r/hardware • u/self-fix • 2d ago
News Samsung Reportedly Passes NVIDIA HBM4 Sample Test, 30% HBM3E Discount to Challenge SK hynix
https://www.trendforce.com/news/2025/08/21/news-samsung-reportedly-passes-nvidia-hbm4-prototype-test-30-hbm3e-price-cut-to-challenge-sk-hynix/32
u/GenZia 2d ago
Why would Samsung "discount" the chips to Nvidia, assuming they're as good as Hynix’s and Micron’s?
HBM demand is through the roof at the moment and supply just isn't catching up, so a "discount" seems rather... strange.
Sure, Samsung’s foundry hasn’t had any major contracts in years (the sole exception being the recent order from Tesla), but this sounds a bit too desperate for a company that's the bane of an entire country’s tech industry and contributes to almost a quarter of its GDP.
In any case, I hope this A.I. bubble bursts soon so Nvidia ends up with a ton of leftover HBM chips that they'll have no choice but to put into their mainstream consumer GPUs, hehe!
Wishful thinking...
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u/StoopidRoobutt 2d ago
No, no, no. Let the AI money keep pouring in, I can wait. NVIDIA has basically unlimited resources for R&D right now, and massive amounts of demand for better hardware. This is like a world war, tons of pressure to get things done. Eventually it'll benefit us plebs too.
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u/Frexxia 1d ago
Most of that R&D goes into aspects of computing that aren't particularly applicable to consumers
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u/ghostsilver 19h ago
Same can be said for the space race, arms race,... as well.
At first it might not be relevant to the average Joe, but eventually there will be some breakthrough that might change lots of stuff for everyone.
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u/Plastic-Meringue6214 1d ago
china as well is pouring shit tons of money across these areas. we'll be eating good in the 2030's assuming there's no broader fuck up in the world, but I feel like there will be with how the US is headed, China's current progress, and Putin's age.
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u/Jeep-Eep 1d ago
Given the AI bubble is creaking very loudly, that will be soon, there's a reason Samsung is demphasizing GDDR besides selling it to nVidia now - with the HBM glut and capacity glut that will hit after the AI bubble is done, GDDR will just be plain obsolete as the price advantage would be much smaller and bring the efficiency and heat advantages to the fore.
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u/BlueGoliath 1d ago
In any case, I hope this A.I. bubble bursts soon so Nvidia ends up with a ton of leftover HBM chips that they'll have no choice but to put into their mainstream consumer GPUs, hehe!
Those are some crazy happy pills you're taking.
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u/Alebringer 1d ago edited 1d ago
Cant even replace GDRR with HBM. Its a completely different product.
Edit; Good article about HBM. Its not like our normal DRAM :) And why its so expensive.
https://semianalysis.com/2025/08/12/scaling-the-memory-wall-the-rise-and-roadmap-of-hbm/
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u/asssuber 1d ago
AMD did that for a while with Fiji and Vega. It can be used to replace GDDR just as LPDDR can too. If it's the best choice is another question.
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u/Jeep-Eep 1d ago
If there's enough of a glut of supply and capacity, it will be.
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u/Alebringer 1d ago
H200, with 141GB HBM3E. The memory alone have a value of more than $20k.
We complain about expensive graphic cards, switching to HBM.. They wont get cheaper.
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u/Jeep-Eep 1d ago
Depends on the degree of the glut, and remember, it would be like 32ish gigs at most for one of Team Green's nutbar halos in all likelihood... plus the possible savings in power delivery and cooling...
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u/Alebringer 1d ago edited 1d ago
And what about the cost with CoWoS packaging? That are not cheap too. You cant go from "external" memory to HBM(its external too, but very different). HBM are co packaged with the other dies on top an other chip with a bump pitch of (think its) 60 um.
Its a very different product. If there come an AI crash the left over HBM will be used for other accelerators.
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u/Jeep-Eep 1d ago
Even then, after the bubble is done it would make sense to design HBM versions aimed at cost control while maintaining its advantages rather then further pursuing GDDR.
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u/Alebringer 19h ago
Its to expensive for a consumer product. Today 1 HBM stack are 13 dies(1 Logic, 12 DRAM) stacked on top of each other. Its not like NAND stacks there are all done on the same die.
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u/Jeep-Eep 1d ago edited 1d ago
Eh, if UDNA 1 is true MCM, AMD could just use the prosumer IO die across the whole stack if the bubble goes up before it starts fab or final validation, it would be a pretty fast pivot to make. And if it's UDNA 2, they'd just not make a GDDR IO die.
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u/Jeep-Eep 1d ago
nVidia does have a known tendency to go with costly leading edge VRAM formats in recent years, in a post AI bust milieu, taping out client Blackwell Next or what comes after it for it would be in character.
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u/Exist50 1d ago
Why would Samsung "discount" the chips to Nvidia, assuming they're as good as Hynix’s and Micron’s?
It's not exactly unheard of for a vendor that's failed to deliver to offer a discount in order to salvage the business relationship. See it as an uncertainty cost of using them as a supplier.
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1d ago
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u/FumblingBool 1d ago
I heard the samsung chips had some issues so the discount is probably to rebuild trust.
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u/ML7777777 1d ago
Competition is a good thing. It will allow Nvidia to pass the
savingsprofits to its shareholders.