“paper launch” refers to a shortage of cards available on release-- many who waited in line left with purchase vouchers instead of hardware.
article doesn’t mention who calls it that or who coined the term.
The term paper launch has been kicking around for a while now.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=paper launch
Who calls it that - if it’s a spade, it’s a spade.
From memory a paper launch used to mean something that only existed on paper / a press launch; where no consumer could purchase the product. Considering stock quantities that GN has sourced for the US it’s near enough a paper launch.
To add a bit more context, it’s been used in the tech industry for at least 20 years, if not more.
There doesn’t seem to be too much actual proper etymological documentation on the first usage or history… as you say, it most likely derives from ordering something, and not getting it, and being left with only a paper invoice, from back when such things were mailed or faxed…
…it may have derived from the old layaway process retail stores used to do: you order and pay for something upfront, they hand you a voucher, and when they get the product, they hold it in inventory for you, as opposed to putting it on the sales floor for general purchase by anyone, and then you exchange the voucher for the item.
But that’s just a guess.
appreciate the consideration and i assumed it was probably industry jargon, i just found the title to be clickbait and wanted to address that in my disappointed summary after searching the article for those answers :p
Hmmm… At this point I assuming it’s all fake to price gouge
Why even do this? All this does is make scalpers rich. When will NVDIA learn
Scalpers helped nvidia push the MSRP of GPUs up dramatically. That’s what they learned.
The 3080 launched at $699 and scalpers sold it for at least twice that and people ate it up. So, nvidia launched the 4080 for $1,199
True. Maybe it’s gamers that need to learn not to buy at inflated prices from scalpers. 🤔
Been thinking about upgrading my 3080 but based on some reviews 3080 was the last gpu that had best bang for the buck. No chance I am paying these ridiculous pieces for an inferior product.
Yeah, I wrote a fairly popular bot in late 2020 aimed at helping people get gpus instead of scalpers and it managed to help at least a few hundred people. I encouraged everyone to not give in to the scalpers because fuck them.
My 3070 Ti (which I got from a NewEgg lottery) died recently and I replaced it with a 4070 Super from OfferUp for $550 which is a pretty decent upgrade.
Why even do this? All this does is make scalpers rich. When will NVDIA learn
Scalpers helps with price inflation. What did Nvidia learn it’s to keep making trillions; I wonder if they are realizing they are quickly becoming an hated company.
I donno how much NVIDIA specifically benefits from the artificial high prices since scalpers are the ones selling them at a markup.
To the surprise of no one.
I wonder how long I’ll have to wait before I can get my hands on one… I’ve been wanting to upgrade my 1080 for a while now but first I couldn’t get a 4090 or 4080, then I waited for this gen, and now this gen is a mirage for the time being. I really wish I could just go jump on an AMD card but I need the raytracing/CUDA for rendering/photogrammetry/stuff like that.
Given that Trump has now reiterated multiple times, at least once after he personally met with Nvidia CEO Huang, that he will indeed be going forward with tariffs on Taiwan…
If you’re in the US, I wouldn’t expect to be able to get any 5000 series Nvidia GPU any time soon, at least not for under $3000+.
EDIT:
AMD cards will also be affected by the Taiwan tariffs, but uh, they tend to price things a bit more affordably, and provide more actual stock volume… but as of right now all we know is the 9070XT was planned at some price below $899, most people expected $450 to $500… but there’s still no official price, or date, and now the tariffs are a thing… so… maybe $899 actually is now a realistic price estimate for the 9070XT?
Who knows! All the gamers can now thank Trump for making all PC / Console components and likely video games themselves more expensive.
EDIT 2: Also, you can run professional production, CUDA style workloads on AMD cards:
https://repairspotter.com/computers/what-is-the-amd-radeon-equivalent-to-nvidias-cuda
YMMV.
Also also, the RDNA 4 architecture for AMDs 9000 series cards seems to be rebalancing toward more raytracing performance, but that’s based on leaks so far.
Company makes product that a lot of people want but doesn’t make enough to meet demand.
Bad company! Should go out of business and not make any of the product people want.
The most surprising thing to me is that people actually want this garbage.
