AMD & NVIDIA Could Kill Off Budget GPUs as Memory Shortages Drive Costs Up, Leaving Entry-Level Gamers With Little Options

LectureMaster

Has Man Musk


This isn't good news for PC gamers at all, as a new report suggests that GPU manufacturers may halt production of mid-to-high-end gaming GPUs to address memory shortages.

AMD/NVIDIA Could Halt Budget GPU Production As Memory Shortages Force Them to Reallocate Capacity

It appears that DRAM shortages are going to affect gamers on a much larger scale than just being confined to RAM supply, as according to a report by the Korean media outlet Hankyung, it is rumored that AMD and NVIDIA are looking to "discontinue" budget-oriented GPUs, since their BOM (Bill of Materials) has risen dramatically with higher GDDR module prices. The report doesn't specifically mention which SKUs could be affected by this move, but our best guess is that NVIDIA's '60-class' and '50-class' models would most likely be the victims here.

There's no doubt that memory prices have risen 'shockingly' in the span of just a few weeks, which has given the supply chain no time to adjust at all. Companies are experiencing a 'panic buying' phase, primarily since most of the DRAM production capacity is being allocated towards the global data center buildout. In such desperate times, it is imminent that manufacturers will prioritize segments that are generating higher ROIs for them, which is why the consumer GPU production is expected to take a step back, especially for models that have 'slim' profit margins.

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Image Credits: NVIDIA

It is indeed unfortunate to see the state of the industry with memory shortages onboard, as they have dramatically affected the prices of individual components, with RAM modules experiencing an aggressive rise. With this report, it would not be incorrect to say that GPU prices could also 'skyrocket' within the upcoming weeks, especially for more mainstream models. Vendors like ASUS have already expressed concerns about potential price increases for consumer devices if DRAM shortages persist, and the situation appears to be worsening moving forward.
 
Will echo this again, if you want to build a new computer or upgrade to a new GPU...time is literally now to do it. They're still at least for now cheaper than they were a year ago.

Prices on mid-tier GPUs like the AMD Radeon RX 9070XT (newegg) have hit the $600 price they should've been, only good-price Nvidia option is RTX 5060TI 16GB (newegg) at $430, and best budget is still Intel B580 (newegg) at $250.

Only reason I know is I offered my friend some options to build a new PC. Look for RAM from companies that still have old stock.
 
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Raid your FB marketplace now. Get some cheap raster beasts from AMD. There's only a small handful of good games that don't play well, with even less on the horizon. BLOPS7 shitting the bed beyond anyones wildest dreams is going make weird things happen in gaming. Especially with the DRAM thing. We'll probably have to dump Windows sooner or later and Steam OS is AMD friendly.
 
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Will echo this again, if you want to build a new computer or upgrade to a new GPU...time is literally now to do it. They're still at least for now cheaper than they were a year ago.

Prices on mid-tier GPUs like the AMD Radeon RX 9070XT (newegg) have hit the $600 price they should've been, only good-price Nvidia option is RTX 5060TI 16GB (newegg) at $430, and best budget is still Intel B580 (newegg) at $250.

Only reason I know is I offered my friend some options to build a new PC. Look for RAM from companies that still have old stock.
I'll just chime in that Walmart was selling the 5070ti for $700. (Yes I bought one plus 64gb of ddr4 for about $200)
 
I'll just chime in that Walmart was selling the 5070ti for $700. (Yes I bought one plus 64gb of ddr4 for about $200)
That's about $50 cheaper than I was seeing elsewhere, so if you really want the Nvidia cuda features or doing local AI stuff, the $100 cost over the 9070XT might be worth it.
 
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Makes sense to drop the 50 and 60 versions for Nvidia in this case.
The gains over consoles for those low end gpu's is not very high either, so it might be a case where a console or the Gabecube makes most sense for those who don't care about high fps and resolutions.
For those who want bells and whistles, anything below a 5070 TI or 9070 XT is never considered anyways.
 
"Next Gen is around the Corner"
"Next-Box will be Phil Spencer´s Magnus Opus"

Let me chuckle. tee-hee

I heard that APUs were going to "kill" lower mid-tier GPUs. (3060s)...So the path will be there.
 
In all honesty, its just the next thing to drive prices up, first it was crypto, then AI for gpu compute, now its ram, next it will be CPUs, mobos and NVMe's.

This nonsense is getting tiring, price the consumer out of the market, then what's the option? "We have a subscription model for you!"
 
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These memory fuckers are literally sued every 5 years or so for their blatant collusion and price fixing tactics, I've gotten at least 3 checks from them. How is this racket allowed to continue this long, this many times? End it once and for all, slap their asses with an ultimatum of either multi-10's-of-billions dollar fines, or governments will force them to stop shutting down manufacturing every time prices drop 5-10%, and intentionally neglect building out capacity to continue their planned fake scarcity racket. Discovery the fuck out of their internal communications and see how fast they miraculously get new capacity up and running.
 
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Were this to happen, I suspect you would just see a large uptick in PS6 sales.
This is affecting everything that uses memory and nand flash including phones, tablets, laptops. Which btw the PS5 uses both! And so will the PS6 because it'll use GDDR7 (memory) and an SSD (nand). So yea everyones margins is being hit by this and it fucking sucks, there's already phone manufacturers complaining about the shortage increasint the costs of their phones. What shitty times.
 
It's absurd how this industry has people jumping like monkeys for a banana, and whenever something finally hits the original (expensive) MSRP, we get a black swan event that fucks the market up for years. Things haven't been normal since the mining craze, it's been over a decade and there are so many PC gamers that don't know what normal is.
 
There aren't any good budget GPUs now are there?
That gpu tier did not exist anymore for years now. High end mutated into Ultra Premium Deluxe and Medium to Low end cards got the High end price. The last entry level was probably the GTX1650. Entry level GPUs now are APUs imho. It is what it is, but god damn, PC gaming is currently ridiculous. And prices for consoles won't be unaffected long term either.
 
Neither Steam Machine nor any console will the saviour some here think they would. They are just as constrained by low margins as the low end GPUs are. Sure the companies buy in massive bulk and can eat some of the costs so they might ride this out, but it really depends on how long this DRAM situation will last. It prices normalise soon then no problem, if this doesn't change for quite a while then consoles will have yet another price increase.
 
Hoping the 5060 TI 16GB I was buying the other day comes back in-stock at Amazon in a couple of days. That card will keep me going for a good few years. Sold my 3060 12GB yesterday for £180.
 
You have to just laugh at the absurdity of it all.

A company having to kill off an entire section of the GPU market because of risings costs in the memory market...serving an AI bubble, that the same company created.
 
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