With a worldwide surge in memory demand driven by artificial intelligence (AI), prices are showing signs of soaring for graphics processing units (GPUs) as well, following PC DRAM and SSDs.
ZOTAC Korea, the domestic unit of Hong Kong-based hardware maker ZOTAC, said on the 27th in a notice on its online shop that "the current situation is so serious that it raises concerns about the survival of future graphics card manufacturers and distributors," adding, "the prices we have recently received are outrageous, and the increase is tremendous not only for the (RTX) 5090 but also for the 5060."
ZOTAC Korea also noted the view that "personally, it is worrisome that, other than GPUs that Samsung can manufacture, it may be impossible to secure a stable supply going forward."
It also said it would temporarily adjust shopping mall reward points paid to purchasing customers to 0% in an effort to keep supply prices as low as possible.
Despite rising RAM prices, consumer GPU prices—which had seen little change for a while, like the calm before the storm—have actually surged since mid-month.
According to DANAWA, a PC parts price comparison site, for NVIDIA's entry-level graphics card RTX 5060 Ti, Gigabyte's VRAM 8GB model rose 16%, from 598,000 won at last month's end on a lowest-price basis to 690,000 won as of today.
For the top-spec consumer model that is also often used for work, the RTX 5090, the increase is far larger. ASUS's VRAM 32GB model climbed more than 50%, from the 5 million won range at the end of last year to the 7.5 million won range as of this month.
The rise in DRAM prices took hold last year as growing AI data center demand swallowed up global memory supply.
This is because memory makers such as Samsung and SK hynix focused on industrial memory production, reducing the supply of general PC DRAM.
Samsung Electronics' DDR5 16GB RAM, which sold in the 60,000 won range as of January last year, is now being sold on online shops and elsewhere at prices approaching 400,000 won.
For SSDs, semiconductor-based storage devices, the price of Samsung Electronics' 990 PRO 2TB model rose from the 200,000 won range to 540,000 won.
There are even views that the unprecedented rise in hardware prices will hit the overall PC gaming market.
IDC, a market research firm, said in a report released in Dec. last year that due to the fallout from memory shortages, the PC market, which had expanded every year, could shrink by up to 8.9% in 2026.