Thereâs never been a better time to ditch Nvidia GPUs
Iâve bought an Nvidia GPU for every gaming PC I ever built, but I think Iâm done giving Team Green my money for the foreseeable future.
That feels a bit painful to type because Nvidia has been good to me over the years. Shucks, my old 1080 Ti card lasted me damn near a decade before I felt the need to upgrade. Nowadays Iâm a bit attached to the performance boosts you can get with DLSS.
But between the anti-competitive mess with the GeForce Partner Program, the way the company cloaked how much money it was making off the crypto bubble (which got so bad shareholders filed a lawsuit), and now the incredible shortage of high-end GeForce GPUs due to the AI boom, I just donât feel good about giving Nvidia money anymore.
And hey, the company doesnât need my money anyway. These days Nvidia is raking it in selling high-end hardware for AI data centers and so the widespread complaints about the company âmanufacturingâ its own shortage of high-end graphics cards donât really hold water with me.
Not because itâs not trueâgood luck finding an RTX 5090 for less than the price of a used car these daysâbut because Nvidia is a public company motivated to make money for itself and its shareholders, so of course itâs going to focus on serving the customers who are most willing to pay for its high-end hardware: AI companies.
Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletterâyour weekly dose of hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. Missed the surprising topics on our YouTube show or the latest news from across the web? Youâre in the right place.Â
Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website!
I know Iâve written about Nvidiaâs declining interest in PC gaming before, but I enjoyed some fresh perspective on the topic courtesy of this weekâs episode of The Full Nerd. The crew ended up spending a fair bit of time discussing allegations that the company is stuffing bundles of high-end hardware into AI data centers before the centers are operational, potentially leaving piles of unused graphics cards gathering dust.
I encourage you to listen to the full episode for their thoughts, but for my part Iâm sure itâs more complicated than that because it seems highly unlikely the hardware Nvidia sells for AI server racks can be easily repurposed and slotted into your next gaming PC build. If thereâs anything to be upset about, itâs that Nvidia has likely been putting more and more of its resources into its data center business for years nowâand less and less into producing PC gaming hardware.
That doesnât look likely to change anytime soon unless the AI boom busts so badly that Nvidiaâs data center business craters, which is why I think thereâs never been a better time to stop trying to buy Nvidia GPUs. Iâm trying to scrounge up the parts to build a new mini-ITX gaming rig early next year and, despite my DLSS addiction, I think the next graphics card I buy is going to be from AMDâbefore it too leans so hard into serving AI companies and data centers that desktop GPUs become an afterthought.
Itâs a practical stance more than a political one: AMD cards seem to deliver better performance for your dollar when youâre comparing mid-range cards and with high-end Nvidia GPUs hard to find at a decent price, mid-range is where Iâll be stuck for the foreseeable future.
In this weekâs episode of The Full Nerd
This week your regular hosts Adam Patrick Murray and Alaina Yee were joined by PCWorldâs Brad Chacos to chat about their experiences testing local AI systems, as well as the implications of what some folks have called the âmanufacturedâ shortage of Nvidia graphics cards. Also, Adam dressed up as a clown. Happy Halloween, yâall!
PCWorld
Of course, the crew also took some time to answer your questions from the chat and the Discord about everything from how to get the best bang for your buck to your favorite schlocky movies to watch on Halloween. Hope you all enjoy some spooky good fun this weekend!
Nerd news of the week
This week I couldnât help fixating on the Nvidia GPU crisis and what might be causing it. But thereâs also some good news out there as well for folks using AMD hardware or considering making the switch. Go Team Red!
- Nvidia may not have discontinued the RTX 5090, but one partner says it canât get hold of parts required to make the card: Nvidia representatives have disputed allegations that the company has stopped selling its flagship GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, but itâs not on sale at most retailersâand now a manufacturer claims they canât buy the parts from Nvidia that are required to make an RTX 5090.
- AMD Zen 6c beats Zen 5 by up to 26 percent in early testing: Sounds like AMDâs upcoming Zen 6c CPUs are already showing meaningful performance improvements over their predecessors in early testing, which is good news from anyone hoping to build an AMD-powered gaming PC in the next year or so. Hopefully weâll get a chance to check âem out at CES in January!
- Leaked video exposes how industrial-scale Chinese factories are dismantling RTX 5090s by the thousands to fuel AI servers: This video shows a potential explanation for the shortage of RTX 5090s, which appear to be being brought into China (where the cards are not officially sold) and carefully repurposed for use in massive server racks, presumably for AI-focused comp
Iâve bought an Nvidia GPU for every gaming PC I ever built, but I think Iâm done giving Team Green my money for the foreseeable future.
That feels a bit painful to type because Nvidia has been good to me over the years. Shucks, my old 1080 Ti card lasted me damn near a decade before I felt the need to upgrade. Nowadays Iâm a bit attached to the performance boosts you can get with DLSS.
But between the anti-competitive mess with the GeForce Partner Program, the way the company cloaked how much money it was making off the crypto bubble (which got so bad shareholders filed a lawsuit), and now the incredible shortage of high-end GeForce GPUs due to the AI boom, I just donât feel good about giving Nvidia money anymore.
And hey, the company doesnât need my money anyway. These days Nvidia is raking it in selling high-end hardware for AI data centers and so the widespread complaints about the company âmanufacturingâ its own shortage of high-end graphics cards donât really hold water with me.
Not because itâs not trueâgood luck finding an RTX 5090 for less than the price of a used car these daysâbut because Nvidia is a public company motivated to make money for itself and its shareholders, so of course itâs going to focus on serving the customers who are most willing to pay for its high-end hardware: AI companies.
Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletterâyour weekly dose of hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. Missed the surprising topics on our YouTube show or the latest news from across the web? Youâre in the right place.Â
Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website!
I know Iâve written about Nvidiaâs declining interest in PC gaming before, but I enjoyed some fresh perspective on the topic courtesy of this weekâs episode of The Full Nerd. The crew ended up spending a fair bit of time discussing allegations that the company is stuffing bundles of high-end hardware into AI data centers before the centers are operational, potentially leaving piles of unused graphics cards gathering dust.
I encourage you to listen to the full episode for their thoughts, but for my part Iâm sure itâs more complicated than that because it seems highly unlikely the hardware Nvidia sells for AI server racks can be easily repurposed and slotted into your next gaming PC build. If thereâs anything to be upset about, itâs that Nvidia has likely been putting more and more of its resources into its data center business for years nowâand less and less into producing PC gaming hardware.
That doesnât look likely to change anytime soon unless the AI boom busts so badly that Nvidiaâs data center business craters, which is why I think thereâs never been a better time to stop trying to buy Nvidia GPUs. Iâm trying to scrounge up the parts to build a new mini-ITX gaming rig early next year and, despite my DLSS addiction, I think the next graphics card I buy is going to be from AMDâbefore it too leans so hard into serving AI companies and data centers that desktop GPUs become an afterthought.
Itâs a practical stance more than a political one: AMD cards seem to deliver better performance for your dollar when youâre comparing mid-range cards and with high-end Nvidia GPUs hard to find at a decent price, mid-range is where Iâll be stuck for the foreseeable future.
In this weekâs episode of The Full Nerd
This week your regular hosts Adam Patrick Murray and Alaina Yee were joined by PCWorldâs Brad Chacos to chat about their experiences testing local AI systems, as well as the implications of what some folks have called the âmanufacturedâ shortage of Nvidia graphics cards. Also, Adam dressed up as a clown. Happy Halloween, yâall!
PCWorld
Of course, the crew also took some time to answer your questions from the chat and the Discord about everything from how to get the best bang for your buck to your favorite schlocky movies to watch on Halloween. Hope you all enjoy some spooky good fun this weekend!
Nerd news of the week
This week I couldnât help fixating on the Nvidia GPU crisis and what might be causing it. But thereâs also some good news out there as well for folks using AMD hardware or considering making the switch. Go Team Red!
- Nvidia may not have discontinued the RTX 5090, but one partner says it canât get hold of parts required to make the card: Nvidia representatives have disputed allegations that the company has stopped selling its flagship GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, but itâs not on sale at most retailersâand now a manufacturer claims they canât buy the parts from Nvidia that are required to make an RTX 5090.
- AMD Zen 6c beats Zen 5 by up to 26 percent in early testing: Sounds like AMDâs upcoming Zen 6c CPUs are already showing meaningful performance improvements over their predecessors in early testing, which is good news from anyone hoping to build an AMD-powered gaming PC in the next year or so. Hopefully weâll get a chance to check âem out at CES in January!
- Leaked video exposes how industrial-scale Chinese factories are dismantling RTX 5090s by the thousands to fuel AI servers: This video shows a potential explanation for the shortage of RTX 5090s, which appear to be being brought into China (where the cards are not officially sold) and carefully repurposed for use in massive server racks, presumably for AI-focused comp