Nvidia chip shortage the result of Medions urgent orders?

A recent shortage of Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4200 and 4600 graphics chips is believed to have been caused by urgent orders from Europe-based distributor Medion. According to sources, Medion asked Taiwanese manufacturers to deliver around 400,000 Nvidia-based graphics cards by Christmas to meet rising demand.

Though Micro-Star International (MSI), one of the distributor’s major Taiwanese suppliers, did not confirm the news, Nvidia admitted that its GeForce4 Ti 4200 chips have been unable to meet orders for some time. However, it said that its GeForce4 Ti 4600 chips have not experienced any supply problem.

Boosted by the demand, the price of DDR memory used in graphics cards is said to have climbed accordingly.

With rising seasonal demand, ATI Technologies has also reported receiving urgent orders. CP Technology, one of ATI’s card-manufacturing partners, said that graphics card shipments have been increasing with the recent growth in motherboard demand. It said that demand appears relatively stronger in Europe and Asia.