Re:TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage
by topspin on Thursday August 26, 2021 @05:48PM
(#28321349)
Update: that GPU is about $250 more now than what I paid on 8/6.
The worst part of all of this is now my PC is this precious asset. Used to be a GPU could die and "meh, whatever... could have used an update anyhow." Now I feel the need to pay for a 'protection' plan.
The good part of just paying the cost is now I'm no longer involved in 'newegg shuffle' nonsense or participating in 24/7 Live Stock Watcher videos on YouTube[1]. How messed up is that?
[1] 24/7 Live stock alert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfyJ5XBchoQ
Re:TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage
by pbourke on Thursday August 26, 2021 @12:38PM
(#28317195)
Apple’s move, a decade ago, to control their own silicon seems quite prescient.
Re:TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage
by systemBuilder on Friday August 27, 2021 @05:02AM
(#28325676)
Everybody saw Intel slacking off a decade ago including Apple and Google but Google didn't have the guts to start their own CPU design Department despite being the #5 largest computer maker on Earth!
Re:TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage
by pjscott on Thursday August 26, 2021 @01:04PM
(#28317552)
They have their own chip designs, but the manufacturing is done by TSMC.
Re:TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage
by larkost on Thursday August 26, 2021 @01:58PM
(#28318257)
Very true. But they have hedged that very well with long-term contracts, so they are effectively first in line for most of their needs. I would guess that this is still biting them on some components (they have so many in so many products), but they appear to be riding through this pretty well.
Re:TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage
by coryfklein on Thursday August 26, 2021 @02:42PM
(#28318844)
Well they certainly weren't going to be able to fabricate their own Intel chips, that's for sure! Baby steps, my friends.
(Not that it's in any way fair to call "design your own chip" a baby step haha.)
Re:TSMC hikes chip prices up to 20% amid supply shortage
by pbourke on Thursday August 26, 2021 @01:38PM
(#28317978)
Indeed, but they control the supply chain risks to a much greater extent now.
I've come to the conclusion that it's not going to 'settle' for a long time. Not until competition arrives from new foundries (several years out, although they _are_ being planned and built) and competition from Intel and their GPU platform appears and eventually becomes competitive. So your wait will be a couple years longer.
Proof Of Stake with Ethereum won't change anything. There are many other POW block chains around and people invested in GPUs farming will migrate, find profit and continue indulging their livelihoods. COVID isn't going away and isn't really causing any of this to begin with; it's just the go-to excuse for every complaint.
The real problem is obvious to me; the manufacturers, particularly those in Western countries, have been on a 20 year long lemming-like off-shoring race to Taiwan and S. Korea foundries and now there is a foundry oligopoly and competition no longer exists. Prices go up. Big surprise. And it won't return to 'normal' anytime soon.
With that in mind I bit the bullet ordered up all the parts for my new machine two weeks ago; $3k with a 3070 TI GPU. About a week after my order the the exact same GPU appeared in stock from the exact same reseller with a $200 price hike. The prices aren't going down. They're going up.