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Is the RAM shortage killing small VPS hosts?

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Re: Is the RAM shortage killing small VPS hosts?

#141

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

direwolf20 wrote: post #109
megous wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So with 8 customers per box (AMD EPYC™ 9645 CPU has 96 cores) if they have single-cpu boxes, that would need 256 GiB RAM. CPU launch price 11000 USD. RAM will likely be another 10000 USD 20000 / 8 customers / 40 USD/mo = 62 months just to recoup CPU and RAM let alone other components. Weird, whenever I napkin math offers of any HW for renting, I get that I could buy it myself in 1-2 years of rent. Sometimes faster. D…

Oversubscribe your hardware and you can do better. Most of your customers are idle most of the time.

Yea some cloud providers are notorious for it.

Netcup does oversubscribe/overshare but not sooo much. I have a server there and I don't really observe too much but although I haven't really gotten ways to detect that stealing factor but there are definitely scripts to detect it, maybe I will run it some day but oh well the laziness.

The most overshared vps provider I know is contabo. Literally search anything on reddit,lowendbox, literally anywhere where there are people and they mention about how ~20-30% figure top of my head could be oversubscribed

I am not exactly sure but my point is that when I first saw them, I found them the cheapest option (with their contabo auctions for something at really scale like 96 gb ram or something) but they are literally out of my book as well even as a frugal guy just because of how unstable they are or how much consistent I have seen people struggle about contabo. It's simply unrecommended imho. Netcup's 10x more pleasant from what I see other people's reaction to. People do mention some stealing factor on netcup but overall its really good and that sort of aligns with my experience with them too ig/

Re: Is the RAM shortage killing small VPS hosts?

#142

Post by CamperBob2 »

direwolf20 wrote: post #128
filloooo wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so, Lutnick just made sure the US wouldn't need to import DRAM with his newest threats.

Wow. They are 100% tariffing all RAM. RAM is not made in the USA. This destroys all the AI companies, and more.

I don't understand why we don't just cut to the chase and elect the Joker in 2028. The same people will vote for him, and he won't be any worse for the country.

Re: Is the RAM shortage killing small VPS hosts?

#143

Post by CamperBob2 »

imglorp wrote: post #84

The US passed the Chips act in 2022. Is there really nobody reaching for those billions ready to crank out some memory four years later?

The idea behind the CHIPS act made some sense, but with these monkeys in charge (and the voters who elected them), no one has any idea what's going to happen next week, next month, next year, or over the next 10 years. It turns out that predictable, consistent, and coherent trade policy is actually fucking important. Who would have guessed?

Re: Is the RAM shortage killing small VPS hosts?

#144

Post by iszomer »

direwolf20 wrote: post #106
iszomer wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In late 2024 I bought a 32GB kit with unbuffered ECC for ~80$ /shrug

late 2024 is neither 2016 nor is it 2026, it's irrelevant to the discussion.

Oh you're right, I was thinking in the context of self-hosting and not a VPS nor the same era. oops.

Re: Is the RAM shortage killing small VPS hosts?

#145

Post by defrost »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #142
direwolf20 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. They are 100% tariffing all RAM. RAM is not made in the USA. This destroys all the AI companies, and more.

I don't understand why we don't just cut to the chase and elect the Joker in 2028. The same people will vote for him, and he won't be any worse for the country.

If only a single look could capture the appropriate reaction to that suggestion .. https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-images/imageserve/65545b...

Re: Is the RAM shortage killing small VPS hosts?

#146

Post by sekh60 »

ireflect wrote: post #139
sekh60 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadian here, could you share the name of the provider? I'd love to move to something more local and just need a basic small vps for a simple apache host. I know of a couple providers but never talked to anyone actually using one.

I did a detailed review of a few Canadian VPS providers last year. https://lukecyca.com/2025/canadian-vps-review.html Last year, I moved from DigitalOcean to FullHost (their Vancouver datacentre) for hosting a small SaaS and a bunch of personal projects. It's cheaper and FAR better performance.

Thanks! I'll check it out!

Re: Is the RAM shortage killing small VPS hosts?

#147

Post by direwolf20 »

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #141
direwolf20 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oversubscribe your hardware and you can do better. Most of your customers are idle most of the time.

Yea some cloud providers are notorious for it. Netcup does oversubscribe/overshare but not sooo much. I have a server there and I don't really observe too much but although I haven't really gotten ways to detect that stealing factor but there are definitely scripts to detect it, maybe I will run it some day but oh well the laziness. The most overshared vps provider I know is contabo. Literally search anything on redd…

Their goal should be to keep stealing close to zero while utilizing all their hardware. You want this too, because it keeps costs down. It does mean sometimes there will be stealing spikes, but most customers don't want to spend twice as much to avoid that, so it's a win/win.

Re: Is the RAM shortage killing small VPS hosts?

#148

Post by direwolf20 »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #142
direwolf20 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. They are 100% tariffing all RAM. RAM is not made in the USA. This destroys all the AI companies, and more.

I don't understand why we don't just cut to the chase and elect the Joker in 2028. The same people will vote for him, and he won't be any worse for the country.

I think that happened in 2024.

Re: Is the RAM shortage killing small VPS hosts?

#149

Post by direwolf20 »

filloooo wrote: post #103
direwolf20 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will grow exponentially and catch the western market unawares in 10-15 years with a sudden flood of cheap, effective chips. Just like everything else China makes. Electric vehicles for example.

Sure, if they've got production grade EUV, but right now they don't even have production grade DUV. I'm also sure they can go as far as 5nm like SMIC if they really wanted to, since it's strategic for China, but the cost would only be justified if the current cycle lasts long enough.

I was corrected elsewhere when I thought RAM was more expensive 10 years ago. RAM was actually cheaper 10 years ago, when it was DDR3/DDR4 too. If any company can replicate the 10 year old SOTA, they can bring prices down.

Re: Is the RAM shortage killing small VPS hosts?

#150

Post by gwking »

MagicMoonlight wrote: post #65
saidinesh5 wrote: post #3

Out of curiosity, what advantages do the small VPS hosts offer compared to the big 3 (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)? Customer Service? Pricing? Local Data Center?

The only advantage is cheapness, for personal use. If you’re a government agency or a company you don’t care about saving $14/month, you want a secure provider. And these hosts are not secure, you’re basically just on your own.

Speaking for myself, managing a team of 3, the simpler management interface on Hetzner compared to AWS is a major professional advantage.
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