Graphics card memory have risen by almost 31! this month. Both Samsung and SK Hynix are sourcing their production faclilities to deal with memories for servers and handsets.
By doing so they create more demand, and that raises prices. Sources from the upstream supply chain expect the pricing to go even higher in September and the shortages will pose a great challenge to graphics card and gaming notebook players over their abilities to handle component inventory, reports digitimes:
Currently, Samsung supplies around 55% of worldwide VGA RAM shipments, followed by SK Hynix at 35% and Micron Technology at 10%. Gaming notebook models in the price range of US$799-899 are usually equipped with Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 GPU, which uses four RAMs, while models priced between US$999-1,099 are mostly equipped with a GTX 1060 GPU, which uses six RAMs, and a GTX 1070 GPU needs eight. The higher-end the models, the higher costs they command.
The sources pointed out that solid state drive (SSD) prices had been rising during the past 12 months but are expected to stay flat or drop slightly in the third and the fourth quarters as Hynix’s transition to a newer-generation of manufacturing process is becoming stable.
Following the shift of part of its RAM capacity from the graphics card segment to the server segment, currently the server RAM accounts for 27% of Samsung’s overall RAM capacity, up significantly from 12% originally. Although Samsung is rumored to be expanding its VGA RAM capacity in the fourth quarter, the sources pointed out that the related product sales in the fourth quarter will still be seriously undermined as most of the production is done in the third quarter.
