NVIDIA is reportedly contemplating a major design shift for its GPU products, moving away from the current on-board solution to an independent GPU socket design after the GB200 shipment in Q4. This information comes from reports by MoneyDJ and the Economic Daily News cited by TrendForce. This change is not unprecedented in the industry, as AMD already introduced a socket design in 2023 with their MI300A series through Supermicro dedicated servers. The B300 series, expected to be NVIDIA's primary product in the second half of 2025, is said to benefit from this design change, which could enhance yield rates, although there may be some performance compromises.
As per the Economic Daily News, the socket design will streamline after-sales service and server board maintenance, enabling users to quickly replace or upgrade the GPUs. The report also mentioned that based on the slot design, boards will accommodate up to four NVIDIA GPUs and a CPU, with each GPU having its own dedicated slot. This will be advantageous for Taiwanese manufacturers like Foxconn and LOTES, who will provide various components and connectors. This move appears to be logical because with the current on-board design, if a GPU malfunctions, the entire motherboard must be replaced, resulting in significant downtime and high operational and maintenance expenses.
