Terrible news for gamers: AMD and Nvidia could axe budget gaming GPUs due to rising memory prices

Rather than giving, the “gift” of AI keeps on taking from gamers. The latest example of this is the incessant increase in memory prices. As we’ve reported previously, due to strong demand from AI firms and datacenters, consumer DDR4 and DDR5 memory have seen a 2x or more price gain from their all-time lows. This inflation was also expected to hit gaming GPUs like the latest RX 9000 and the RTX 50 series. However, it seems the impact is worse than we imagined.

According to The Korea Economic Daily (via Jukan on X), both AMD and Nvidia could discontinue production of mid-to-low-end gaming GPUs if the GDDR VRAM cost makes up a large portion of the Bill of Materials (BOM). In simple terms, cost-effective GPUs like the RX 9060 XT, the RTX 5060, the RTX 5060 Ti, and so on, could be axed if AMD/Nvidia can’t secure VRAM for these cards at reasonable prices.

This makes sense when we consider the current memory landscape. Just yesterday, a report emerged on the Chinese Board Channels claiming that AMD could increase the price of all RX 9000 GPUs, owing to rising memory costs. Naturally, Nvidia will also take this route sooner or later and implement a price increase for the RTX 50 series.

It can be argued that a consumer shopping for an upper mid-range/high-end gaming GPU that costs upwards of $500 or $600 can absorb the added VRAM price. However, for entry-level gaming GPUs, consumers are much more sensitive to even small price changes. So, a 10 or 20% increase in the price of a $300 GPU like the RX 9060 XT would feel much worse to a budget-conscious gamer than a gamer shopping for $700+ GPUs like the RTX 5070 Ti (Available on Amazon).

The Korea Economic Daily also reports that OEMs, like Asus, are considering “reducing memory configurations”. This means that AIBs might trim their catalogues to offer only those gaming GPUs where the inflated VRAM pricing is palatable. Moving forward, affordable gaming GPUs at reasonable prices could be very difficult to find, a phenomenon that we saw during the COVID era.

All in all, it appears that gaming GPUs are going to get much worse in value. So, if you want one, now might be a good time to get one. Thankfully, you can currently find some decent gaming GPU deals. For instance, at the time of writing, the ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 9070 is going for $540 on Newegg, while a PNY NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 OC is retailing for just $489 at Walmart.