According to sources from graphics card vendors, the recent price hike of DDR3 RAM will affect the prices of cards utilizing that type of memory. Since the only DRAM price affected are specifically those of the DDR3 variety, we expect only budget and low-end graphics cards to be impacted.
DigiTimes’ unnamed sources also mentioned that they do not expect prices to go back down for at least 6 months, if that. The prices should go up around 10%-15% what they currently are. The only way that prices will go down is through special offers or bringing forward the release of next-generation graphics cards.
The report further stated that since PC demand is still comparatively weak, the impact will not “upset consumers or channel retails greatly in the same run” and that the “PC replacement trend” that is expected to follow the release of Intel’s Haswell platform in June may be compromised by these increased costs and the expected rise of motherboard ASP.
Graphics card prices up 10-15% [DigiTimes]
Good.
This might be the push needed to move people into the iGPU space, especially with the enhanced graphics of Haswell.