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ATI card shortage puts PC sales on hold

By Mike Jennings

Posted on 27 Nov 2009 at 11:20

A “global shortage” of ATI’s Radeon HD 5000-series of graphics cards is being blamed as British PC manufacturers struggle to meet consumer demand.

PC makers, including Mesh, have been left waiting for weeks for fresh supplies from AMD.

Tony Riccardi, sales and marketing director at Mesh, moved to reassure customers that the company was “working with AMD to resolve this issue” as quickly as possible. “The launch of the Radeon HD 5800 series has generated a massive number of orders," he explained, confirming that “this increase in demand has created a short-term global shortage.” Riccardi also apologised to customers for any delays caused by the shortage.

Mesh isn’t the only British PC firm that’s having difficulty sourcing cards. One manufacturer, who wished to remain anonymous, told us that it had been buying Radeon HD 5000-series cards from a German retailer for £360 exc VAT - about a £100 more than they normally cost - to ensure that it had GPUs to use in new machines.

He also outlined the measures being taken to keep customers in the loop, claiming that the firm has phoned customers to explain the situation as well as offering “loan Radeon HD 4890 cards” until replacement parts can be shipped.

ATI has received plenty of criticism for the lack of HD 5000-series cards, but the Canadian firm has told PC Pro that the issue is under control. Antal Tungler, technical PR manager for Europe, the Middle East and Asia, told us that “we do expect significant improvement in December for the whole series”, although he was adamant that the HD 5750 and HD 5770 hadn’t experienced the supply issues that have plagued higher-end parts.

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User comments

Buzz Lightyear

There's nothing like some panic buying to lead up to Christmas!

By Stiggy on 27 Nov 2009

Shame

This is the area where AMD/ATI have the better product and they can't meet demand.

By windywoo on 30 Nov 2009

losing profit/customer

i don't really see how hard it is to get the supplies...in this economy, they should be glad there's a great demand for it. Better start working hard to get them in stock or they'll lose a lot of customers to nvidia. As for me, i'm nvidia fan but the dx11 is what making me wait for the 5870/5970. If it's not in stock soon, i'm going w/ gtx 295.

By im_a_pc on 1 Dec 2009

Fast losing confidence...

I have been waiting for weeks for my new system which is held up because AMD/ATI are not able to supply the 5870. I am not sure that this is a demand issue, I heard only 100 of these cards were making it to the UK per week. Unless you already have your order in I would think the chances of getting one before Christmas is slim, as a result I suspect NVIDIA sales are going up! I am not sure why AMD/ATI thought it a good idea to release another card... this is only going to further compound their supply problems.
I congratulate the anonymous system manufacturer for supplying loan cards, that is what I call putting the customer first. I hope that AMD/ATI are making these loan cards available to the manufacturer free of charge.

By AGeezer on 2 Dec 2009