AMD has launched a Midnight Black variant of its Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU. However, for those of you thinking about picking up the Limited Edition card, it has already sold out.
Releasing on 7 April at 6AM PST, AMD priced its Midnight Black variant at $649.00 - the same price as the original.
The GPU features no upgraded specs compared to the base RX 6800 XT. This isn't such a bad thing, however, as the RX 6800 XT already boasts 16GB of GDDR6 RAM and 128MB of Infinite Cache.
So why did it sell out so fast?
AMD Red Team early warning
As reported by VideoCardz, AMD first tipped off its Red Team members about the Midnight Black's release.
In an email, AMD gave the Red Team community around six hours' notice of the Midnight Black's launch. This meant that when unsuspecting consumers who are not part of the Red Team, or missed the email, logged on to buy the RX 6800 XT, the GPU was likely already sold out.
Even members of the Red Team reported having been unable to purchase the Midnight Black GPU (via The Verge).
For those who missed out on the Midnight Black variant, you will need to wait for a restock, although there is no date on this, or even a guarantee it will happen.
Why did the Midnight Black GPU sell out so fast?
As with countless other GPUs released in 2020/2021, the Midnight Black likely suffered at the hands of scalpers.
There is currently unprecedented demand for high-end GPUs, with locked-down gamers and cryptocurrency miners both seeking out powerful graphics cards, whether for gaming or mining.
A current listing for the Midnight Black variant on eBay is priced at $1,999 CAD (£1,150.09/$1,584.88). This is over double the original price of the GPU.
The stock shortages of GPUs has been further affected by the global semiconductor shortage that has impacted the smartphone, gaming, and automobile industries.
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