The price you pay for a Radeon graphics card may soon shot up, as AMD is now apparently charging its board partners an additional 10% for GDDR6 memory modules. This reported hike went into effect from October 1, and would add further to the price rises we’re already seeing.
We’ve seen prior reports of AMD increasing the cost of memory modules it provides to board partners (such as Gigabyte, Sapphire, and so on) in the wake of the memory crisis, meaning this fresh rise would be merely the latest in a series of unfortunate hikes. Word of this current rise comes from Board Channels, a forum regularly frequented by graphics card manufacturers among makers of other components, who allege this change affects GDDR6 VRAM supplies across the board.
The Radeon RX 9000 series would be the main loser from this change, with production of prior generations naturally having ended or proving negligible by comparison.
Of course, it will take time for these price rises to manifest on storefronts, but if this rumour is true, it will only add more to current costs, which are already subject to large-scale inflation. For example, the cost of a 16GB Radeon RX 9060 XT card now starts at £499.99 on Scan in the UK, up £185 from its original MSRP.
Meanwhile, Radeon RX 9070 XT cards now start at £759.99 from the same retailer, an increase of £190. If you’re in the market for a mid-range graphics card, we currently recommend the Radeon RX 9070 GRE as the only GPU worth buying at current prices.
For more pixel pushing natter, check out our picks of the best graphics cards on the market today.
