After another disappointing Nvidia graphics card launch, competitor AMD took the time to poke some fun at its rival’s expense by insinuating its launch will go much more smoothly.
AMD is launching its Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards in October as an alternative to the GeForce RTX 3080 flagship and the premium RTX 3090, both of which seemed to go out of stock nearly instantly when preorders went live over the past few weeks.
The RTX 3090 was nigh impossible to procure for most buyers. Between limited inventory, retailer hiccups, and scalpers swooping in to clear out inventory, getting one’s hands on a card was an exercise in frustration to say the least. As a result, users took to Twitter to air their grievances.
With irate buyers venting left and right, there was no shortage of ribbing between AMD and Nvidia fans. However, one comment seemed to strike a chord with Frank Azor, AMD chief architect of gaming solutions.
Notably, Twitter user @AndreElijah, who lamented that he wouldn’t be able to do his work “for the next little bit”, made a $10 bet that AMD would also drop the ball with its Radeon launch.
“I look forward to taking your $10,” Azor replied to the tweet, seemingly indicating that AMD’s launch will avoid the problems that plagued Nvidia’s debut.
The company has yet to make any official comment on the matter, whether in terms of if AMD will be able to meet demand or if there will be fewer issues with retailers. However, Azor’s cheeky tweet certainly seems to insinuate that the company isn’t forecasting any supply problems.
AMD’s high-end 6000 GPU series is meant to take on Nvidia’s RTX 3080 and 3090. Based on AMD’s RDNA 2 microarchitecture, the 6000 cards will offer ray-tracing abilities for the first time. This is the same architecture that will act as the backbone for consoles like Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Sony’s PlayStation 5, both launching in November. Though the GPU’s form factor was already revealed, there’s an additional event scheduled for Oct. 28 where more information will be disseminated.
Azor’s tweet is reminiscent of Microsoft’s recent snafu regarding stores of its Xbox Series X console, which just went up for preorder this past week. After witnessing a troublesome buying experience for fans with the PlayStation 5, Microsoft took the opportunity to dunk on its competitor with a tweet mocking Sony by noting the company would let fans know “the exact time” they’d be able to preorder a system.
Supply issues could be the least of Nvidia’s problems for the moment, however. It seems the manufacturer’s website has been inadvertently leaking customer email addresses. PCMag was able to replicate the issue, which tends to cycle random email addresses in the login field on Nvidia’s website.
It remains to be seen if AMD will be able to meet demand, but as history has shown, it might be a good idea to save statements like Azor’s and Microsoft’s until after securing a “victory” over the competition.
