Radeon HD 5800 GPU Shortage Leads to Price Increments

AMD might have a real money maker on its hands with the Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cards, but the Sunnyvale, California-based chip maker appears to be really affected by TSMC's 40nm manufacturing process yield problems. According to recent reports on the Internet, the company has decided to raise the prices for at least one of its 5800 GPU-series solutions, namely the more affordable Radeon HD 5850. The chip maker claims that the price increase is due to supply issues with components and a heavy demand for said card.

We have already reported that TSMC's problems with the 40nm manufacturing is directly affecting both AMD's and NVIDIA's GPU shipments, which consequently affects the new product shipments of the industry's major OEMs. In AMD's case, it looks like both the Radeon HD 5000 series and HD 4000 series are facing supply issues, mainly due to the lack of components, but also to an AMD policy for its 55nm GPU sales.

It appears that these problems will now leave their mark on the consumer's pocket, as AMD decided to increase the prices of its Radeon HD 5850 cards, citing supply issues with components and the high demand for them. According to a recent report on Anandtech, prices for the aforementioned Radeon HD 5850 product will increase by about US$20, although vendors and retailers have the final word on deciding whether to increase them or not. Although AMD hasn't officially announced any price changes for the high-end Radeon HD 5870, it's likely that this card will also have its pricing increased.

Meanwhile, NVIDIA plays it cool, preparing the launch of its next generation of Fermi-based GeForce cards, while also ramping down the production of its 55nm-based, GT200-based GPUs. At the end of the day, the shortage of components and TSMC's yield problems are affecting the end-user, who will have to settle for one of the previous generation of cards, looking among those that are still available.