What's even more disturbing is that entry-level graphics cards are likely to be the hardest hit: to the point of disappearing?
Analysts have been predicting it for several months now: DRAM and NAND memories will soon see a substantial price increase. In fact, this increase, which has been expected for months, has already begun, but as contracts are negotiated several months in advance, it is not yet apparent on the market. Reality will soon catch up with us, however, and the reorientation of production lines by manufacturers such as Micron, SK Hynix and Samsung towards HBM memory will soon have very direct consequences.
The cost of memory is an issue for all market segments © NVIDIA
It's important to remember that feeding artificial intelligence models requires very large quantities of memory... very, very large quantities indeed. This memory also needs to be fast, which is why systems are turning more readily to HBM or High Bandwidth Memory. The problem is that, until now, this type of memory has only been marginal, and to meet the demand from AI promoters, the three HBM giants have been forced to rethink their production: they couldn't open new lines straight away, and it's the lines dedicated to DRAM or NAND that are paying the price. It would take several months, even years, to really increase overall production capacity, and HBM is currently far more profitable.
Alas, all devices and peripherals requiring DRAM or NAND will undoubtedly increase substantially in the coming weeks: everything suggests that the bulk of the increases will occur just after Black Friday, when stocks will need to be replenished, and PC graphics cards could well be among the hardest hit. AMD has reportedly already told its partners that prices are set to rise in the next few days, at a time when the profitability of continuing to produce entry-level graphics cards - models that have already seen a certain amount of inflation in recent years - is being questioned.
AMD has reportedly already announced a price increase for its cards © VideoCardz
In fact, the lower the price of a graphics card - whether from AMD, Intel or NVIDIA - the higher the cost of video memory. In fact, 12GB cards at less than 350 euros would appear to be utopian. This is a problem, since 8 or 10 GB are unanimously recognized as being increasingly inadequate for modern games. Are AMD, Intel and NVIDIA thinking of focusing on the mid-range, where overall margins are better able to overcome the obstacle of higher memory costs? A hypothesis that more and more sources are taking seriously.
