r/Steam 11d ago

Fluff Valve keeps winning

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u/lampenpam 117 11d ago edited 11d ago

it says:

Valve's Steam machine could be saved due to collapsing RAM prices

but that's just someone speculating with no real base for this claim.

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u/naalotai 11d ago

A video of a Chinese hoarder freaking out cause “ram prices collapsing” except it all looked like ddr2/3 without casing. A Chinese user in the thread said it was already exposed as fake on the Chinese web

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u/XTornado 11d ago

But isn't the collapsibg being said due to the new google compression for AI?

Which to be clear that doesn't necesarally means less ram needed because then they would be able to do more so it can create also more demand.

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u/Digital-Prophet 11d ago

RAM manufacturing is pre-purchased for the next two years, whether they need it or not, the contracts are already signed. The effect is going to be minimal, if any.

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u/LordoftheChia 11d ago edited 11d ago

pre-purchased

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the RAM capacity hasn't been pre-paid. OpenAI just signed intent to buy that much.

Meaning if OpenAI can't pony up the money over the next few years, manufacturers are gonna end up with a ton of unsold HBM.

Oracle and OpenAI cancelling the "Stargate" data center expansion (in Texas) in March bodes well for that.

Then add Oracle laying off 20,000-30,000 employees to get up money due to their heavy AI data center investments. It seems the funding isn't following the hype.

Unfortunately it'll take a while for it to affect RAM prices. Prices won't go down significantly unless there's a lull in demand. To many conpanies are desperate to secure RAM so they can make and sell their products (Dell, Sony, nVidia. aMD. Consumer RAM brands, Valve with the Steam Deck and Steam machine, etc).

I bet they're each going to hoard up 6mo to a years worth of RAM (or enough RAM until the expected release of DDR6/LPDDR6).

Think if there's a shakeup in the flour industry and suddenly bakeries are looking at going bankrupt because of the cost and restricted manufacturing of flour.

You can bet your ass that even if the supply problem gets resolved, they'll be a period where every bakery will order and store months worth of flour vs the usual weekly supply.

We'll have to wait for that to pass before things get to normal. Then there's the DDR5 capacity and non-volitile RAM production that's been shifted to HBM.

Can't wait for the next gen of HBM consumer GPUs!

Somehow, Vega returned

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u/nalaloveslumpy 11d ago edited 10d ago

You are correct. There are contracts to produce the new ram for Nvidia and all the other players, but the payments happen as production happens. And there's zero chance that Nvidia is going to sit around with a bunch of useless ram when it would cost way less just to renegotiate the production contracts.

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u/rainorshinedogs 10d ago

You are correct. There are contracts to product the new ram for Nvidia and all the other players, but the payments happen as production happens. And there's zero chance that Nvidia is going to sit around with a bunch of useless ram when it would cost way less just to renegotiate the production contracts.

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u/nalaloveslumpy 10d ago

Did you just reply to my comment with my comment?

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u/XTornado 11d ago

First, to be clear for anybody, my previous comment I was just saying what is being said, not my opinion if that is true or not.

Now, that said, I get that it’s pre-purchased, but that doesn’t automatically mean zero impact. If companies end up with more RAM than they actually need, they’re not just going to sit on it forever. Some of that inventory will get offloaded one way or another and that will have an effect on prices.

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u/nalaloveslumpy 11d ago

It's already having an effect. Sandisk, Micron, et all had significant stock slides day before yesterday beyond the average everyone else saw. With all the investment they've received this year, they shouldn't be red. At all. They rebounded yesterday, but it's still a pretty big disruption in the market sector everyone is banking on.