AMD is reportedly preparing for a round of GPU price increases, with rising memory costs cited as the reason. Posts on the Chinese Board Channels forum claim AMD told partners that memory prices have climbed enough that its next wave of GPUs will ship at higher prices. The first price increase, back in October, was small and never showed up at retail, but this new increase is said to be larger and apply to all models, from Radeon gaming cards to workstation GPUs and AI parts. There's no confirmed date, and AMD hasn't commented publicly. The memory market has tightened sharply as AI demand consumes available supply. DDR5 prices have jumped as much as 60% since September, and broader DRAM pricing is up roughly 170% year over year. GDDR6, the memory used in most graphics cards, has climbed by around 30% as manufacturers shift more capacity toward server DDR5, HBM, and AI hardware.

For gamers, the timing isn't great. Radeon RX 9070 XT prices had only just started to stabilize; one ASRock Challenger card in the US recently slipped to its official $599 MSRP, and European pricing has finally settled near launch levels after months of inflated street prices. NVIDIA is also rumored to be planning a similar price hike in early 2026. Neither AMD nor NVIDIA is driving the increases, both are caught in the same memory crunch. As usual with reports like this, it can take weeks before any change appears at retail.