According to DigiTimes, Nvidia’s backend service providers are not seeing increased orders for testing and packaging of its latest GeForce RTX 40-series GPUs based on the Ada Lovelace architecture. They believe the company is taking its time, allowing its partners to sell any remaining GeForce RTX 30-series inventory before supplying them with the latest generation graphics chips.
Despite the fact that Nvidia has introduced virtually all of its Ada Lovelace GPUs for client applications, including AD102, AD103, AD104, AD106, and AD107, Nvidia’s OSAT providers, Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) and King Yuan Electronics (KYEC), have not received any indication from the company about scaling up production for the GeForce RTX 40-series.
Nvidia must produce new graphics processors at TSMC and then test and assemble them at SPIL or KYEC in order to aggressively ramp up output. While the company has pre-paid TSMC for silicon manufacturing services in the 2021-2022 timeframe and is likely to have N4-based Ada Lovelace wafers on hand, it still needs to book OSAT capacity before ramping up orders to increase supply.
Nvidia is content with the current GeForce RTX 40-series output and has no plans to increase it.
Nvidia’s sales of GPUs to its partners typically increase in the third quarter, so the company should be booking OSAT services now. If the information in the report is correct, it appears that Nvidia prefers to wait a little longer before ramping up testing and packaging of its Ada Lovelace silicon.
GeForce RTX 4070, RTX 4070 Ti, RTX 4080, and RTX 4090 graphics cards for desktops are already available from the company’s partners. While these are among the best graphics cards available, demand appears to be lower than Nvidia would like. Several laptops use GeForce RTX 4050, RTX 4060, RTX 4070, RTX 4080, and RTX 4090 Laptop GPUs.
So far, Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace graphics processors have covered nearly all market segments, and solutions such as the recently launched GeForce RTX 4070 and the anticipated RTX 4060 should prove popular. As a result, Nvidia will require more GPU volume and packaging services.
Perhaps Nvidia and its partners already have enough GeForce RTX 30- and GeForce RTX 40-series GPUs to sell, eliminating the need to ramp up testing and assembly even further ahead of the rumoured GeForce RTX 4050 and RTX 4060 GPU launches in May-June. Certainly, it hasn’t attempted to lower prices below $500 yet.
While testing and assembly procedures take time, they are not as long as wafer production, so even if Nvidia is several weeks behind schedule with ordering OSAT services, given the global slow demand for new PCs, this is unlikely to cause any tangible problems for the market.
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