- The AI-driven memory shortage doesn’t just affect PCs
- More capacity is coming, but not before 2027
- Low-margin budget products are likely to be hit hardest
Good. Maybe we’ll get dumb TVs again.
Idk, even the oldest HDTVs used RAM, sadly.
How much, comparatively?
Ha. judging by how well most of them run even today, not very much
That’s the thing I keep telling people around me. It’s not only RAM. Too many critical components have ram.
If you increase RAM, you increase computer prices. (And I’m talking ALL kinds of computer, from microcomputers to desktop to servers)
If you increase computer prices you increase costs for almost everything
People also insist that their fridges and cock-rings needs RAM these days
No shit. There’s easier ways to open the fridge.
Beg to disagree, my AI enabled cock ring is THE BEST way to remotely open my smart fridge after a prolonged session of hypno-gooning in the kitechen to the furry porn that is live generated on the 3" display on my Sam Altman Edition cyber toaster. What a time to be alive!
I was thinking how this will affect cars, all of them have a bigass tablet in the middle nowadays
Modern cars have 90GB of RAM on average.
90GB of both RAM+NAND combined. I’m guessing most of it is actual persistent storage for all the stuff the infotainment system uses (including imagery and offline map data for GPS, which is probably a big one), rather than actual memory in the sense of desktop computing.
Just like those popular 3d tvs right?
So start making more dumb TVs and speakers. That way they don’t need much memory.
But how will they play ads‽
I just want a straight up monitor with no built in wifi or Bluetooth or even speakers.
Just display the image I want it to when I want it to.
Every modern monitor has some memory in it. They have timing controllers and image processing chips that need DRAM to function. Not much, but it is standard DDR3/DDR4 or LPDDR RAM.
Literally this. Let me use my own fucking box and my own goddamn pc how I want with big monitor. Also put DP on it fuck HDMI. I don’t need trackers in my bloody tv OS. My tv has an OS!!! That’s ridiculous. Sorry this is one of those things I’ve always been super pissed about.
I use old dumb tvs as monitors. They don’t have the best picture, but are better and cheaper than anything currently for sale.
Sceptre
For real, all my TVs are Sceptre. They are not easy to find, but they are incredibly reasonably priced and completely dumb perfection.
If people like us make them popular enough, maybe they’ll realize this is a lucrative niche market.
Man I’m really dreading buying a new TV. Been going strong with my plasma for years. I don’t need any “smart” features in a tv. From what I understand you either get a good TV or a “dumb” TV, pick one.
But a good tv, and don’t connect it to the internet. Apple TV or Shield device.
televisions of the near future when you first turn them on: “Internet connection and account required to complete initial product set up.”
These already exist. I’ve also seen some that technically work but have pop-ups complaining about being offline.
My TV channels now come in through an app and just recently it started working on my Nvidia shield, still I can’t really disconnect the net from my samsung tv because explaining to my father how to use the tv app is already hard, he would not handle using it through the nvidia shield.
I would immediately return that as defective. I’d rather use that old 1980’s portable TV that’s been collecting dust in my closet since they shut down the analog TV broadcasts.
Yeah, pretty much. Any decent display on a TV is gonna have all the shit you don’t want, but you can (at least for now) just not connect your smart TV to the internet. You;'d have a good TV with the “smarts” neutered. But you’re still paying for it.
It’s a bit like the ATSC broadcast stack. You likely aren’t using it, but the industry still makes you pay for it (and it’s not cheap).
Dumbtv
Linear components like power amplifiers are made from the same material as digital circuitry, and they use a lot more of it.
Here’s an idea… let’s stop. Let’s just fucking stop with AI?
There’s too much imaginary money in AI that tech bros are stealing.
votes for MynameisAllen for president
Now if only we knew their name…
Pretty sure it’s My Name Is All En.
Dr En En En.
I don’t even fucking use the smart TV functions as it is. Fuck all that noise.
I 'member when headphones were just a copper wire to a magnet dressed in plastic, and none of this garbage required memory. Can we go back to that age? Thanks.
Apple Earpods are the shit:
✅ Cost like € 15
✅ No battery to charge
✅ Sounds great
✅ Comes with Usb-C or 3.5 mm audio connectors
✅ Superior microphone compared to most wireless options
✅ Great for situational awareness
If you want noise cancellation and even better audio quality, you can get Chinese “in-ear monitors” (IEM) for € 15–infinity with passive noise cancellation (blocking your ears).
its coming for your babies
cf. Children of Men
2027 sounds right. No way these fabs don’t know this shit is temporary, so unlikely they’ll increase production.
Unfortunately it’s the people between the manufacturers and the consumers that think this current iteration of AI is the future. They even seem to think we want it and can’t wait to pay them for it.
No one thinks that. Not the hardware OEMs, not the consumers, not the CEOs, not even the investors. It’s all just a grift to see how high it can get before it pops.
And the OEM’s are like:

Question: will AI eventually hurt CPUs? Like memory companies, the TSMC also only have finite production capacity.
Yes
Why do TV’s and audio gear use memory? TV’s ok I can sort of understand a little, but audio? That’s still analog right? Or anyway mostly analog.
All digital devices will use some amount of memory. Audio devices are all digital these days and only use a DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) to generate the actual audio waveform from a raw sample stream.
On something like a standalone audio amp there still has to be the whole backend to store codec information, menus and settings, and a whole host of other controls and audio processing features that are likely implemented on top of a basic OS and not directly written to a microcontroller. There’s more memory than you think.
I doubt headphone’s MCUs use DDR5 tho
“Codec information” is in ROM or implemented in hardware directly. Even studio quality audio interfaces that are DSP comtrolled will need only relatively small amounts of RAM; relatively slow memory for variable space and slightly faster mem for buffering. Both in the megabyte range and far from the speed that GPUs or AI require.
Depends on if you have analog cabled headphones, like the Meze Empyrians or the Philips X2HR Fidelio, then they are analog, but wireless or even digital headphones with USB/Lightning has ram.
This is probably all like stand-alone Bluetooth speakers and such that have little processors in them. Analog hifi shit isn’t going be able to use AI for anything except maybe receivers or something. I guess there might be a use case for using it to balance to a room and set up EQ or something, but these guys don’t seem interested in doing anything that would require actual work to develop a real product.













