AMD Plans 10% GPU Price Hike as VRAM Costs Surge From AI Boom
AMD is apparently planning a ten percent price increase for all of its graphics cards. The reason for this is the increasing storage costs due to the AI boom. Business partners should have already been informed.
More expensive VRAM: AMD increases prices
The storage crisis triggered by the AI hype continues to spread. While SK Hynix, the largest manufacturer, is already fully booked for 2026, companies like Asus and MSI are making ‘panic purchases’ due to the threat of empty warehouses. Samsung has already increased its memory prices by up to 60 percent. Now AMD is also reacting to the situation and is planning to increase the prices of its graphics cards.
According to current information, AMD has already informed its manufacturing partners about the upcoming price increase. Due to the massive increase in the cost of memory components, the entire GPU portfolio is expected to become at least ten percent more expensive. This is likely to severely disrupt the recently achieved price stability in the market and make graphics cards noticeably more expensive for end consumers.
Since graphics card providers usually deliver their GPUs to their board partners as a package together with the video memory, the increased purchase prices for GDDR memory have a direct impact on the manufacturing costs. AMD purchases the memory centrally to ensure quality standards, but also bears the full risk of price fluctuations on the global market. While the costs for the silicon chips themselves remain stable, the necessary accessories are becoming significantly more expensive.
Goodbye list prices
As Taiwanese industry observers from UDN (via Wccftech) report, AMD’s notification went to major add-in board partners such as Asus, Gigabyte and PowerColor. The cost pressure is now apparently so high that passing it on to the end customer market is unavoidable. The partners are likely to try to protect their margins and adjust prices promptly. The effects could be particularly noticeable on the current Radeon RX 9000 series. Models like the Radeon RX 9070 XT had only just approached their official list prices in stores. A flat surcharge of ten percent would catapult these cards back into higher price ranges. Stocks at old purchase prices could therefore be sold out quickly.
End consumers pay the difference
Some sources suggest that the full impact of the price increase may not hit end customers until early 2026. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that retailers will partially raise prices as soon as the new purchasing conditions take effect. So if you’re thinking about a new Radeon GPU, you should probably buy it quickly so you don’t have to pay more.
