Nvidia and AMD Set to Launch New Year with Pricey GPUs Amidst Memory Strain and AI Boom>

According to the latest reports from South Korea, leading GPU manufacturers – Nvidia and AMD – are planning significant price increases on their products in the coming months. The causes are cited as the rapid rise in DRAM memory costs and the AI boom. Photo: WCCF Resource Newsis, citing insiders, reports that AMD will start raising prices as early as January 2026, with Nvidia following suit in February. The price hike will affect the current lines – Nvidia RTX 50 (Blackwell) and AMD Radeon RX 9000 (RDNA 4). This won’t be a one-time action: prices will be indexed every month. Retail price predictions for Nvidia’s flagship accelerator, the GeForce RTX 5090, suggest an increase to $5000, up from the $2000 recommended launch price, indicating a price hike of 2.5 times. It is noted that production costs for graphics cards have increased by 80% solely due to the rising costs of memory components.

Rumors that Nvidia is cutting production of mid-range models – the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5070 – have proven not entirely accurate. Production of accelerators is proceeding as usual, only they don’t make it to stores. The lion’s share of supplies is intercepted by “custom AI factories” in Asia. They purchase thousands of gaming cards, equip them with turbine-type cooling systems, and resell them to companies willing to use such accelerators for AI training. This creates an artificial shortage.