NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 availability to get worse -- and not better

Tom's Hardware reports availability of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 30 series may get even worse throughout Q1 2021. European e-tailer Alternate spoke to NVIDIA and got to hear it will get even more difficult to get supply of video cards.

Demand still outstrips supply and several new factors are in play. First up, the Chinese New Year means factories will be closed for one to two weeks in February. Usually, supply gets build up to get through the holiday closures, but this time that wasn't possible as everything was already in short-supply. Secondly, there's reduced availability of raw materials for the production of video cards. Thirdly, cryptocurrency mining is booming again. With Ethereum prices hitting higher and higher levels, miners are once again competing heavily with gamers to get their hands on video cards.

Alternate spoke with Nvidia about each of the cards, with the following situations:

RTX 3090: Very few deliveries, but only a few open orders

RTX 3080: Very few cards coming with many open orders

RTX 3070: Few cards incoming, but few open orders

RTX 3060 Ti: Very few cards coming, and a moderately high amount of open orders

The chart is clear: If you're in the market for an RTX 3080 or an RTX 3060 Ti, chances are you'll have to sit through quite a wait before a card is available for you due to a high number of open orders and very few card deliveries from distributors.