A while back it was reported that AMD is presently facing an acute shortage of 7nm Renoir mobile chips, most notably the higher-end Ryzen 7 parts. While that is still true, the reason for the limited supply has been discovered by one of our colleagues over at WCCFTech. As per a report from the outlet, the reason for the shortages is not limited 7nm capacity at TSMC, rather higher than expected sales of Renoir based devices.
In most cases, it’s not the laptop manufacturer (OEM) that places chip orders with AMD but the ODM through which the processors are procured. ODMs usually predict the sales of a particular product based on internal estimates and then place the order which are sent by AMD to TSMC for fabbing.
- Out of all mobile shipments from AMD, Renoir was the best-selling processor in the quarter.
- Unit shipments of Renoir (to ODMS etc) tripled from Q1 to Q2.
In the case of Renoir, both the OEMs and ODMs misjudged the demand for Team Red’s new 7nm mobile parts and as a result, most of them are facing shortages. Now, as the ODM places additional orders, AMD will have to increase capacity (which is available with TSMC) while OEMs and ODMs both adjust their forecasts. This will take several months to resolve but should be resolved nonetheless, unlike Intel’s 10nm and 7nm supply issues.
