2nd GPU Shortage?

[thawea]

Recently, AI companies have been buying huge amounts of gaming high-end GPUs and I'm just wondering how this might play out as GPU prices still seem stable.

 

Resources:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2020375/the-ai-boom-could-create-a-new-gpu-shortage.html

https://gameishard.gg/news/odms-see-nvidia-gpu-shortage-curb-ai-server-shipments/18272/

[Hinjima]

1 minute ago, thawea said:

Recently, AI companies have been buying huge amounts of gaming high-end GPUs and I'm just wondering how this might play out as GPU prices still seem stable.

 

Resources:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2020375/the-ai-boom-could-create-a-new-gpu-shortage.html

https://gameishard.gg/news/odms-see-nvidia-gpu-shortage-curb-ai-server-shipments/18272/

I dont see it being as bad as the first shortage.  There might be more demand but production has also gone up significantly since Covid Lockdown.

[igormp]

3 minutes ago, thawea said:

AI companies have been buying huge amounts of gaming high-end GPUs

They are not, that's misleading. Only Geohot bought AMD GPUs because his startup is trying to make AMD GPUs work for ML with his own framework, and they're planning on selling development boxes with that hardware. Other than that, no company is using AMD for ML.

 

The problem with nvidia is that they seem to be slowing down the production on 4000 series GPUs in order to make space for the H100 (since they share the same node), and the H100 is already sold out for this entire year:

Gaming GPU sales have been trending downwards anyway due to their abusive pricing.

[thawea]

Quote

The problem with nvidia is that they seem to be slowing down the production on 4000 series GPUs in order to make space for the H100 (since they share the same node), and the H100 is already sold out for this entire year

Then wouldn't that mean that nvidia could get even more abusive with their gaming gpu pricing?

[YoungBlade]

2 minutes ago, thawea said:

Then wouldn't that mean that nvidia could get even more abusive with their gaming gpu pricing?

How?

 

The cards they already have on the market aren't selling, and large AI companies aren't sending employees down to Best Buy to pick up a hodgepodge of RTX cards like mining outfits used to do. They also aren't gobbling up everything on the used market that will give them a sliver of ROI.

 

AI companies buy professional GPUs so they have access to certified drivers - what used to be Quadro and FirePro cards, but are not called that anymore for some profane reason. Large corporations don't buy random consumer cards.

 

And while homebrew AI stuff is more of a thing today than it was 5 years ago, your Uncle Cletus is not setting up an AI rig in his barn as a side hustle like he did with his mining rig two years ago. AI is not an automatic money printer like crypto was.

 

AI is a completely different beast from mining, and the impacts of AI will therefore be vastly different.

[thawea]

4 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

The cards they already have on the market aren't selling, and large AI companies aren't sending employees down to Best Buy to pick up a hodgepodge of RTX cards like mining outfits used to do. They also aren't gobbling up everything on the used market that will give them a sliver of ROI.

 

AI companies buy professional GPUs so they have access to certified drivers - what used to be Quadro and FirePro cards, but are not called that anymore for some profane reason. Large corporations don't buy random consumer cards.

 

And while homebrew AI stuff is more of a thing today than it was 5 years ago, your Uncle Cletus is not setting up an AI rig in his barn as a side hustle like he did with his mining rig two years ago. AI is not an automatic money printer like crypto was.

 

AI is a completely different beast from mining, and the impacts of AI will therefore be vastly different.

Good to know, now I don't have to worry about getting a GPU fast lol.

[manikyath]

5 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

How?

 

The cards they already have on the market aren't selling, and large AI companies aren't sending employees down to Best Buy to pick up a hodgepodge of RTX cards like mining outfits used to do. They also aren't gobbling up everything on the used market that will give them a sliver of ROI.

 

AI companies buy professional GPUs so they have access to certified drivers - what used to be Quadro and FirePro cards, but are not called that anymore for some profane reason. Large corporations don't buy random consumer cards.

 

And while homebrew AI stuff is more of a thing today than it was 5 years ago, your Uncle Cletus is not setting up an AI rig in his barn as a side hustle like he did with his mining rig two years ago. AI is not an automatic money printer like crypto was.

 

AI is a completely different beast from mining, and the impacts of AI will therefore be vastly different.

because nvidia has no reason to make gaming cards, since just about all their production could be go into higher margin products, so making their gaming cards as unappealing as possible is actually good for business in this weird situation.

 

on that note.. none of this implies a market-wide problem, and last time the crypto mine boom went together with a production shortage due to the vid, and a rise in people wanting a computer for entertainment due to the vid.