A few weeks ago, HP explained that the shortage of memory chips led to an increase of approximately 100% in prices between the first and second quarters. Memory (RAM and storage) thus represents more than a third of the price of a PC.
It is now the turn of Huang Jinqing, general manager of MSI, to come out of the woodwork on this subject, as reported by TomsHardware.com: “ This year is the most difficult since the founding of the company “. He adds that MSI plans to increase the prices of its gaming products by 15 to 30% in 2026, he adds during an investor conference.
Still according to our colleagues, MSI would have a deficit of 20% on GPU supplies from NVIDIA and therefore predicts that the PC market should contract by 10 to 20% this year. At MSI, this situation results in a change in its product ranges.
According to our colleagues and the manager’s statements, the brand should focus more on the mid- and high-end range for players, rather than the entry-level. To simplify, sell less, but at a higher price to limit the loss in revenue.
In order to limit the cost of memory, the manufacturer is also focusing on DDR4 instead of DDR5. If both are hit hard by the increases caused by the shortage, the first remains less expensive than the second. This is demonstrated, for example, by the recent launch of two AM4 motherboards in DDR4, compatible with AMD processors up to Ryzen 5000.
