If you have been eyeing a new GPU, you might want to act sooner rather than later. A recent report from the Chinese chip industry forum Board Channels indicates that AMD is set to increase the prices it charges its board partners by 10% for its GPU and VRAM bundles.
According to a post from forum user "Expert No.1," AMD has officially issued price increase notices to major partners including Asus, Sapphire, and XFX. Because these companies purchase the combined packages from AMD to build their cards, it is highly likely that these additional costs will reach the end user, resulting in a general rise in retail pricing.
The Impact on GPU Pricing
While the specific cards affected by this adjustment remain unconfirmed, the source points to rising costs within the storage supply chain as the primary driver. This creates a complex situation for lower-end hardware: an entry-level graphics card equipped with 16GB of VRAM will feel the impact of these memory price hikes much more heavily than a high-end card carrying the same amount of memory.
This cost-prohibitive environment is already shifting the market. Reports suggest that this imbalance is behind the recent trend of reducing the supply of entry-level GPUs featuring higher VRAM capacities. Industry observers believe this same pressure contributed to the reported cancellation of Nvidia’s RTX 5000 Super series, which were rumored to feature VRAM upgrades that may no longer be cost-effective to produce.
Despite this looming price hike, the AMD RX 9070 currently stands as one of the best value propositions in the Gaming Hardware space. However, it remains uncertain how long that value will hold if the 10% increase is applied across the board.
A Wider Industry Trend
This news arrives during a period of sustained negative pressure on PC hardware costs. Recent months have seen significant price increases for the Steam Deck, the Gaming News cycle surrounding the high entry cost of the Steam Machine, and premium cards like the RTX 5090 reaching prices as high as $4,000. Suppliers have previously indicated that high RAM and GPU prices could persist for years, and while the current report does not mention Nvidia implementing similar price adjustments alongside AMD, the potential for further industry-wide shifts remains a concern for the PC gaming community.