The ongoing crisis with RAM pricing and the associated knock-on effect it is having on numerous consumer electronics still has its worst days to come, according to GPU manufacturer Zotac.
In a message to its Korean customers, translated by X user Harukaze5719 and reported by Tom's Hardware, the company announced that it is suspending its 2% rewards program in the region in a bid to try to sustain GPU pricing for as long as it can, citing growing concerns with escalating prices as an existential threat to the industry as a whole. Citing the same concerns over current memory prices and the increasing costs of silicon, Zotac has warned its customers that stock for many current-generation GPUs might dry up for a long time, with no promise of it regulating in the near future.
Zotac is one of a few companies that predominantly manufactures graphics cards and hasn't diversified in other areas of gaming hardware. This puts it at a much bigger risk than other companies, such as Asus and Gigabyte, given the margins on their only products are very quickly being squeezed. This doesn't mean that its warning is any less concerning, especially as it comes a few weeks after Asus suggested that stock of its various 50-series Nvidia GPUs might similarly face supply constraints.
The effect of RAM price gouging in the face of demands from the AI sector, the exit of companies like Micron from the consumer market to address this demand, and the shift of focus from companies like Nvidia towards AI datacenters and away from gaming hardware are all combining to slow down next-generation hardware across the board.
The next PlayStation, for example, is now predicted to arrive sometime in 2028 by analysts, and it's likely the ongoing hardware shortage plays a role in any delay. If Zotac is right, and this is just the start of the crisis, then further delays could soon follow.
Source
In a message to its Korean customers, translated by X user Harukaze5719 and reported by Tom's Hardware, the company announced that it is suspending its 2% rewards program in the region in a bid to try to sustain GPU pricing for as long as it can, citing growing concerns with escalating prices as an existential threat to the industry as a whole. Citing the same concerns over current memory prices and the increasing costs of silicon, Zotac has warned its customers that stock for many current-generation GPUs might dry up for a long time, with no promise of it regulating in the near future.
Zotac is one of a few companies that predominantly manufactures graphics cards and hasn't diversified in other areas of gaming hardware. This puts it at a much bigger risk than other companies, such as Asus and Gigabyte, given the margins on their only products are very quickly being squeezed. This doesn't mean that its warning is any less concerning, especially as it comes a few weeks after Asus suggested that stock of its various 50-series Nvidia GPUs might similarly face supply constraints.
The effect of RAM price gouging in the face of demands from the AI sector, the exit of companies like Micron from the consumer market to address this demand, and the shift of focus from companies like Nvidia towards AI datacenters and away from gaming hardware are all combining to slow down next-generation hardware across the board.
The next PlayStation, for example, is now predicted to arrive sometime in 2028 by analysts, and it's likely the ongoing hardware shortage plays a role in any delay. If Zotac is right, and this is just the start of the crisis, then further delays could soon follow.
Source