Discrete GPU Warranty Expenses: From 2024 to 2025, Nvidia saw its warranty claims paid increase by 1000%, its accruals increase by 173%, and its reserve balance increase by 218%. AMD's claims paid increased by 116%, its accruals increased by 68%, and its reserves increased by 76%.
https://archive.ph/20260416040551/https://www.warrantyweek.com/archive/ww20260409.html
>The biggest story from last week's newsletter "Top 100 Warranty Providers of 2025" was the steep and rapid rise in GPU manufacturer Nvidia's warranty expenses. From 2024 to 2025, Nvidia's warranty claims and accrual rates both more than doubled, as did the end-balance of its warranty reserve fund.
>Nvidia's close competitor Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, also saw significant increases in warranty metrics, with its claims rate and warranty reserve end-balance both increasing by two-thirds.
>These increases in warranty expenses from the two largest global discrete GPU manufacturers were notable enough to prompt us to take a closer look at the industry this week. What we found is that warranty claims, accruals, and reserves increased by an order of magnitude from 2024 to 2025.
>To create this newsletter, we perused the annual reports and quarterly financial statements of Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and gathered three key warranty metrics: the amount of claims paid, the amount of accruals made, and the end-balance of the warranty reserve fund.
In addition, we gathered data on each manufacturer's product sales revenue, and used these to calculate two additional warranty expense rates: claims as a percentage of revenue (the claims rate), and accruals as a percentage of revenue (the accrual rate).
>Every electronic with a screen comes with a built-in central processing unit, or CPU. Typically, CPUs have integrated graphics processing units, or GPUs as part of the larger chip. However, for more complex applications, discrete GPUs, external and separate from the CPU, are preferable.
>Discrete GPUs are a specialized type of semiconductor chip featuring many cores, designed to rapidly perform complex calculations and parallel processing, making them ideal for image and video generation. Primary uses of discrete GPUs include artificial intelligence, video gaming, and cryptocurrency mining.
>It's important to note that cryptocurrency mining is considered commercial use, and voids the product warranty for Nvidia and AMD discrete GPUs. However, running AI programs is typically considered normal use, depending on the intensity of the AI workload for the GPU. Furthermore, modifying the cards, including custom cooling apparatuses that are popular with video gamers.
>Intel has attempted to join the discrete GPU market, but continues to primarily deal in CPUs with integrated GPUs. Furthermore, Intel does not publish its warranty expenses in its financial reports, despite being publicly traded.
>Other major international players in the discrete GPU industry are the "add-in-card (AIC) partners," which purchase GPU chips from Nvidia or AMD, and design their own graphics cards, boards, and cooling systems. Nvidia's and AMD's AIC partners include ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, and PowerColor, based in Taiwan; Sapphire and Zotac, based in China; and PNY, based in the United States.
>AIC partners offer their own limited warranties, which also cover the integrated chip from Nvidia or AMD. Nvidia and AMD limited warranties cover discrete GPUs used by the end-user, not chips included in larger graphics cards sold by other manufacturers.
>In recent months, the prices of discrete GPUs have increased across the market, due to the current random access memory (RAM) shortage. The AI boom has prompted an unprecedented level of sales of chips related to computer memory, including GPUs. The price of RAM quadrupled from mid-2025 to early 2026. This shortage is already driving up prices for electronics using memory chips and integrated GPUs, including computers and game consoles, and is expected to affect mobile phones, smart appliances, medical equipment, and even entertainment systems in vehicles.
>We expect that the RAM shortage will also continue to drive up the prices of discrete GPU repairs. As we will see in Figures 1, 3, and 5, the total warranty costs of the top discrete GPU manufacturers increased significantly from 2024 to 2025. At the same time, as we will see in Figures 2 and 4, warranty claims and accruals in proportion to sales revenue, as a percentage, also significantly increased over the same period.
>Increased GPU sales explain some of the increases in warranty expenses we will see in the following charts. In addition, the higher warranty expense rates show that the average repair also costs more, due to tariffs and the RAM shortage.