Have you already given up on modern GPU prices? If not, you may soon have no choice but to accept that this generation of graphics cards is completely unaffordable. As if PC gaming couldn’t get any more expensive, Nvidia and even AMD may end up hiking prices for every GPU available now. In the past week, reports stemming from Taiwan-based PC hardware tipster BenchLife suggested Nvidia was proposing another round of price hikes for its GPUs, both its “Founders Editions” made by Team Green itself and its add-in board (AIB) partners—the separate manufacturers who build the vast majority of available graphics cards. Nvidia sells its GPUs and VRAM (video random access memory) as an all-in-one kit, meaning the AIB companies have no choice but to accept higher costs, which naturally get passed to consumers. The news gets even worse. BenchLife suggested the costs would impact current GDDR7 memory modules—used by the RTX 50-series—as well as older GDDR6. While Nvidia reportedly ended production of its older RTX 40-series GPUs, the memory prices may indeed have an impact on other graphics cards. AMD relies on GDDR6 memory for its Radeon RX 90-series GPUs.
Rumors online swirled that AMD was planning price hikes for this month, but August may finally see AMD’s GPU prices spike in tune with Nvidia’s costly cards. Semi-reliable rumors stemming from WeChat tipster Board Channels (via VideoCardz) suggest AMD delayed price increases until Nvidia made similar adjustments to its AIB pricing. Gizmodo reached out to AMD for comment, and we’ll update this post if we hear back.
