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Hold on to Your Hardware

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Re: Hold on to Your Hardware

#511

Post by ponector »

foobarian wrote: post #216
tormeh wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For real. Once I've opened Spotify, Slack, Teams, and a browser about 10GB of RAM is in use. I barely have any RAM left over for actual work.

I keep wondering why we can't have 2000s software on today's hardware. Maybe because browsers are de facto required to build apps?

The software is optimized for the machines used by developers. If you have latest MacBook pro max super ultra you are fine.

Contrary, I've been issued a virtual machine with 4 cores and no GPU. It takes 15 seconds for web app to render a table in the browser.

Re: Hold on to Your Hardware

#512

Post by barrkel »

danaris wrote: post #254
barrkel wrote: post #15

I don't buy the central thesis of the article. We won't be in a supply crunch forever. However, I do believe that we're at an inflection point where DC hardware is diverging rapidly from consumer compute. Most consumers are using laptops and laptops are not keeping pace with where the frontier is in a singular compute node. Laptops are increasingly just clients for someone else's compute that you rent, or buy a time…

> Laptops are increasingly just clients for someone else's compute that you rent, or buy a time slice with your eyeballs, much like smartphones pretty much always have been. What are you talking about? My laptops are, and always have been, primarily places where I do local computing. I write code there, I watch movies there, I listen to music there, I play games there...all with local storage, local compute, and loca…

Single biggest problem with doing compute on a laptop is it stops when you shut the lid.

Re: Hold on to Your Hardware

#513

Post by HKH2 »

close04 wrote: post #303
HKH2 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can already see Nvidia rubbing their hands together in expectation of the massive influx of customers to their cloud gaming platform. Roblox is not popular because of its graphics. Younger gamers care more about having fun than having an immersive experience.

I think we're talking about 2 different things. I'm not sure where Roblox fits into what I said. The problem I describe is companies pushing towards the "rent" model vs. "buy to own". Nvidia was just an example by virtue of their size. Microsoft could be another, they're also eying the game streaming market. Once enough buyers become renters, the buying market shrinks and becomes untenable for the rest, pushing more…

I'm saying that younger generations don't seem to care about realism as much as they care about having fun creating and sharing things with their friends. A large proportion of younger gamers play Roblox and Minecraft. Will they grow up and start playing more GPU-heavy games, or will they continue to play where their friends are?

Being free is exactly what has made those platforms as well as mobile games so popular. Are they going to start paying for subscriptions?

Re: Hold on to Your Hardware

#514

Post by T-A »

PokestarFan wrote: post #395
kibwen wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mere existence of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies means that it is impossible to ever have electricity that is "too cheap to meter". Any time electricity prices would fall below the price of mining, that creates a market opportunity that will be filled by more mining. Wasted electricity is the product.

I'm shocked there isn't more government regulation about this. You can't ban Bitcoin, but if you make it a massive pain to invest in it and make it difficult to convert between physical currency that would drive down a lot of demand.

> You can't ban Bitcoin

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/economy/bitcoin-plunges-after-china...

Re: Hold on to Your Hardware

#515

Post by T-A »

drillsteps5 wrote: post #357

I very much would like to know how much of this presumably ordered (and backordered) hardware (RAM/SSD/.../wafers) is going to end up being released back to the market when the dust settles. I haven't seen any estimations but in order to put all this hardware to work the hyperscalers need to be building data centers at ludicrous speed. That should be appearing in construction data, jobs data, and many other places. A…

As much as 23.1GW of capacity is under construction globally, split across 831 sites. The Americas region hosts 17GW of this capacity, across 311 locations. Europe, Middle East and Africa or EMEA as well as the Asia Pacific (APAC) region trail significantly. APAC has marginally more ongoing construction, with 3.2GW across 283 sites versus EMEA’s 2.9GW across 258. The US alone hosts 15.9GW of ongoing construction.

https://about.bnef.com/insights/commodities/ai-data-center-b...

Re: Hold on to Your Hardware

#516

Post by T-A »

beloch wrote: post #465

The global memory shortage is something that will probably end, perhaps even soon. e.g. Google announced Turboquant[1] today. If as described, it would significantly reduce thirst for more RAM at data-centres. Even if it doesn't pan out, data centres aren't being built at the same rate as they're being financed due to the practical, but unavoidable, problem of finding enough power. Demand for memory may actually have…

> Google announced Turboquant[1] today

Most commentators seem to have missed that the TurboQuant paper was posted in April 2025:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.19874

So it's been public knowledge for almost year, and internal Google knowledge for longer. Did Google reduce its capital expenditure plans over the past year? Let's ask Google:

Google is expecting to see a capex of between $175-185 billion in 2026, approximately double that of 2025.

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/google-estimates-...

Re: Hold on to Your Hardware

#517

Post by bitmasher9 »

pdimitar wrote: post #475
bitmasher9 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My primary concern is for next generation hardware. Will we continue to see steady improvement in top quality CPU/GPUs? Would they even bother releasing consumer versions of ram faster than DDR5?

Why would that concern you unless you are working on the cutting edge and the very limits of that hardware? The current generation is insanely fast. I am planning to get a gaming PC for my wife and a mix of gaming + workstation PC for me (or maybe just base it off of the Ryzen 9950x3D and call it a day). We plan to hold on to them for 10 years. I don't care if anything 6x faster comes out. For what I need the current…

I am on the edge of current available hardware and do feel the desire to upgrade. As stated before, I am unhappy with the current maximum when combing frame generation, resolution, and graphics quality.

My dream spec is UE5 at 120hz on an 8k oled. I think that sounds like a super sick experience I would buy tens of thousands of dollars of hardware for.

Re: Hold on to Your Hardware

#518

Post by leptons »

faust201 wrote: post #411
leptons wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8GB isn't an "amazing" laptop, it's a budget laptop . It's also thermally constrained quite a bit, so not even as "amazing" as it could be.

The point about Apple is that everyone from zoom, slack etc will be forced to optimize for that 8GB. (Same like getting rid of awful flash player). Many a people need only a basic device for Netflix, YouTube, google docs or email or search/but flights tickets. That will be amazing. Many have job supplied laptop/desktop for great performance (made rubbish by AV scanners but that's different issue)

It's cute that you think any of that optimization will happen just because Apple crapped out a budget laptop.

Re: Hold on to Your Hardware

#519

Post by _the_inflator »

bluejay2387 wrote: post #61

The general take here seems to be "everything eventually passes". That isn't always true. I wonder how many people have a primary computing device that they don't even have full control over now (Apple phones, tablets...). Years ago the concept of spending over $1k on a computer that I didn't even have the right to install my own software on was considered ridiculous by many people (myself included). Now many people…

Yes, I agree.

Windows PCs were essentially a hacker's paradise and almost all of my friends assembled their PC or let their PC get assembled by a friend.

There was so much variety in the components, in fact you carefully had to adjust mainboard and its chipset with the CPU and GPU as well as the RAM type. This was a lot of work, since all components had downsides and there were hidden gotchas, like for example the huge and looming CPU fan of later Intel CPUs.

If you not went for a large tower PC, you were essentially doomed. CPU fan and GPU could overlap, number of slots were a thing also whether there were enough host slots available.

Bus system, cable length, jumper settings - so many ways to make your hardware bite you.

But at least it felt even after many years as your system, that ran locally. There was a lot of protest, when Microsoft started online activation. This marked the inflection point at which autonomy of your system suddenly eroded. Also downloading huge driver updates in order to get your NVIDIA GPU working - you needed a permanent online connection which wasn't needed earlier.

Re: Hold on to Your Hardware

#520

Post by lpcvoid »

echelon wrote: post #398
lpcvoid wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree that we are being left behind with regards to AI, I believe it's simply not worth participating in. I hope it all comes crashing down.

That's not the right perspective to have. Also, the only thing crashing down will be the economic participation of everyday people if we don't have ownership over the means of creation. Hyperscalers will be just fine.

Ai isn't means to creation. AI is a scam on the whole of humanity, big tech stole humanities output in form of books, research and media, and are now selling access to the slop generator.

I have created things long, long, long before AI existed, and intend on continuing to do so, without AI.

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