I guess the question is; is this the late-cycle cash-out (aka harvest pricing) akin to Sun Microsystems at the dot-com peak -- or is it a repeat of the crypto pricing hijinks we've already seen from Nvidia, where they're just exploiting the lack of supply?
That's a 90% uplift since the original pricing, in a market that is already showing signs of seizing.
With Apple offering leasing options, CXMT knee-capping Samsung, all of the big tech players on a run to outspend on CapEx by the end of the year..
We're at a point where local models are exceptionally capable, model-on-silicon dies like Taalas (recently acquired by AMD) may be cutting inference cost substantially for the 90% of work we do day-to-day (similarly Alibaba's T-Head division with open-model-forward inference chips being produced domestically in China).
If we shifted all of the design/planning to cloud models like Fable 5/Sol 5.6 Ultra, and day-to-day operational inference to these chips -- it's quite likely we'll squash usage to single-digit percentages of what we're currently using. But we should also expect the model providers to take a similar approach.
In any case -- I'm keen on demand destruction, both as a consumer and someone without skin in the game.
It makes you wonder to what degree they are making more money by raising the prices and restricting supply absent meaningful competition, or, alternatively, by making them in volume until they can supply the total demand. The lack of competition is probably a big part of the problem, but then again, that competition might just increase the price as well if it existed. AMD really could make a killing if they got off their assess and properly supported their cards (and made them competitive performance wise, which is probably a really hard thing for them to do).
i think maybe by pricing up they want to make a reliance for people on their services rather than developing running their own. if these devices are out of reach for many it means less innovation and then less competition. nvidia is now tightly coupled financially to business who offer services that owners of such devices might replicate without using services of their partners.
As others have stated, the Blackwell runs circles around the Mac performance-wise. I haven’t run the numbers for this specific comparison, but in some cases the nvidia solution is also more efficient (tokens/W). Some people are willing to pay that premium for the above, just like they’d pay more for a 4-door sedan from BMW as compared to a Toyota Corolla.
On the other hand, they kept on crippling the mac pro's pcie capabilities. I think the only thing you might put in one of the slots would be nvme cards. I thought there were no graphics cards anymore after arm.
That's a 90% uplift since the original pricing, in a market that is already showing signs of seizing.
With Apple offering leasing options, CXMT knee-capping Samsung, all of the big tech players on a run to outspend on CapEx by the end of the year..
We're at a point where local models are exceptionally capable, model-on-silicon dies like Taalas (recently acquired by AMD) may be cutting inference cost substantially for the 90% of work we do day-to-day (similarly Alibaba's T-Head division with open-model-forward inference chips being produced domestically in China).
If we shifted all of the design/planning to cloud models like Fable 5/Sol 5.6 Ultra, and day-to-day operational inference to these chips -- it's quite likely we'll squash usage to single-digit percentages of what we're currently using. But we should also expect the model providers to take a similar approach.
In any case -- I'm keen on demand destruction, both as a consumer and someone without skin in the game.