AMD and Nvidia squeeze extra capacity at TSMC during the second quarter

That the supply of semiconductors is scarce is not clearer anywhere than in the graphics card market. Although the latest generation of cards has been around for six months, the cards shine with their absence and the few circuits that AMD and Nvidia can produce go in many cases to consumers who have been waiting for their graphics cards since the launch day.

Despite hopes from both manufacturers, we reported earlier in the day on how short the Geforce RTX 3000 series looks to be in short supply this year, information now appears from Digitimes (payment wall) that not everything is pitch black regarding manufacturing at nodes 7 and 5 nanometers. During the second quarter of the year, it is reported that AMD and Nvidia, together with Mediatek and the crypto company Bitmain, managed to book extra production capacity from the contract manufacturer TSMC.

The reason is stated to be a temporary reduction in order intake from TSMC’s largest customer Apple and its processors of 7 and 5 nanometers. Exactly what this means for AMD and Nvidia is unclear, as the companies have not commented on the information, but in the case of AMD, a large part of the capacity is expected to be devoted to high-margin products – mainly the company’s upcoming Zen 3-based server processors in the Epyc series.

Nvidia, for its part, has not yet confirmed that it has started production of the Geforce RTX 3000 series “Ampere” at TSMC, despite persistent rumors. However, the company has no other circuits suitable for production of 7 nanometers, which is why production of the latest generation of graphics circuits can be assumed to have started during the beginning of the year with the Taiwanese contract manufacturer.

Regarding released capacity of 5 nanometers, the question is all the more open. System processor manufacturer Mediatek is not expected to begin production of circuits on manufacturing technology until later this year, leaving the crypto company Bitmain and its recently launched 5-nanometer ASIC circuits in a position to take advantage of increased availability.

In other words, for the average consumer, the situation does not look like it will change drastically in the summer – if anything, the availability of graphics cards in the Geforce RTX 3000 may temporarily go from non-existent to scarce.

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