Semiconductor foundry TSMC is reportedly being blamed for all of the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 supply issues which leads to most retail and online stores still out of stock for the Pascal cards.
NVIDIA has initially launched the GTX 1080 on May 27 and the GTX 1070 on June 10 but stocks are still scarce until now even for the Founders Edition cards that were initially rolled out. As of this writing, simply checking the nowinstock pages for both the cards show almost all models and stores out of stock.
Retail outlets have been receiving less than 10 units of the cards which poses a problem for those who are looking to buy them in populated areas. Amazon and Newegg seem to have more stocks but they are quickly sold out in just minutes.
The problem is now being traced back to the supply end. TSMC is reportedly having trouble producing the 16nm FinFET chips that power the Pascal GPUs in the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, Mobipicker has learned. Coupled with the high demand from the public, the lack of supply does really pose a conundrum for those who have not bought the cards yet.
There are also those who would like to buy two GTX 1080 cards for an SLI setup using the HB SLI bridge from NVIDIA. Some reports have shown that the SLI setup provides over 100 frames per second running on 4K resolution.
Due to the problems in the supply, some retailers and scalpers are already gouging the prices for the Pascal cards. One EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 was even priced at $2000 on Amazon, TechFrag reported.
For many, the GTX 1070 is the sweet spot even for 1440p gaming. The hundred-dollar difference in the price tag is a huge benefit for budget-conscious PC gamers considering that the GTX 1070 still outperforms the GTX 980 and can even be on par with the $1000 GTX Titan.
TSMC and NVIDIA has not yet commented on the supply issue but the serious lack in stocks is really concerning some gamers. AMD seems to be avoiding the problem altogether as they plan to launch the RX 480 with an ample supply to accommodate everyone.
There are still some GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 cards in stock from other sites but they are either the Founders Edition cards or overpriced above the MSRP of $699. Some stocks also come and go on Amazon and Newegg.