A Price Hike on the Horizon for Graphics Cards
If you are considering buying a new AMD graphics card, now might be the time to pull the trigger. According to multiple industry reports from Taiwan, AMD has notified its board partners that it plans to increase the prices of its Radeon GPUs across the entire product line. The reported increase is estimated to be at least 10%, a move that would make building or upgrading a PC more expensive in the near future.
This news follows earlier warnings from within the industry, including a representative from board partner PowerColor, who suggested that the best time to buy a card was during the current Black Friday sales period, hinting at changes coming after the holidays.
The Driving Force: Soaring Memory Costs
The primary reason behind the planned price increase is a significant surge in the cost of memory chips. The report from Taiwanese media outlet UDN states that “the continuous rise in memory prices has led to a sharp increase in graphics card costs.”
This isn’t a minor fluctuation; the cost of memory has skyrocketed by anywhere from 30% to a staggering 170% in recent months, depending on the specific market and memory type. Since AMD sells GPUs to its partners as a bundle that includes the necessary memory, a sharp increase in memory costs directly impacts the final price of the graphics card.
What This Means for Your Next GPU Purchase
For consumers, this potential price hike has clear implications. The current Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals may represent the lowest prices for Radeon graphics cards for the foreseeable future. Once the reported increase takes effect, a $600 GPU could easily jump to $660 or more.
This situation also presents a challenge for AMD’s market strategy. The company’s Navi 48-based RX 9070 XT has struggled to meet its suggested retail price for months, only recently hitting its MSRP thanks to holiday discounts. A blanket price increase could make it harder for AMD to compete on value against its competitors.
Also, Read
- AMD’s Next-Gen FSR Redstone Launches December 10, Exclusively for RX 9000 GPUs
- AMD Launches Ryzen 5 7500X3D – A $269 Budget Gaming CPU with Flagship Cache
- AMD Confirms Zen 7 CPU Architecture with Dedicated AI “Matrix Engine”
While the exact timing of the increase is not confirmed, the reports suggest that 2027 could begin with more expensive Radeon cards. For anyone planning a PC build, acting on the current deals could lead to significant savings.
Source: udn, techpowerup