I bring more bad news about the price of GPUs and other PC gaming hardware in 2026. MSI explained that due to continued shortages of DRAM, some of its gaming products could increase by as much as 30 percent this year.
On March 13, as spotted by The Gamer and originally reported by Taiwan’s United Daily News, MSI general manager Huang Jinqing told investors during an earnings call that it plans to raise prices on gaming hardware by 15 to 30 percent over nine months.
It is expected that these price increases will primarily affect MSI’s lower-end and more affordable gaming hardware options, as the company is cutting back on producing these cheaper components. Instead, MSI plans to redistribute those resources to mid-range and high-end GPUs and hardware. Huang told investors that customers are already showing a willingness to pay more. The plan is to charge more and sells less to offset fewer produced and shipped products in 2026.
Jinqing blamed the rising prices on ongoing shortages of DRAM, AI hyperscalers buying up all available memory, and a low supply of Nvidia GPU components. These are the same problems leading to other hardware makers raising prices or delaying releases, like Valve, Xbox, and Intel.
“This year is the most challenging year since the company was founded,” Huang told investors during the earnings call, as reported by United Daily News.
Blame AI tech giants for high prices
According to MSI’s general manager, a 16GB module cost $40 last year. Now it costs $170 or more. Huang told investors that MSI holds about two months of memory inventory and is working to secure mult-year contracts with other hardware makers to avoid having to pay high prices to meet future demand. MSI currently projects that due to supply issues, the PC market will contract by 10 to 20 percent.
This is not going to help the alreay terrible (and getting worse) RAM-aggedon, which has seen PC and tech hardware prices continue to increase week after week as companies like Nvidia and Micron focus more and more on supplying companies like Microsoft, Meta, and Google who are all racing to build AI datacenters across the country using many of the parts needed to make advanced gaming GPUs and RAM.
Even MSI isn’t ignoring the AI market, with Huang telling investors that MSI is investing an extra $20 billion NTD (around $625,786,200 USD) in building a new AI server facility.
