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2020: a year of exciting yet frustrating hardware launches

26.11.2020

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

RTX 30, Ryzen 5000, Radeon 6000 and the Playstation 5 as well as the Xbox Series X/S: the 2020 hardware year is coming to an end with five big hits. Severely undermined by availability issues, that is. And many a launch still left much to be desired.

68! No, I'm not talking about the year 1968 with its great socio-cultural upheavals. I'm talking about the number of Radeon 6000 reference models that were allocated to digitec for launch day. A number that you aren't supposed to know according to our agreement with AMD. I'm only telling you because of the sheer ridiculousness this number represents given the unrelenting demand for new graphics cards. But I'll be the first to admit it, our shop also messed up on several occasions.

How can a launch go this badly?

A look at the traffic shortly before and after the launch of the Radeon 6000 on 18.11.2020 at 15:00 shows a considerable increase. The peak load was too much for our servers (sorry about the German – your humble translator).

This caused time-outs, uneven sales starts for customers and problems at check-out. Moreover, shortly after it was actually sold out, the card could still be bought at a price of 9999 francs – a mistake on our part. Any affected orders were naturally refunded.

In short: almost everything that could go wrong did. So first and foremost, apologies from digitec. Our colleagues have learnt their lesson from this disaster and are making sure that things run smoothly next time. The people in charge weren't expecting such a rush. It's the fifth unsatisfactory launch this year. In part due to the fact that the volume of orders for the Radeon 6000, Ryzen 5000 and RTX 30 was much greater this time than in comparable launches. I unfortunately don't have any reliable data on the Playstation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S. You can assume that it's similar there, though.

An unprecedented rush

Want to know how much bigger the rush on PC hardware was in 2020? So do I. Which is exactly why I compared the traffic. The launch increase for the Radeon 6000 is blatant: traffic during launch hour for the GPU product group is about 40 times higher than for the simultaneous Ryzen 3000 and Radeon 5000 launch. That's bordering on mythical. Nobody expected that huge an increase during COVID.

The RTX 3080 and 3090 launches brought the pain as well. Individually, they top the simultaneous launch of the RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti by a country mile. During launch hour for the RTX 3080, the traffic was three times greater for the GPU product group than for the joint launch of the RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti. The traffic was even five and a half times larger for the RTX 3090 launch.

AMD has released some truly excellent products this year. This is clearly reflected in the data: during the Ryzen 5000 series launch hour, the CPU product group's traffic was about 14.5 times higher than during the joint launch for the Ryzen 3000 and Radeon 5000 series.

Here's a comparison of all six launches mentioned:

Due to secrecy reasons, I can't tell you the definite numbers. However, the graphical comparison of these estimations speaks for itself: the growth is enormous.

When such a rush meets small product quantities, everyone involved gets frustrated: you as a customer naturally don't get your card, CPU or console. We the dealers at digitec/Galaxus would very much enjoy being able to sell more. But even manufacturers/distributors want to supply more goods. Especially since they too were only provided with information by AMD and Nvidia shortly before release. The same applies to the Playstation and Xbox. This year, information ran dry in the run-up to launches. Which brings me to AMD, Nvidia, Sony and Microsoft. Why do they release products that they can't supply in reasonable quantities? I'll illustrate this point further using graphics cards. You can assume, however, that the same applies to CPUs and consoles.

Trying to meet expectations and then failing spectacularly

AMD and Nvidia have their product cycles. Nvidia releases new hardware every two years on average. The RTX-20 series debuted in September 2018, followed nearly two years to the dot by the RTX-30 series in September 2020. AMD has claimed several times this year that the Ryzen 5000 and Radeon 6000 will be released before the new consoles. This raises expectations for you as a customer. And more importantly to the two companies: it raises expectations among shareholders. These must be met if the value of the company is to increase. If these objectives aren't achieved, companies don't complete their business goals. The company is threatened with a loss. This is all very simplified of course, but it's a useful rule of thumb for our economic system.

On top of this, AMD and Nvidia then have to ~~whip... wait, no~~ bring out their most impressive and fastest hardware. As a result, the old rivals put pressure on one another and immediately launched new hardware – way too early to be able to satisfy the enormous demand.

New hardware is always in short supply during a release. As has been shown by the RTX-20 series, Radeon 5000 and Ryzen 3000. Doesn't matter how far back we go, launches always suffer from shortages. But 2020 is a special year in every respect. Factories have had to close down or reduce capacity due to various measures surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Manufacturers such as Samsung or TSMC, who produce semiconductors for AMD and Nvidia, are falling behind on production quotas. And a seemingly never-ending spiral of delays follows. Besides, AMD and Nvidia aren't the only customers for these manufacturers – everyone's in the same boat.

Simultaneously, the average consumer purchases less from external sources while staying at home. As travel is limited, diving holidays in the Maldives are also cancelled. So we have more money available for other things. And we're in luck, then new graphics cards, consoles and processors are coming out this year! This leads to the inevitable: the demand far exceeds the supply.

All the anger and frustration is only intensified by sparse and unsatisfactory information. Manufacturers and distributors are supplied by AMD and Nvidia with delays and little information about the launch. This means that digitec/Galaxus also has to wait for further information. Nobody knows exactly when and how many goods are coming in. The same applies to the Playstation and Xbox. When will there be new ones in stock, which will be sent directly to customers who pre-ordered? No idea.

Conclusion: let's learn our lesson and hope for a change of mind

The RTX-30 series, Radeon 6000 and Ryzen 5000 as well as Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S: ingenious, powerful products. However, apart from astonishment, they mainly result in frustration. digitec is also changing its process. In future, deliveries regarding items that are only available in limited quantities will be randomly selected. You can find out exactly how this works on the respective launch pages. No more destroying your F5 key. For now, anyway. In all other cases, the first-come-first-serve principle still applies.

And what about communication? Where there's no news, there's nothing to say. Our colleague Yannick Cejka, for example, handles this by releasing information on the launch page for each respective product as soon as he knows more. Unfortunately, personal correspondence with the several thousand pre-ordering Playstation customers among you isn't possible. For all five products, you can assume that the situation will only ease during or towards the end of the first quarter of 2021.

Will future launches offer any solace? I hope so. But this would require a fundamental shift in the mind sets of AMD, Nvidia, Sony and Microsoft. Moving back the release a bit to allow for enough merchandise. This may cause some displeasure, but at least there's a tangible reason for delays then. It's a system that works in the games industry: waiting periods have nearly become the norm.

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Kevin Hofer

Senior Editor

kevin.hofer@digitecgalaxus.ch

From big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.

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2020: a year of exciting yet frustrating hardware launches

How can a launch go this badly?

An unprecedented rush

Trying to meet expectations and then failing spectacularly

Conclusion: let's learn our lesson and hope for a change of mind

These articles might also interest you

These new AMD graphics cards have impressed reviewers

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: the best gaming CPU at the moment

«Damn graphics cards, I’ve just about had it.»

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