NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel graphics cards have sharply increased in price. Prices soared by 15–30% overnight.
On the Chinese marketplaces Taobao, Pinduoduo, and JD, price tags for graphics cards from all three major manufacturers rose almost simultaneously. The increase ranged from 15% to 30% depending on the model. The situation is already beginning to affect other markets, including the Russian one.
The reason is the same — the ongoing crisis in the DRAM and video memory market.
What exactly is happening
Memory manufacturers (Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron) are actively shifting production capacity to HBM — high-bandwidth memory that is critically needed for AI accelerators. As a result, output of regular GDDR6 and especially the new GDDR7, used in current gaming and professional graphics cards, is being reduced.
According to industry sources, the cost of a single GDDR6/GDDR7 chip has risen by roughly $20. For a card with 8 GB of memory, that is already +$80 just for the chips. For 12–16 GB models, the difference is even more noticeable. NVIDIA and AMD have sent notices to partners (Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, Sapphire, and others) about price increases for "GPU + memory" bundles. As a result, final retail prices have started rising almost immediately.
Why this will affect everyone
- Not only new GDDR7 flagships will become more expensive, but also previous-generation GDDR6 cards.
- Warehouse stock is running out quickly, and some manufacturers have already suspended shipments.
- In China, some models are being temporarily pulled from sale while awaiting a new wave of prices.
- The rise in production costs will almost certainly reach the Russian market in the coming weeks.
The situation is reminiscent of 2020–2021, but the driver now is different: not mining, but artificial intelligence. As long as demand for HBM remains extremely high, pressure on consumer GDDR memory will persist.
If you were planning to upgrade your graphics card, it makes sense to keep a close eye on prices. Further increases look quite likely.
