2012-12-21-92

[Rumour] ATI Radeon shortages possible in H2 2010

According to Digitimes, Nvidia had placed a large pre-order for 40nmTSMC back in March and April for GPU fabrication in H2 2010. As we know,AMD's TSMC orders are already running at full-capacity, and theaddition of extra Nvidia orders might squeeze AMD supplies.

The reason for the pre-orders are Nvidia's GF104, GF106 and GF108 GPUs,which are released in July, August and September, respectively.

Geforce GTX 460 in July will be closely followed by GF106 based Geforce GTS 450/455 in August, priced at $129-$179, targeting the Radeon HD 5700 series. Finally, GF108 will fill in below $100 in September.

The release of these mainstream/budget cards will massively increase volume for Nvidia GPUs, and TSMC is likely to be stretched. Nvidia is likely to be given priority over AMD, being a major client, and AMD's supplies might be limited. Interestingly, AMD themselves are expected to release new 40nm products, Southern Islands. Joining the 40nm mix would be AMD's first Fusion APU - Ontario as well. It could be a real squeeze come late 2010, though no doubt AMD and TSMC alike will be taking measures to prevent supply shortages.

AMD GPG is rumoured to be preparing to move to GlobalFoundries starting with the 28nm process. However, Southern Islands is widely expected to be fabricated at the same TSMC 40nm process.

Reference: Digitimes