Intel is well aware of the GPU shortage right now, sitting on the sidelines and seeing AMD and NVIDIA suffer what they know is an inevitability in 2022: graphics cards being hard, or impossible to find.
We know that AMD is expecting silicon shortages until the second half of 2022 at the least, with more expensive CPUs and GPUs than ever before unfortunately. NVIDIA hasn't said much about their GPU supply moving into 2022, but we should expect it to suck just as bad as it does now.
Popular Now: 4GB and 6GB GDDR7 chips could enable 192GB workstation GPUs by 2027-28Intel is now talking about GPU supply, with chief architect and senior vice president of Intel's architecture, graphics and software division Raja Koduri explaining: "We'll be coming in as a third player. I'll always be very cautious, when the demand is so high and when the market is so hard. I can always use more supply. So I'm not going to say I have enough supply in this high-demand market. I think every one of my competitors will say the same thing right now".
- Read more: Intel Arc Alchemist reference card teased, Team Blue shaping up well
- Read more: Intel ARC Alchemist high-end GPU: 16GB of GDDR6, 8+6-pin PCIe power
- Read more: Sigh: GPU prices could get even worse, thanks to copper foil shortage
- Read more: AMD CEO Lisa Su expects chip shortages to ease in 2H 2022
- Read more: Yeah, you might be waiting until 2022 to get a new NVIDIA or AMD GPU
We'll have to wait and see in the New Year what happens to GPU supply, but Intel should be in a good position to kick start Arc off. Intel can't promise supply in a high-demand market and that is okay, totally expected in fact... but the real question is how many Intel Arc GPUs will the company have.
It's easy to sell out if you've only got a few hundred thousand to sell in the first wave, or a few million... but try supplying tens of millions of GPUs a quarter, in a high-demand market.
