AMD’s new graphics cards, the Radeon RX 6800 and 6800 XT, go on sale tomorrow, Nov. 18. But according to one US electronics retailer, the supplies will be “extremely limited.”
The information comes from Micro Center, which has physical stores across the country. On Tuesday, an online forum admin for the retailer posted an FAQ for the upcoming RX 6800 launch. “Quantities will be extremely limited at launch, however, we're expecting additional shipments of GPUs later on launch day and subsequent days,” the admin “LandShark” posted.
Asked how many units Micro Center received for tomorrow’s release, LandShark said: “We haven't been given an exact count, but from what I've been told, I would guess it will be very similar to the Nvidia launch.”
That doesn’t bode well for anyone trying to secure the new Radeon cards on day one. When Nvidia launched its own next-generation graphics, the RTX 3000 series, the products immediately sold out after the release, leaving many consumers disappointed.
“For the Nvidia launch, some of our stores didn't get more than 10 cards if I recall correctly,” LandShark added.
For the Radeon RX 6800 release, Micro Center has declined to offer online reservations for the graphics cards, citing the high demand. As a result, eager customers are already camping outside the retailer’s stores in the hopes of snagging a card early Wednesday morning.
Sales for the RX 6800 and 6800 XT are slated to kick off at 9 a.m. EST, according to a tweet from AMD’s official Radeon RX account. In addition to the major retailers, AMD plans on selling the cards over its own online store. But don't be surprised if the site crashes due to a flood of buyers.
Third-party makers including Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI are also preparing to sell their own RX 6800 and 6800 XT models some time this month. But it’s unclear exactly when, with rumors online speculating the date could be Nov. 25.