It seems like it's only going to get harder to put together a gaming PC for a decent price in coming months, as reports suggest AMD will be increasing the cost of its CPUs.
According to a report from Overclock3D citing "industry sources", AMD is reportedly looking to raise prices on its 9000-series CPUs, as well as "AMD's older products".
OC3D claimed yesterday that the price hike will happen on the night of December 1, though we are unlikely to see the results of any such hike until the cost is pushed onto the buyer.
The price change is reportedly at the distributor level, and therefore, down to those distributors to, well, distribute that price difference. With Cyber Week on, and deals still live, many sellers will be capitalising on that momentum to keep deals around for a little longer. It might not be until the sales fervour wears off that we see the impact of any increase, if one actually happens. Obviously, that's not guaranteed yet.
There are currently ongoing price hikes with RAM and, to a lesser degree, SSDs, though AMD's argument is said to be unrelated. Unfortunately, that means we don't have much information on why specifically AMD might be raising its prices, but we have reached out to AMD for comment on this story.
There have been separate reports of AMD raising the prices of its GPUs, too. If both reports prove to be true, buying that all team red rig could come with price hikes on the RAM, storage, GPU, and CPU, but it's not like an Nvidia build would fare much better.
In any other year, one could reasonably argue that AMD raising its prices is an open goal for Intel, who could do with putting one on the scoreboard with its latest Arrow Lake generation. But Chipzilla's latest chips have been strong productivity choices at best, and overpriced, underperforming gaming picks at worst.
We review and tally up the best CPUs for gaming, and a quick look at our list should prove this point. Spoilers, we don't reckon a single Intel CPU is worthy of a spot on our list, with everything from best high-end, to best budget, to best overall all being AMD picks.
Intel still puts up a good fight when it comes to its handheld and laptop chips and its integrated GPUs, though.
In September this year, AMD stated that it charges "more for our CPUs than our competitor" and that "customers feel good about that price." There appears to be a comfort expressed with the major lead AMD has over its competition, and its chips are the best in the business, as far as desktop gaming is concerned. Not too long ago, it was the other way around, and we'd be used to hearing Intel making the same sorta arguments.
With memory prices suggested to stay high past 2028, this all paints a stark picture for PC gamers or anyone looking to upgrade in the next half-decade. And with companies like AMD and Nvidia reporting record profits recently, it's clear who the winners and the losers are when it comes to PC hardware—consumers certainly don't appear to be in the former category.
