Graphics cards are about to cost a lot more. Nvidia has confirmed a price hike of 20% to 30% on its graphics-card kits — the third increase the company has imposed this year, according to WCCFTech. AMD is following close behind, raising the supply price of its own GPU and memory bundles by at least 10% starting in August, as The Next Web reported.

The increases do not land directly on shoppers. They hit the companies' board partners — the firms that assemble and sell finished graphics cards under brands like Asus, MSI and Gigabyte. Those partners must then decide how much of the added cost to pass on to consumers, according to GameSpot. The gap between wholesale and retail leaves room for the final sticker price to climb even higher than the headline figures suggest.

Memory is the driver. Graphics cards require large quantities of high-speed memory modules, and that component is in short supply. Samsung, a leading memory manufacturer, already raised prices earlier this year and plans another 20% increase this month, with hikes expected to continue through at least 2028. Samsung warned in an earnings call that supply constraints will become more severe in 2027 than in 2026, and that the shortage will persist through 2028, as PC Gamer reported.

AMD had actually planned its increase earlier but delayed implementation by roughly a month, according to TechPowerUp. Market analyst Harukaze5719, who reported the details on X (formerly Twitter), said AMD had been waiting for Nvidia to move first. The company worried about consumer price sensitivity, a weak recovery in PC demand, and existing inventory that still needed to sell through before higher prices could take hold, as PC Gamer reported.

AMD told its board partners that all brands will implement the increase uniformly, with AMD's price positioning expected to move closer to Nvidia's, according to the same report. Some Nvidia partners were described as being in a "state of panic, reluctant to sell" their current inventory amid the price changes.

The ripple extends well beyond PC gaming. Console hardware is climbing too: Xbox Series X and Series S prices rose worldwide at the start of August, Nintendo announced a price hike for the Switch 2, and Sony raised the price of the PlayStation 5 earlier this year, according to GameSpot.

What makes this stretch unusual is how little room buyers have to shop around. Both major GPU makers are raising prices at the same time, for the same reason — memory scarcity — with no clear end date. Samsung's own forecast pushes the constraint out to 2028. For anyone building or upgrading a PC, the window for "surprising stability" in graphics-card prices, as PC Gamer described it last month, appears to have closed.