RAM will become more expensive. What does this mean for graphics cards?

RAM prices may rise soon, which could affect the prices of next-generation graphics cards expected by the end of the year.

A new report from the tech industry is bad news for gamers who are already eagerly awaiting the release of the Nvidia RTX 5090 beast.

According to the latest TrendForce report, memory costs are expected to increase by 3-8 % in the next three months. This will also affect the prices of future graphics memory. The production of current graphics cards is not at risk, but it may affect the retail price of upcoming graphics cards, such as the RTX 5090, which would not be cheap by any means, and nobody wants it to be even more expensive.

While we don't have a definitive reason for the rise in RAM prices, TrendForce claims that this trend is due to increased server demand, likely due to rapid growth in AI server and data center orders.

Demand for VRAM for current-generation graphics cards is stable or declining, so there is more than enough supply to meet demand. This will only affect new GPUs that have just started production and use GDDR7 memory.

It's not time to panic yet. These are just predictions for now. Also for the first two quarters in 2024, they predicted an increase in RAM prices, but this did not happen to the extent that they predicted. Stocks are clearly still sufficient, consumer demand is not at the same level as years ago, and manufacturers have also solved some of the production problems that plagued them in previous years.

If the price increases happen, we can expect the RTX 5090, for example, to be well above €2000. Some argue that this is acceptable, since the 30 % card will be faster than its predecessor, while others are disgusted by the numbers in the field of graphics cards.

Let's wait until the end of the year and hope that the prices stay the same, or even better, that they drop by a few hundred.