Artificial intelligence (AI) is experiencing rapid growth, transforming many fields from text generation to medicine. Behind this power lies a huge computing infrastructure, and the efficiency of AI models directly depends on the hardware they run on. By 2025, the demands on AI servers will continue to grow, requiring not only performance but also specialized architectures to process vast amounts of data and billions of operations per second. Choosing the right hardware is critical for the success of companies and researchers.
In this article, we will examine key hardware components necessary for high-performance AI servers in 2025: central and graphics processors, RAM, storage systems, and networking solutions. We will also touch on cooling and power consumption. Special attention will be paid to Unihost’s role, providing reliable and scalable infrastructure optimized for the most demanding AI workloads, including LLMs and neural networks. Understanding these aspects will help you make informed decisions, ensuring maximum efficiency and competitiveness for your projects.
1. Central Processing Unit (CPU): The System’s Brain
While Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are the “workhorses” in the AI world, the Central Processing Unit (CPU) remains crucial. The CPU is the server’s “brain,” managing the operating system, coordinating data flows, and preparing tasks for the GPU. It also handles AI workloads that cannot be parallelized. By 2025, CPU demands for AI servers will grow, but not as fast as for GPUs.
1.1. Key CPU Requirements
Modern AI workloads require multi-core CPUs for efficient management of parallel processes, and high clock speed ensures fast task processing. Processors with 32-64 cores and above are becoming standard. For maximum throughput between CPU, GPU, and other components, PCIe support is vital. By 2025, PCIe 5.0 is the norm, and PCIe 6.0 is emerging, doubling PCIe 5.0 bandwidth, which is critical for data transfer between CPU and GPU. A large L3 cache helps the CPU access data faster, reducing latency and boosting performance. Additionally, the CPU must efficiently manage hundreds of gigabytes or terabytes of RAM for loading large datasets and models.
1.2. Examples of Processors
Examples of CPUs for AI servers include Intel Xeon W and Xeon Scalable, offering high performance, many cores, and optimized for server workloads. AMD EPYC processors are known for their high core counts, high memory bandwidth, and support for many PCIe lanes, making them excellent for AI servers, especially with multiple GPUs. AMD Threadripper Pro, originally for workstations, is also used in demanding AI systems, balancing performance and cost.
CPU choice depends on the AI system architecture and workload. GPUs perform most computations, but a powerful and well-chosen CPU ensures smooth system operation, efficiently managing data and resources.
2. Graphics Processing Units (GPU): The Heart of AI Computing
GPUs are the cornerstone of modern AI computing, especially for training and inference of LLMs and neural networks. Their architecture, oriented towards parallel computing, is ideal for thousands of simultaneous operations, forming the basis of neural network operation. By 2025, GPU dominance is intensifying, and demands for their performance and memory capacity are growing exponentially.
2.1. Key GPU Characteristics
The most critical parameter for LLMs and neural networks is VRAM (Video RAM) capacity, as large models require significant memory. By 2025, 24 GB of VRAM is a minimum, and for training and inference of large models, GPUs with 40 GB, 80 GB, and hundreds of gigabytes of VRAM are needed. The speed of data transfer between GPU and VRAM affects performance, and technologies like HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) provide high bandwidth. Specialized NVIDIA cores, such as Tensor Cores, accelerate matrix operations, which are fundamental to deep learning. Overall GPU performance, measured in TFLOPS/PFLOPS, is a key indicator.
2.2. Market Leaders in AI GPUs
NVIDIA
NVIDIA remains the leader in AI GPUs due to its CUDA architecture and software ecosystem. By 2025, their products set the standards. The NVIDIA A100 was a standard for AI computing, offering up to 80 GB of HBM2e VRAM. The NVIDIA H100 (Hopper) is the current flagship, significantly outperforming the A100, and offers up to 80 GB of HBM3 VRAM, preferred for training the largest LLMs and neural networks. The expected successor to H100, the NVIDIA B200 (Blackwell), is anticipated to appear in 2025, promising double the memory capacity and performance growth. The next generation after Blackwell, NVIDIA Rubin Ultra AI GPUs, rumored to appear by late 2025 or 2026, promises extreme performance and power consumption.
AMD
AMD is actively increasing its presence in the AI GPU market, offering competitive solutions, especially with the development of the ROCm ecosystem, an alternative to CUDA. The AMD Instinct MI300X is a powerful solution for generative AI and high-performance computing, offering 192 GB of HBM3 VRAM, which is an advantage in memory density and very attractive for working with large LLMs.
2.3. Importance of Interconnect
For multi-GPU systems, the speed of data exchange is critically important. Interconnect technologies such as NVIDIA NVLink and AMD Infinity Fabric provide high-speed direct connections between GPUs, bypassing the CPU and system memory. This significantly reduces latency and increases bandwidth, which is crucial for distributed training of large models and scaling AI server performance.
3. Random Access Memory (RAM): Speed and Volume
Random Access Memory (RAM) is important for AI server performance, providing fast data access for the CPU and serving as a buffer for data processed by the GPU. While most data for LLMs and neural networks is stored in GPU VRAM, system RAM is necessary for loading data into VRAM, performing OS functions, and processing data.
3.1. RAM Capacity Requirements
For basic tasks and small AI models, the minimum RAM capacity is 64 GB, but for serious workloads, hundreds of gigabytes are often required. Servers in 2025 often feature 256 GB, 512 GB, or even 1 TB of RAM. The system RAM capacity must be sufficient to efficiently feed data to the GPU, ensuring uninterrupted operation and avoiding GPU “starvation.”
3.2. Types of RAM and Bandwidth
By 2025, DDR5 is becoming the standard for high-performance servers, offering high bandwidth and energy efficiency. HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) is primarily used as VRAM, but its high-bandwidth principles show a trend towards increased memory access speed. High RAM bandwidth affects data loading speed, data exchange speed between the CPU and GPU, and overall system performance. Slow RAM can become a bottleneck even with powerful GPUs.
4. Storage Systems: Fast Data Access
In the world of AI, gigabytes and terabytes of data are common. The speed and capacity of storage systems are paramount, as slow data access can become a serious bottleneck, slowing down training and inference.
4.1. Key Storage Requirements
High read and write speeds are critical for AI workloads, as fast loading of data into RAM and GPU VRAM impacts training efficiency, and fast access to models for inference ensures low latency. The volume of data in AI is constantly growing, and training datasets for LLMs can reach petabytes, while models themselves can be hundreds of gigabytes, so AI servers must have sufficient storage capacity.
4.2. Recommended Storage Solutions
NVMe SSD is the standard for high-performance AI servers, utilizing PCIe for significantly higher read/write speeds than SATA SSDs. By 2025, PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSDs are widespread, and PCIe Gen5 SSDs are actively being implemented, doubling bandwidth and reducing latency. For large-scale AI projects, distributed file systems (Lustre, BeeGFS, Ceph) are used, providing high-performance parallel data access. Hybrid solutions are often optimal, where frequently used data and active models are stored on NVMe SSDs, while less critical or archival data is stored on HDDs or in object storage.
The minimum storage capacity for an AI server is several terabytes, but for serious projects, tens and hundreds of terabytes may be required. It is important to plan storage capacity considering future data and model growth.
5. Networking Capabilities: Inter-Node Communication
In the AI world, training large models often occurs on clusters. High-speed networking capabilities are no less important than computing components, as efficient communication between servers and GPUs within a cluster is critical for data synchronization and exchanging model weights. A slow network can negate the advantages of powerful GPUs.
5.1. Key Networking Requirements
For transferring vast amounts of data between cluster nodes, networks with hundreds of gigabits per second bandwidth are needed, ensuring fast synchronization and minimizing latency. Low latency is extremely important. Network infrastructure must be scalable, supporting the addition of new servers and GPUs without significant performance degradation.
5.2. Recommended Networking Technologies
InfiniBand has long been the standard for high-performance computing (HPC) and AI clusters due to its low latency and high bandwidth (up to 400 Gbps and beyond). With the development of Ethernet standards (100, 200, 400 Gigabit Ethernet), it is becoming an attractive alternative to InfiniBand. Modern Ethernet implementations improve performance and reduce latency, providing a versatile and cost-effective solution. Technologies such as RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) achieve performance comparable to InfiniBand.
Distributed training is key to working with LLMs and large-scale AI models. Training efficiency depends on the network infrastructure. A fast and reliable network allows GPUs to exchange information, ensuring synchronous updates and accelerating model convergence. Without adequate networking, scaling AI computations is impossible.
6. Cooling and Power Consumption: Infrastructure Challenges
As the power of AI servers grows, especially due to multiple GPUs, heat dissipation and power consumption issues become acute. Modern GPUs consume hundreds of watts, and a server with several such accelerators easily exceeds a kilowatt, creating serious challenges for data centers.
6.1. Heat Dissipation Challenges and Solutions
In AI server data center racks, power density can be extreme, and traditional air cooling systems often fail. Advanced air cooling systems include powerful fans and optimized airflow. Liquid cooling is a key trend, as liquid efficiently removes heat. Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling and Immersion Cooling are common types.
6.2. Power Consumption and Infrastructure Importance
Power consumption requirements are growing: current AI servers consume 130-250 kW per rack, and future models may require 250-900 kW, sometimes over 1 MW. High power consumption impacts operational costs, and Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is critical. AI servers require specialized data center infrastructure that must provide sufficient power supply with redundancy, efficient cooling, physical security, and reliable network connectivity. Without adequate infrastructure, powerful AI servers cannot operate at full capacity.
7. Unihost’s Role in Providing AI Infrastructure
Building and maintaining your own AI infrastructure is a complex and expensive task. This is where Unihost comes in, offering ready-made, optimized solutions for AI workloads.
7.1. How Unihost Provides Servers for AI
Unihost specializes in dedicated servers and cloud VPS that can be configured for a wide range of AI tasks. We offer hardware solutions that meet 2025 standards, including access to servers with the latest generations of GPUs, such as NVIDIA (A100, H100, B200) and AMD (MI300X). We offer a wide selection of server configurations, allowing clients to precisely choose CPU cores, RAM, GPUs, and NVMe SSDs. Unihost data centers are equipped with high-speed networks, including InfiniBand and 100/200/400 Gigabit Ethernet. Unihost ensures stable power supply with redundancy, advanced cooling systems, and 24/7 monitoring. Our team of specialists has deep knowledge in server hardware and AI infrastructures, assisting with selection, deployment, and maintenance.
7.2. Unihost Solutions for LLMs and Neural Networks
Unihost offers solutions for your tasks, whether training a new LLM, fine-tuning an existing model, or deploying a neural network for inference. From servers with a single GPU to clusters with dozens of accelerators, we provide infrastructure that grows with your needs.
By choosing Unihost, you gain a reliable partner that provides ready-made, high-performance, and scalable infrastructure, allowing you to unlock the full potential of your AI projects without the huge costs and efforts of building and maintaining your own hardware.
Conclusion: The Future of AI and Unihost’s Role
2025 marks a new era in AI development. The capabilities of LLMs and neural networks are reaching unprecedented heights, linked to hardware evolution. Effective AI model operation and training require powerful server infrastructure, including advanced GPUs, powerful CPUs, fast storage, and high-speed networks. Cooling and power consumption are also vital, requiring innovative solutions and reliable data centers.
Choosing the right hardware for AI projects is a strategic investment, impacting development speed, model training efficiency, and the competitiveness of your business or research.
Unihost is your reliable partner. We offer more than just servers; we provide comprehensive, AI-optimized solutions that allow you to focus on innovation. Our dedicated servers with top-tier GPUs, flexible configurations, and expert support provide an ideal platform for running LLMs and neural networks, guaranteeing performance, scalability, and reliability.
Unlock the full potential of your AI projects. Contact Unihost today. Get a consultation and choose the optimal solution for your tasks.