AI, technology renting and HW for substription

[u/Comfortable_Army9861]

Hey! I am a hobbyist when it comes to pcs and hardware in general. I'm the guy who installs OS for everyone in the family and builds their PCs, fixes their phones but lacks the foresight for the industry.

My questions, from my recent experience and readings online, is such : is this kind of the end of people owning their hardware? At leasty when it comes to laptops and pcs.

Maybe the AI bubble is going to burst, sure, and i do hope so, as i am a 2D artist by profession, BUT I find that difficult to count on. And so lets say it doesnt, or at least the bubble size isnt reduced that much. That leaves us with PC parts that are more and more expensive, consoles will no longer be worth paying for, for the average joe and at that point i can legit only see the future as everyone having some very low end devices (or phone) that you use to connect to a server that lends you its wast resources, for a subsription. The only way i could imagine this not happening is if the prices are too high even for streaming companies to get builds to rent.

I mean, i kind of expected at least game developers to start making games for lower spec pcs, but then you get metro 2039 with its insane requirements - who can realistically afford to play such a game nowadays for it to sell well?

Alright, maybe my income is too low recently and that's influencing my view on things, but I would appreciate your thoughts on the matter, thank you!

[u/8AqLph]

I think this is all temporary. Rising prices are largely due to RAMageddon which will end once offer increases (and it is increasing, some Chinese companies are entering the market). Prices will only remain high as long as offer is low, but that can’t last

[u/Comfortable_Army9861 → u/8AqLph]

Oh, i love that thought. Not so much chinese being the n.1. supplier but ill take that over nothing.

[u/Glass-Percentage4255 → u/Comfortable_Army9861]

I think part/component quality will go down big time…

[u/8AqLph → u/Glass-Percentage4255]

Why would it ?

[u/Cold-Hunt9642 → u/8AqLph]

ram prices been a mess for years now feels like every time they dip something else happens to push them up again. but yeah the idea of everything going subscription is scary specially for creative work i like having my own machine not some rented box that can disappear anytime

the metro requirements are pure comedy tho who exactly they think is buying these games with a gpu that cost more than whole setup

[u/Ok_Calligrapher_3034]

I don't think owning your own hardware is going away, but I do think we're heading toward a future where renting computing power becomes more common, simply because not everyone will be able to justify the upfront cost of high-end hardware.

The thing is, cloud computing doesn't make the cost disappear. It shifts it to the provider, who still has to pay for hardware, electricity, cooling, maintenance and bandwidth. Subscriptions can make expensive hardware more accessible, but they don't automatically make it cheaper in the long run.

I think the bigger risk is that high-end computing becomes a luxury while affordable, locally owned hardware falls further behind. That could push more people toward cloud services, especially for gaming and AI workloads. But latency, internet access, privacy, recurring fees and dependence on a provider are real limitations.

And there's another factor: people don't all need the latest hardware. A lot of everyday computing, older games and plenty of creative work can still run perfectly well on a decent machine that's several years old.

So I wouldn't bet on the end of hardware ownership. I'd be more concerned about a growing gap between people who can afford capable local machines and those who have to rent access to comparable performance. That's a much more realistic concern to me.