PC graphics cards to get more expensive again thanks to AI boom-Michael Beckwith-Entertainment – Metro

This all sounds rather familiar (pic: Nvidia)

AI companies are beginning to buy PC graphics cards in bulk, thus making it harder for the average gamer to get hold of one.

Not long ago, it was near impossible to get hold of PC graphics cards, either because you couldn’t find them anywhere or because they were far too expensive.

Part of that could be blamed on the coronavirus pandemic, but as the cryptocurrency market grew more popular, combined with the surging interest in NFTs, people wound up buying graphics cards in bulk for the purpose of crypto mining.

It looked as if things had finally settled down thanks to the crypto bubble bursting and NFTs dwindling in popularity, resulting in graphics cards getting slightly cheaper, but there are new concerns of the cycle starting anew and this time it’s AI’s fault.

Lately, there have been reports of graphics cards becoming hard to acquire again. It’s been suggested that Nvidia itself has sold out its entire supply for the year, although the company has downplayed suggestions of a stock shortage in a VentureBeat interview.

Just as crypto enthusiasts kept buying out all the graphics cards for themselves, it’s believed that those involved with the suddenly booming AI industry are doing the exact same thing.

One piece of evidence that’s made the rounds is a tweet by one George Hotz, president of an AI-focused company called comma.ai, where he boasts acquiring ‘7.38 petaFLOPS’ from AMD.

Hotz’s purchase seems to consist of multiple boxes filled with RX 7900 XTX graphics cards, a widely recommended choice for PC gamers.

Tom’s Hardware deduces that Hotz has bought roughly 60 of these cards and assuming he bought them at their current Amazon price of $979.99, that means he altogether spent about $60,000 (over £47,000).

Hotz says that there are ‘exaFLOPS more to come,’ implying he’ll be obtaining even more stock. Since a single exaFLOPS is worth 1,000 petaFLOPS of performance, Tom’s Hardware theorises he could be buying at minimum $20 million (about £15.7 million) worth of graphics cards, assuming he’s only after two exaFLOPS.

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If other such AI companies are similarly eager to obtain huge supplies of graphics cards, that will undoubtedly make it harder for the average consumer to get hold of one.

AI in general has begun creeping into the games industry via AI generated art and voice acting, much to the dismay of creators and average gamers.

If it’s anything like NFTs, though, companies will lose interest (and more importantly money) within a year, which will hopefully see graphics cards drop in price again.

System Shock – is AI just a fad that will die out in a year or is it here to stay? (pic: Nightdive Studios)

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