RX Vega shortage in UK, despite AMD’s previous claims of shipping good volume

AMD's RX Vega launch finally took place earlier this week after much delay. So far, we have heard from distributors that around a total of 500 cards hit the UK on launch and as we reported earlier this week, most RX Vega64 cards sold out on day one, with prices rising between £550 and £600.

In the days following launch, many KitGuru readers have contacted us, asking if we know when stock might be back at healthy levels in the UK and if prices will stabilise. We have followed up with AMD by sending a few emails on VEGA and are awaiting a response. From what we have been told, we can expect a statement from AMD in the coming days. For the time being, we aren't sure when higher volumes of the card will hit UK retail or prices will come back down closer to MSRP.

We are a little surprised that AMD seem to sold out so quickly though, as just a couple of weeks before launch, Chris Hook, Senior Director of AMD Marketing and PR, spoke with the American publication HardOCP on their YouTube Channel and said:

“Part of the reason thats its taken us a little longer to launch Vega – I'll be honest about that – is that we wanted to make sure we're launching with good volume. We have to compensate — for things like coin miners as they are going to want to get their hands on these. So we believe that we are launching with a volume that will ensure that gamers can get their hands on them. Thats what is important to us.”

You can hear that quote in the interview with HARDOCP, which you can find above. The statement is made around 48 seconds in. Essentially, Chris tried to explain that RX Vega's extensive delay was to ensure stock was available in good volume at launch. Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to have been the case, with so few cards arriving in the UK at launch and GPUs being sold out almost everywhere. Some cards will have been reserved for AMD's ‘Radeon Pack' initiative, which bundles a GPU with a Ryzen CPU and motherboard or a FreeSync monitor. However, these packs also appear to be sold out in the UK.

KitGuru says: We do hope that this launch smooths out for AMD, particularly since prior to this, pricing was expected to hit the $499/£450 mark. With the current state of things at retail, early adopters are paying well over MSRP to get their hands on one of these boards. The best we can hope for is more stock to meet demand, then prices will begin to drop. 

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