Earlier this month, we noted that AMD was reportedly bumping the price of its GPU and VRAM bundles for its partners. Now it seems like that bump will be at least 10%.
That is according to industry analyst Harukaze5719, who has shared a report stating as such, claiming “information confirmed by AMD’s internal supply chain”. The report claims AMD finalised plans to increase the supply price of GPU and VRAM bundles but did not yet commit to it due to a “weak recovery phase in the consumer graphics card market, high price sensitivity at the end-user level, existing inventory still needing to be digested, and the fact that NV (Nvidia) series graphics card prices have not yet increased.” (machine translated).
As you might be able to guess from that wording, Nvidia just yesterday reportedly implemented its own price bump, going as high as an extra 30%. Apparently AMD will implement a price increase of “at least 10%, and all brands will officially implement the price increase uniformly starting next month. At that time, the price positioning is expected to be similar to that of NV series graphics cards.”
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One thing worth noting here is that a price increase to partners does not necessarily mean that the same price increase will be passed to the consumer. However, if other partners follow suit, there’s little reason for companies to eat the cost themselves. Especially given AIB partners’ margins are apparently quite slim.
And though the price increase will not affect the base cost of cards that partners already have access to, a price increase might make them less likely to get rid of their inventory at their current price point. As noted in our Nvidia story, some Nvidia partners are in a “state of panic, reluctant to sell.”
If you’re wondering why AMD and Nvidia are in a state where they feel they have to raise prices, you can blame AI for that one. AI and the vast amount of data it needs for training are sucking up all of the memory, and taking components like SSDs and GPUs with it. And this is a shame, as graphics cards have been relatively stable in pricing for the past few months, according to our tracker of the best graphics cards deals.
Unfortunately, the worst news here is that the memory crisis is unlikely to end soon. Just yesterday, Samsung claimed in its earnings call that “the supply constraints are expected to become even more severe in 2027 than 2026, reinforcing our view that the supply shortage will persist through 2028. Beyond 2029, it is hard to say because of more limited visibility.”
So, it’s currently a bad time to build a PC, and it seems likely it will become even worse, and we don’t know when things will get better. That’s the unfortunate reality of the memory crisis.
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