AMD’s Turn to Raise Kit Prices, While the Memory Curve Bends on Paper

AMD reportedly raises board-partner kit prices about 10 percent for August, just as TrendForce's forecast shows the memory price curve finally decelerating, on paper.

Saya3 minute readMarket & Pricing

August opens the way most of 2026 has gone for GPU buyers: with another increase working through the supply chain. AMD is reportedly next in line to raise the kit prices its board partners pay, just as the first credible sign appears that the memory curve is decelerating, at least on paper.

AMD's turn: kit prices up about 10 percent for August

AMD has told its board partners that GPU-and-GDDR6 kit prices, the silicon-plus-memory bundle that companies like Sapphire, ASUS, and PowerColor build cards around, rise by at least 10 percent this month, per a Board Channels report picked up by VideoCardz and Tom's Hardware. AMD has not confirmed it publicly, so this stays reported rather than confirmed, but it fits the pattern: NVIDIA raised its own kit costs across the GeForce lineup in late July, and the partner sources describe AMD's increase as finalized weeks earlier and deliberately held back until NVIDIA moved first. TweakTown puts the August step inside a planned 10 to 15 percent rise across the second half of the year, driven by the same AI DRAM squeeze that has been repricing memory all year.

A kit price is not a shelf price; coolers, PCBs, power delivery, margins, and inventory bought at the old rates all sit between this increase and a card in a checkout basket. But the top of NVIDIA's range shows how quickly that gap closes: US retail listings moved within days of NVIDIA's increase, with ASUS's ROG Astral RTX 5080 reaching $2,099.99 at Best Buy, above the RTX 5090's launch MSRP. Cards carrying more GDDR6, like the 16GB RX 9070 XT, have the most exposure to this round.

The price curve bends on paper, not at retail

TrendForce's third-quarter forecast, published July 3, projects conventional DRAM contract prices rising 13 to 18 percent quarter over quarter and NAND flash contract prices rising 10 to 15 percent (TrendForce forecast). Those would be painful numbers in any normal year, but after quarters of far steeper jumps they mark the first real deceleration of this cycle. TrendForce's stated reasons: consumer buyers have hit their affordability limit, and PC makers stocked up on client SSDs in the first half of 2026, which is forcing suppliers into more flexible SSD pricing to keep shipments moving. Server DRAM stays undersupplied as production keeps shifting toward AI hardware, so the relief is uneven by design.

Retail has not turned yet. German price tracking reported in late July shows retail DDR5 climbing another 7 percent in July alone, putting it at roughly 4.5 times its July 2025 level, a new record (TechPowerUp on July DDR5 prices, 3DCenter's July index). A 32GB DDR5-6000 kit runs 350 to 420 euros there, and fast 64GB kits brush 1,000 euros. Consumer SSDs took the same ride earlier: GamersNexus measured the popular 2TB NVMe class roughly doubling between late 2025 and its April survey (GamersNexus price survey). We covered how the same shortage reached graphics cards in the RTX PRO 6000 price jump and what it did to DDR5 buying.

The forward-looking part, which can obviously still move: TrendForce estimates NAND supply falls 4 to 5 percent short of demand for 2026, with supply and demand approaching balance during 2027 (PC Guide on the 2027 outlook). If that holds, prices stop accelerating this year and start genuinely easing next year, which makes 2027 the realistic window for normal SSD deals, not this fall.

Nothing here argues for panic-buying memory or SSDs at current prices unless a build genuinely cannot wait. The increases are slowing, and the credible forecasts point at 2027 for real relief.

Sources