Technology

Getting repairable tech will be even more important now than ever. Making your current devices last is important, but even more important in a couple of years (in my opinion).

I just dont see the price going down.

I really would like to know if AAA games are bombing because they are overpriced microtransaction hell or if they are bombing because many people haven't been able to buy their new gaming PC because of those GPU prices in the last 5 years and now we do not have the install base to run them

Nah gaming doesn't even make a dent in their revenue. Gaming demand means nothing to their supply, demand and pricing.

Then just buy AMD.

My theory is its easier to produce a product for a small number of big investors in AI than millions of consumers looking to build hobby computers. Plus the AI companies are flush with cash, MUCH more than the average consumer. So they are getting the cash now and worrying about the fallout later, just like everyone else.

Data centre GPUs tend not to have video outputs, and have power (and active cooling!) requirements in the "several kW" range. You might be able to snag one for work, if you work at a university or at somewhere that does a lot of 3D rendering - I'm thinking someone like Pixar. They are not the most convenient or useful things for a home build.

When the bubble bursts, they will mostly be used for creating a small mountain of e-waste, since the infrastructure to even switch them on costs more than the value they could ever bring.

Unfortunately the ones used in AI data centers aren't useful for gaming. So yeah, probably could buy one for ⅓ the price of new, but couldn't use it for gaming and likely still wouldn't be able to afford it because of:

NVIDIA H200 (Blackwell architecture) – The latest flagship (late 2023), with upgraded ~141 GB HBM3e and other Hopper improvements. It provides ~50% performance uplift over H100 in many tasks on the same power envelope. Pricing is said to be only modestly above H100. For instance, a 4-GPU H200 SXM board is listed at about $170K (versus $110K for 4×H100) ([2]) ([20]). A single H200 (NVL version) is quoted at around $31,000–32,000 ([21]). NVIDIA’s data center system NVDIMMs for H200 (DGX B200) reflect these prices, though bulk deals may apply.

Activision is ahead of them already. Check prices of old Call of Duty games.

I'm not sure how it's an arms race given the fact that it can't do anything remotely useful.

I dunno what you’re on about, Battlemage is great for the money and they appear to have committed to stick with Arc. And they have fab customers now.

…Yeah, Intel still has that corporate Game of Thrones going on internally. That’s not ideal. But AMD sunk much lower than that, and climbed out.

Propped up by what, though? They’ll just continue to dilute the name of AI with underperforming technology and yield more backlash from the public while making an oligarchy out of their richest tech influencers.

You can't sustain it because it's unsustainable. It's exponentially inefficient. This isn't like the US auto industry where labor negotiations blah blah blah. This is a black hole that is disappearing everything it touches. Brand loyalty, human rights, natural resources, political stability.

Amazing idea! A great open source GPU needs some well designed shader cores, and I kid you not that name is very punchy and memorable. It's not only just a silly hobby — it's also a very important thing in the ever changing landscape of silicon giants like nVidia and Intel.