Budget Graphics Cards Face Worst Price Hikes Yet, Card Maker Warns
Entry-level graphics cards are about to get more expensive, and the shortages behind the hikes are set to worsen before they improve. PC Partner, the manufacturer behind AMD, Sapphire, Zotac, Inno3D, and Manli-branded cards, told investors this week that rising memory costs will push graphics card prices higher through the rest of 2026 — and that budget cards will take the biggest hit.
The warning came in PC Partner's first-half FY2026 financial results. "Graphics memory costs are expected to rise further, leading to a substantial increase in VGA Card costs in the second half of the year," the company said, using the decades-old "VGA" shorthand it still applies to modern graphics cards. Shipments already fell sharply in the first half of the year compared with the second half of 2025, and the company expects availability to shrink further from here.
Why budget cards, specifically
Most of 2026's graphics card inflation has landed on high-end boards, which carry far more VRAM and are more exposed to the memory shortage. PC Partner's warning flips that pattern: it says entry-level cards are now the ones facing the most severe shortages, which the company expects to push their average selling prices up disproportionately in the back half of the year. That matters because budget cards are typically bought by first-time builders and people upgrading decade-old PCs, a segment with far less room to absorb a price jump than someone already shopping for a flagship.
The numbers in PC Partner's own results show how uneven the damage already is. Its own-brand business, which makes Zotac, Inno3D, and Manli cards for Nvidia chips exclusively, saw unit shipments drop 18.4% in the first half of the year while average selling prices rose only 10.7% year-over-year. Its separate ODM/OEM business, which builds AMD and Sapphire cards along with cards for other PC makers, tells a starker story: unit volume fell 38.4% year-over-year, yet revenue rose 73.9%, from HK$853.3 million to HK$1.4843 billion, because average selling prices jumped 181% as the business shifted toward high-end orders.
An analyst pushes back on the memory-cost explanation
Not everyone accepts that rising memory costs fully explain what is happening at checkout. Jon Peddie, head of Jon Peddie Research and a graphics-industry tracker for roughly 25 years, told Tom's Hardware he doubts overall graphics card sales are actually declining, even as unit shipments at individual manufacturers fall. His firm's point-of-sale tracking shows add-in board sales climbing from 9.25 million units in the first quarter of 2025 to 11.82 million in the first quarter of 2026, a 28% increase in volume, while dollar sales over the same period jumped 76%, from $6.18 billion to $10.85 billion.
Peddie argued that gap between rising volume and even faster-rising revenue does not necessarily prove costs are the whole story. "The AIB suppliers are taking advantage of all of the press reports on higher memory prices and shortages to raise AIB prices more than the delta in memory costs," he said. He drew a distinction between PC Partner's two businesses: its ODM/OEM arm sells directly to large PC makers like Dell and HP, which he says scrutinize actual component costs closely, while consumer-facing pricing on store shelves faces less of that check.
What this means if you're buying a GPU
- Don't wait for budget cards to get cheaper. PC Partner's own guidance points the opposite direction for the rest of 2026.
- Expect stock to get tighter, not just pricier. The shortage PC Partner describes is on availability as much as price.
- High-end cards aren't off the hook either. They've already absorbed most of this year's increases and remain the segment driving manufacturers' revenue growth.
Nothing here points to a single villain — memory suppliers, chipmakers, and card partners all have a stake in how these numbers get explained. But the practical outcome for shoppers is the same regardless of cause: both the price and the availability of the cheapest graphics cards on the market are moving in the wrong direction heading into the holiday quarter.
The same VRAM crunch has already pushed prices up elsewhere in phones, and it's worth checking how memory costs drove Google's Pixel 11 price increase and how Qualcomm's Snapdragon price hikes are rippling through Android phone pricing for a sense of how widespread this squeeze has become.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are budget graphics cards getting more expensive?
PC Partner, which makes AMD, Sapphire, Zotac, Inno3D, and Manli cards, says rising graphics memory costs are driving up production costs for the second half of 2026. It specifically warned that entry-level cards will face the most severe shortages, pushing their average prices up more than higher-end models.
Is this just about memory prices, or something else?
It's disputed. PC Partner points to rising memory costs as the driver, but analyst Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research says his sales data shows unit volumes actually rising, and argues some manufacturers may be raising prices by more than their actual increase in memory costs.
Will entry-level GPU prices drop later in 2026?
PC Partner's own guidance says the opposite: it expects shortages of entry-level cards to worsen and average selling prices to climb further in the second half of FY2026, not fall.
Which brands does PC Partner make?
PC Partner produces AMD- and Sapphire-branded graphics cards through its ODM/OEM business, and Zotac, Inno3D, and Manli cards built on Nvidia chips through its own-brand business.
Are high-end graphics cards also affected?
Yes, though most of 2026's price increases so far have landed on high-end cards with more VRAM. PC Partner's ODM/OEM business, which handles more high-end orders, saw average selling prices jump 181% year-over-year even as unit shipments fell.
