did not provide a price for the Ti version, but said that more details would “follow later this month.”
Nvidia shares fell about 5% in early trading, after opening up 0.5%. Shares are up 118% over the past 12 months, compared with a 42% gain on the PHLX Semiconductor Index
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and a 30% gain on the S&P 500 index
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With the continuing global chip shortage, the effectiveness of the company’s recently touted supply agreements may play out in how close the products will sell compared with their manufacturer’s suggested retail price. Right now, if a gamer can even find a current-generation gaming card in stock, they face a big markup: Nvidia cards — from the RTX 3060 to the RTX 3090 — are listed as sold out at retailers like Newegg and Best Buy
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When asked how the company will help those cards and laptops get into the hands of gamers near the suggested price, an Nvidia spokesperson referred MarketWatch to comments made during their earnings report in November. Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said the company was “working hard to increase supply for the overwhelming demand” and that Nvidia had a “spectacular” amount of foundry capacity “particularly starting the second half of this year and going forward.” The company is expected to report results for its holiday quarter in mid-February.
Read: The pandemic boom in videogames is expected to disappear in 2022
Nvidia also announced it had partnered with AT&T Inc.
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allowing AT&T customers who had a “5G device on a 5G unlimited plan, or qualifying unlimited plan” to receive six months of GeForce NOW Priority membership for free. Amid shortages, the subscription-based, cloud-based gaming-card-as-a-service from Nvidia has offered a workaround to gamers who can’t get the latest card.
Nvidia unveiled its GeForce NOW Priority service in November, charging $49.99 for six months, with an 3080-performance option available for $99.99 for six months. The subscription allows gamers to play as if they had a physical high-performance graphics card in their gaming rig.
For more: Nvidia’s top gaming cards are hard to buy, but now you can rent them remotely
Nvidia said it was releasing versions of RTX 3080 Ti-powered gaming laptops “for the first time” that will be produced by more than 160 manufacturers. The company said the laptops will deliver higher-performance than the desktop version of its Titan RTX card, a previous-generation Turing architecture card that was the company’s fastest card in December 2018 when it originally listed at $2,499.
Available starting on Feb. 1, the RTX 3080 Ti-based laptops are expected to start at $2,499. A RTX 3070 Ti version of the laptops are expected to price starting at $1,499.
