AMD reportedly planning another GPU price hike

The global RAM and semiconductor shortage shows no signs of abating. In order to fuel the AI data center boom, manufacturers are prioritizing production of high-margin HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) over standard RAM and VRAM. The consequence is an "AI tax" that is driving up consumer prices and pushing back GPU launch timelines. According to Japanese news and tech website Gazlog, AMD is expected to raise the price of GPUs by 10-15% in the second half of the year, i.e., sometime from July onwards.

At present, the official MSRP of AMD's flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT is $599, with mainstream pricing currently hovering between $600–$700 due to high demand and short supply (such as this model at Amazon). If supply prices rise 10–15%, product prices may increase by roughly $90–$105, with the impact growing larger for higher VRAM capacities. As for NVIDIA, current RTX 5090 prices are far above the $1,999 MSRP, with most "in-stock" units having a price of almost 100% or higher over the MSRP at around $4,000. The stark difference between AMD and Nvidia's top models is because the latter uses the more expensive GDDR7, as opposed to the former's GDDR6.

Of course, Gazlog also states that this report remains unconfirmed, so it's best treated as a credible prediction rather than a certainty. Given how reliably similar price-hike warnings have played out over the past several months, however, it's tough to downplay this one. Lastly, some predict that the global memory-chip shortage may continue until 2028, so consumers hoping for a price drop on Radeon cards should think twice.