Earlie
r this month, reports began to surface that vendors would be increasing the retail pricing of graphics cards by 10 to 15 percent due to the rising cost of DRAMs, specifically DDR3 memory. These predictions have now been corroborated from DRAMExchange who noted that in the second half of March 2013, the average price for 4 GB and 2 GB of DDR3 has increased to $23.50 and $14.00, a respective increase of 2.17 percent and 1.82 percent.
DRAMExchange forecasted that the increase will continue through April, the upward momentum will strengthen as OEMs maintain DRAM inventory, and that it is not unlikely for a 4 GB DDR3 module to approach the $30 mark.
On the supply side of the equation, DigiTimes reported that Samsung has made efforts to accelerate its mobile DRAM production due to higher-than-expected demand for the Galaxy S4, which was led to a widened product gap for PC DRAM chips. Due in part to the 6.1 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan and Apple's rumored plan to release more than one phone this year, the tightened DRAM supply situation is expected to further worsen in Q3 and Q4 2013.
