Due to DRAM supply crisis, AMD reportedly to raise GPU prices by 10% in 2026

According to analyst Dan Nystedt, AMD has informed its supplier partners that, due to rising memory prices, it will increase GPU prices by at least 10% in the new year. Reports indicate that this is the second price hike by AMD in recent months. The first increase was not publicly announced and eroded AMD’s profit margins. This time, AMD appears to be passing the increased costs onto its partners, who will ultimately pass them on to consumers.

GPU pricing has long been a controversial topic. Over the years, both prices and power consumption have steadily increased with each generation, and shortages driven by cryptocurrency mining have occasionally spiked demand, pushing new GPU prices higher. A similar situation occurred in early 2025, but at that time it seemed more related to deliberate supply restrictions by manufacturers or the shift of focus by NVIDIA and AMD toward artificial intelligence (AI).

This trend has become increasingly apparent in 2025. As data centers worldwide purchase massive amounts of GPUs, CPUs, memory, storage, and virtually all available resources — sometimes even entire power plants — prices for most components have risen accordingly. Memory prices, in particular, have surged sharply, with individual memory modules increasing nearly 200% in recent months. This shortage is now spreading to other industries, with the GPU sector being the most notable.

PowerColor recently issued a warning that GPU prices are about to rise, and AMD has reportedly confirmed this to its suppliers and board partners. The reported increase is at least 10%, suggesting that this may be the lower bound of AMD’s potential price hike. However, Dan Nystedt believes that 10% could be the final increase, and the definitive result will require AMD’s official announcement.

For AMD, this timing is particularly challenging. Throughout the year, AMD has struggled to bring the price of its flagship RX 9070 XT GPU close to the suggested retail price. During this week’s Black Friday promotions, this high-performance GPU was sold for $599 — the lowest price since its launch. However, this seems likely to be only a temporary situation.

AMD is also unlikely to be the only company facing rising GPU prices. Due to memory shortages, NVIDIA is expected to delay the launch of its RTX 50 Super series. Since most of its GPUs are sold to data center developers — which are highly profitable — gaming-focused GPU sales are unlikely to result in a loss of profit.