AMD Reportedly Tells ASUS, Gigabyte & Other GPU Partners To Brace For A Price Hike
It took a long while for pricing on modern generation graphics cards to finally stabilize, but unfortunately it may not last for long. Yet another warning of impending price hikes on AMD's Radeon GPUs is making the rounds and the reason is exactly what you think it is—rising memory costs as demand from the AI sector ravages chip supplies. If there's a silver lining, is that the rumored price hike could be lower than some thought (if at all).
To be very clear, nothing is official at this point. That said, the rumors are piling up. One of the more reliable indications came from PowerColor, which urged people in the market for a GPU to "buy before the last week of the year before prices kick up."
"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," a rep for PowerColor wrote.
What's at play is an AI arms race that is fueling a memory shortage. This has a ripple effect, as we've seen DDR5 memory pricing skyrocket in recent weeks. And the warnings are coming from all over—last month, Phison's CEO predicted that a severe memory shortage would last through 2035, which in turn could effect storage availability and pricing.
As for AMD's Radeon GPUs, a paywalled UDN report suggests AMD has begun notifying its add-in board (AIB) partners of another price increase.
"The continuous rise in memory prices has led to a sharp increase in graphics card costs. Industry sources indicate that AMD, the second-largest graphics card manufacturer, has notified its partners of a second price increase across its entire product line. The increase is estimated to be at least 10%," UDN wrote (via Videocardz).
If you're looking at this through an optimistic lens, the hope is that it stays closer to 10%, assuming the report is accurate in the first place. Either way, if you're in the market for a Radeon GPU and spot a good deal, you may want to jump on it.
We'll be keeping a pulse on Black Friday deals throughout the week and beyond (as sales shift to Cyber Monday discounts). In the meantime, here are some of the better priced models that are out there right now...
