AMD Ramps up GPU Production - Blames Availability of Graphics Memory

We've seen quite a number of financial reports the past week, AMD included. An interesting set of remarks have been made by CEO Lisa Su on the topic of graphics card. There's a global shortage alright, mainly addressable to added demand due to crypto mining. However that's not the sole reason, a graphics memory shortage also seems to be a root cause of the issue.

In the last financial results conference, all Lisa Su mentions that it is delivering fewer GPUs opposed to what they would like to deliver, and the cause is a shortage of graphics memory. Lisa Su mentions specifically that the shortages are to be found in both GDDR5 (Polaris) and HBM2 (Vega) memory.

"In graphics, we delivered our second straight quarter of record GPU revenue with significantly improved ASP and increased unit sales from a year-ago driven by strength across our entire graphics product portfolio. We saw strong demand for our Polaris products across both the gaming and blockchain markets. And Radeon Vega GPU revenue more than doubled from the prior quarter, driven by strong gaming demand in add-in-board channel as well as strength with strategic OEMs.

We saw strong demand for our Polaris products across both the gaming and blockchain markets. And Radeon Vega GPU revenue more than doubled from the prior quarter, driven by strong gaming demand in add-in-board channel as well as strength with strategic OEMs," explained Su.

AMD reports they are working closely with memory partners to solve the issue at hand and ramp up production, but also mentioned it is one of the most important factors for the company to achieve. Graphics memory is now getting available in better quantities it seems, and as such AMD will be ramping up GPU production.

Ever since it's release, Vega based graphics cards have been short in supply. The Cryptocurrency mining & blockchain trend also didn't help in that matter, as Polaris, Radon RX 570 and 580 are a popular card to use. All facts combined have surged shortages, driving up prices to crazy inflated levels.