AMD is reportedly preparing to jack up graphics card prices after waiting for Nvidia to blink first.
According to PC Gamer the word comes from industry watcher Harukaze5719 who reckons AMD was holding fire until Nvidia pushed up its own prices.
“This was to avoid the risk of declining product competitiveness and market share loss from a hasty price adjustment during a period of demand pressure,” Harukaze5719 wrote on X.
AMD has already warned manufacturers about a price rise of “at least 10 per cent” across all products. The increase is said to kick in from the start of August, which is handy timing if you enjoy paying more for the same silicon.
“The price positioning is expected to be similar to that of the Nvidia series graphics cards,” Harukaze5719 wrote.
Last week, Nvidia was said to be preparing graphics card and component price rises of 20 to 30 per cent. Samsung was tipped for similar rises on memory units, because apparently the hardware industry looked at gamers and decided they had too much rent money left.
The main culprit is the AI data centre feeding frenzy. Those outfits are hoovering up components and cutting fat deals to grab stock before consumer buyers get a sniff. Harukaze5719’s analysis pointed to a current “weak recovery phase in the consumer graphics card market”.
It cited “high price sensitivity at the end-user level” and “existing inventory still needing to be digested” as reasons AMD had been cautious. The mess is spilling into consoles too. For decades, console prices usually fell after launch as production matured and platform holders chased a wider audience. Now Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have all raised console prices since release, sometimes more than once.
They have warned that more increases could follow, which is lovely news for anyone still pretending gaming hardware is a cheap hobby. The knock-on effect could push next-generation consoles close to £1,000, about €1,170, for the first time.
A thousand-quid console used to sound like satire. Now it looks like a PowerPoint target somewhere in procurement.
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