[shdh]

Fundamentals dictate hardware is a depreciating asset, they're not wrong. They're just ignoring the reality of the current market.

[noosphr]

This was true when Moores law wasn't dead. Per watts performance has been flat since Ampere. There is a reason why undervolted 3090s are still used.

[codechicago277]

GPUs do have a life expectancy. They don’t run forever, especially at high temperatures and full utilization.

[noosphr]

You undervolt them because the last 50% of power adss 10% of compute.

[baq]

Undervolting is not running at max utilization by definition almost.

…but the real question whether you want to undervolt your asset if you’re renting it out is why bother? You probably expect to replace it anyway after it’s spec lifetime, for sure want to replace it when a more efficient solution is available since datacenters are power and volume constrained and customers care about performance much more than hardware longevity (otherwise they’d buy instead of rent).

[imtringued]

Why bother saving opex and capex?

Just waste more money! It's easy.

[baq]

Why do you think it’s a waste? If you’re buying GPUs to rent them you’re almost buying a bond. If you’re leasing them, it’s even more obvious that you’re collecting the spread. The GPUs have a financial lifetime after which the business doesn’t pencil and they get sold for peanuts so you can put a better bond in your volume-power.

[fragmede]

Performance goes way up if you use liquid nitrogen to cool the chips. Maybe finally someone's willing to pay for that.