AMD Radeon And NVIDIA GeForce GPU Price Hikes May Be Coming
While you're planning your New Year's resolutions, add-in board (AIB) partners for both AMD and NVIDIA are getting ready to ring in 2026 with a round of price increases, followed by more price hikes as the year goes on, according to multiple reports. The culprit, as you can probably guess, is the rising cost of DRAM, which has already impacted the consumer DDR5 memory market.
This is not the first time we've heard about a potential price hike in the GPU sector. Right around a month ago, a PowerColor representative advised readers on Reddit that if they're in the market for a graphics card upgrade, they would be wise to buy before 2026 rolls around.
"Buy before the last week of the year before prices kick up," PowerColor wrote.
The company went on to clarify that its advice wasn't for anyone who had not been planning a GPU upgrade, but for those who are actively shopping a new graphics card.
"This message isn't for people who are not planning on picking up a GPU. it is for the people who have already been or plan to message me asking for advice on if they should 'buy now' because of market conditions. There is a reason I posted this here instead of spamming bigger subreddits," the rep stated.
At the time, it was reported that AMD had notified its board partners of higher pricing to come. Now four weeks later, the warnings are getting amplified.
One of them comes from a paywalled report at Digitimes. We don't have access to the full article, but the few lines that are visible tell the story.
"GPU prices are expected to rise in early 2026 as memory costs surge. AMD may implement hikes starting in January 2026, with NVIDIA following in February 2026, according to industry sources. Pricing adjustments will likely continue for several months," the outlet writes.
"AMD GPUs for AIB brands may see earlier price increases starting in January, followed by multiple increases over the next few months," the post states (translated). "NVIDIA for AIC [add-in card] brands are expected to start increasing in February."
The post goes on to state that some brands made small pricing adjustments earlier this month, and each board partner will decide on their own whether or not enforce a price hike in January and beyond. In other words, it's not being dictated by AMD and NVIDIA.
What this all essentially means is plenty of uncertainty in the GPU market going forward. That's also true of the DIY PC market as a whole. DDR5 pricing has already become cost prohibitive for some buyers, and we could be looking at higher priced storage and graphics cards in the weeks and months to come.
