If you got up early to buy AMD’s Radeon RX 6800 or 6800 XT, then you’re probably in a bad mood right now. The graphic cards launched today only to instantly sell out.
We tried to secure a unit from Newegg.com and AMD’s own online store at 6 a.m. PST. Unfortunately, all we saw were out-of-stock notices on both websites.
On Newegg, our strategy was to search for Radeon RX 6800 product listings the moment they went up. Initially, the site returned nothing relevant. They appeared around 6:05 a.m., but by then it was too late: all the stock was already gone.
The situation on AMD.com was more of a mess. Initially, the site showed two “Buy Direct” buttons to purchase the Radeon 6800 or 6800 XT. But when we clicked them, AMD’s website redirected us to a store page that only contained two listings for the company’s CPU processors.
At 6:11 a.m., the store page finally changed to show the Radeon 6800 and 6800 XT, along with “Add to Cart” buttons underneath them. Unfortunately, clicking them did nothing. It was only after we refreshed the store page several times and clicked again (and again) did AMD inform us the products were out of stock.
Another retailer, B&H Photo Video, decided to avoid the sales rush entirely. If you search for the Radeon RX 6800 cards on the company’s site, you get a notice that explains: “To avoid disappointing customers, we have decided to not accept preorders or orders for these cards.”
For now, we’ve found no listings for the AMD graphics cards on Amazon or Walmart. So our only hope is to try and secure one from Best Buy, which currently lists them as coming soon. In the meantime, scalpers on eBay are already hawking the products, but at double or even triple the normal pricing.
The situation is already causing angry consumers to deride the RX 6800 and 6800 XT release as a “paper launch.” That’s when the quantities are so limited that no one can get the products; they can only read about the new hardware via press release. PC enthusiasts had similar qualms with Nvidia when the company launched its RTX 3080 cards in September only for the card to be instantly sold out, partly due to scalper-run bots buying up all the stock.
However, Frank Azor, AMD’s Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions and Marketing, rejects those paper launch accusations.
“Paper launch has always meant to me no supply. We are producing chips and cards in volume,” he said in a tweet. “The demand for gaming devices has grown exponentially this year & beyond anyone's best forecasts. We want nothing more than to put more cards in the hands of gamers. Working to do so.”
Azor made the statement after (somewhat) betting a user $10 that the Radeon RX 6800 release wouldn't be a paper launch. In another tweet this morning, Azor added he was able to successfully order a card from AMD’s website at his home in Florida. However, his tweet was met with bitter replies from other consumers who tried and failed to secure one.
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We’ve reached out to AMD on when more stock will be available and we’ll update the story if we hear back.
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