Motherboard sales are collapsing amid unprecedented shortages fueled by AI, causing prices for many major PC components to rise across the board during the past six months, with memory modules and storage drives leading the way.
Those shortages are being exacerbated by chipmakers like Nvidia, Intel, and AMD, which have reduced production of consumer chips so they can manufacture more AI processors. The AI infrastructure buildout is also causing shortages for Intel and AMD CPUs (and even high-end Macs), as interest in agentic AI rockets through the roof.
Because of this, users who lack deep pockets are putting off upgrading their PCs and holding on to their current devices longer. Motherboard manufacturers have begun to feel the effects of these delayed purchases, with Digitimes [machine translated] reporting that the four major firms are revising target sales downward.
Yeah, and even if the raw capability translated directly to performance, a 30% to 40% improvement is still on the minimum side of what I’d want from a full system rebuild. That said, I do expect an X3D chip to grab me within the next couple generations, especially if it’s AM6. I tend to keep old PCs running in various roles for decades with parts interchanging some, so if I end up skipping AM5 entirely, that’ll simplify part compatibility down the line.
For the GPU, I’m mostly just hungry for VRAM now (without going to the AI/enterprise cards), and the 24 GB in the 7900 XTX was a big part of me choosing it. The only sensible step up from there is 32 GB. I’m not going to jump to Nvidia for that though, and given the whole RAM situation and AMD dropping off the very high-end, they probably won’t have viable choices for that either anytime soon.