It took a mere few minutes for the AMD Radeon RX 6800 and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics cards to run out of stock, and it looks like PC gamers are very annoyed with the situation.ย
AMD previously appeared confident it would avoid the same mistakes as Nvidia when it came to stock, as VideoCards reported AMD was setting guidelines to prevent scalpers from bulk buying the cards to sell them at inflated prices on eBay.
Related: AMD Radeon RX 6800 review
AMD RX 6800 & XT sold out on new egg before pages went up pic.twitter.com/M0auwcsyDF
— โ๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ (@omsplitting) November 18, 2020
However, stock quickly ran dry on both AMD’s official website and all of the third-party retailers such as eBuyer and Scan, making it practically impossible to order the card 30 minutes after the official 2pm (UK time) launch.
Various AMD fans have taken to Twitter to post their annoyance with the stock shortages, while also poking fun at AMD for failing to avoid the ‘paper launch’ it had hoped to avoid. The mass stock shortage also means AMD has missed an opportunity to benefit from the lack of available Nvidia 30-Series graphics cards.
Related: AMD Big Naviย
@AMD Had a trash launch today, all @Radeon RX 6800 XTs basically sold out before even going live. This truly was a paper launch, I haven't even seen a post of anyone getting it that wasn't a content creator/reviewer. Welp, back to waiting for @NVIDIAGeForce 3080 or something…..
— CruiseBlazer (@CruiseBlazer) November 18, 2020
6800 launch was a flop just like nvidia launch. Man mf pc players are try hard at everything. Using bots and like 4 monitors with different websites up. This the most toxic community and AMD and NVIDIA just adding on to it by not having sufficient stock. ๐คฆ๐ฝโโ๏ธ
— TRIPLE D (@danieldali2000) November 18, 2020
To make matters even worse, AMD Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT graphics cards have already been spotted on eBay with inflated prices as high as ยฃ1500. This suggests scalpers were indeed successful in their attempts to bulk buy the graphics cards from retailers.
It’s currently unknown when the new AMD Big Navi graphics will be back in stock again, with AMD yet to make an official statement on the issue. Today’s launch also casts further doubt on the availability of the upcoming Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card, which will also likely see limited stock available when it arrives in December.
Rumours: Nvidia RTX 3080 Tiย
Scalpers already on Ebay pic.twitter.com/lGatQy4cL2
— โ๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ (@omsplitting) November 18, 2020
It’s a big shame that many PC gamers will be unable to purchase an AMD Radeon RX 6800 graphics card on launch day, as we gave it a 4.5 out of 5 score in our recent review. In our verdict we said: “The AMD Radeon RX 6800 is a top-notch graphics card that delivers post 60fps gaming performance even in 4K. The only minor quibble is that, without a DLSS rival, ray tracing frame rates don’t quite match the Nvidia competition.”
With such slim performance margins between the Radeon RX 6800 and Nvidia RTX 3070 graphics cards, it’s suddenly become a race between the two competing graphics card manufacturers to replenish stock before the end of the year.
Check out our ‘Where to buy the AMD Radeon RX 6800 graphics card‘ if you’re still trying to order the new AMD graphics card, as we’ll be frequently updating the article as soon as more stock arrives.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editorsโ code of practice to underpin these standards.
