It seems like we’ve just emerged from the debilitating graphics card shortage of the past few years, but a new report suggests we can’t breathe easy just yet. could there be a new GPU shortage on the horizon, or are consumers safe from a return to another nightmare scenario?
According to DigiTimes (through wccftech), Nvidia is seeing a huge increase in demand for its chips due to the explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT. Nvidia offers a range of graphics cards that excel at AI tasks, including the A100 and H100, and the company is reportedly struggling to keep up in the wake of such massive demand.
Nvidia is especially feeling the strain in China, where the company is selling modified versions of the A100 and H100 to circumvent US sanctions. Because AI-capable chips are currently so hard to come by in the Chinese market, Nvidia’s tweaked chips, called the A800 and H800, are absolutely flying off the shelves.
This has caused Nvidia to increase the price by as much as 40% above MSRP, leading to the A800 selling for as much as $36,500. Even the Nvidia V100, a card that was released in 2018, is priced as high as $10,000.
Nvidia is apparently aiming to serve its non-Chinese customers first, which has led to long delays in getting an AI-focused GPU in China. Wait times have reportedly increased up to six months from the time of order.
Another GPU shortage?
You might be wondering how that will be a problem for consumers. After all, Nvidia’s AI graphics cards are very different from their gaming GPUs, and it’s not like AI companies are going to buy loads of the RTX 4090. Surely that means ChatGPT won’t cause another shortage, right?
Well, AI is booming right now, and it’s clearly a priority area for Nvidia. The risk is not that companies will buy up all gaming GPUs, but rather that Nvidia decides to allocate more resources to high-end enterprise GPUs, the kind that shine when it comes to AI workloads, at the expense of high-end graphics cards. consumption.
If that happens, it could be a lot harder to get your hands on a GPU. That doesn’t seem to be happening yet, but it may not be something that can be completely ruled out in the future.
While the cryptocurrency boom that fueled the latest GPU shortage appears to be over (at least for now), the AI revolution is rearing its head. In fact, many former crypto miners are apparently turning to AI in an attempt to remain profitable.
It’s a warning sign of what could be ahead for anyone desperate for a new graphics card. While a new GPU shortage is by no means guaranteed, the needs of AI companies could put more pressure on the graphics card supply chain.
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