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182

Chips aren’t improving like they used to, and it’s killing game console price cuts (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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"These price increases have multiple intertwining causes, some direct and some less so: inflation, pandemic-era supply crunches, the unpredictable trade policies of the Trump administration, and a gradual shift among console makers away from selling hardware at a loss or breaking even in the hopes that game sales will subsidize the hardware. And you never want to rule out good old shareholder-prioritizing corporate greed.

But one major factor, both in the price increases and in the reduction in drastic “slim”-style redesigns, is technical: the death of Moore’s Law and a noticeable slowdown in the rate at which processors and graphics chips can improve."

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

This article doesn't factor in the new demand that is gobbling up all the CPU and GPU production: Ai server farms. For example, Nvidia, that was once only making graphic cards for gamers, has been trying to keep up with global demand for Ai. The whole market is different, then toss tarrifs and the rest of top.

I wouldn't blame moores law death, technology is still advancing, but per usual, based on demand.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 hours ago

technology is still advancing

Actually not really: performance per watt of the high end stuff has been stagnating since Ampere generation. NVidia hides it by changing models in its benchmarks or advertising raw performance without power figures.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

AI has nothing to do with it. Die shrinks were the reason for “slim” consoles and big price drops in the past. Die shrinks are basically a thing of the past now.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago

Not exactly, but smaller nodes are getting really expensive. So they could make a "slim" version with a lower power unit, but it would likely cost more than the original.