‘It’s not just about RAM and SSD anymore’: XMG highlights component cost increases across the board as laptop prices rise, and Nvidia GPUs could also be affected
- XMG has announced price increases for its laptops due to the increase in component costs
- Laptop maker notes DDR5 RAM for laptops now costs about 6 times the price it did before the memory crisis
- We also hear that Micron has pulled the plug on its 2GB GDDR7 modules, and Nvidia’s VRAM supply could be affected by this.
Unfortunately, the RAM crisis continues and faces us with new pricing problems, and that includes new increases in laptops and a hint that Nvidia’s GPUs could be in another trouble spot.
VideoCardz spotted the development with laptops, as manufacturer
Some laptop upgrades have also become more expensive, with a €120 premium on an RTX 5090 configuration, and as XMG noted: “The reason [for the price rises] is another increase in purchasing costs. It’s no longer just about RAM and SSD: PCBs, electronic components, CPUs, graphics cards and video memories also contribute to the higher level of costs.”
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In other words, everything is subject to price inflation, including the motherboard and associated chips, as well as the key components mentioned.
XMG highlighted data pulled from Geizhals (which tracks German retail prices) showing that DDR5 RAM for laptops is about 6 times the price it was before the memory shortage began (in mid-2025).
The laptop maker also made it clear that discrete GPUs and GDDR7 video memory have become more expensive, as have the prices of the AMD and Intel laptop processors.
Also on the topic of GPUs, Wccftech reports that another slight concern is that Micron no longer manufactures the 2GB GDDR7 video RAM modules used in some Nvidia RTX 5000 GPUs.
Uniko’s Hardware noted this news in a post on
The micron gddr7 28gbps 2gb d8fhl (MT68A512M32DF-28:A) chip used in some RTX50 cards has reached the end of its life. In fact, all of the 2GB micron g7 chips listed on their website are now operational, leaving only 3GB options available. pic.twitter.com/ltj6Sab6MfSeptember 22, 2026
Since Micron apparently no longer supplies Nvidia with those 2GB modules, that means a further restriction on the availability of video memory for RTX 5000 graphics cards, at least in theory. This could affect stock levels and put a little more pressure on prices (which are already rising rapidly).
Analysis: even more pressure
We need to season the claims about Micron here, as this is not a definitive statement from the company itself and, more to the point, it is just a minor supplier of Nvidia’s gaming GPUs. Team Green sources most of its GDDR7 from Samsung and SK Hynix, so the impact here should be relatively mild.
However, I would say that any impact is bad news given the current rapidly worsening climate for GPUs, particularly those from Nvidia, which are rising at a dizzying rate for some models. The RTX 5090 has become completely ridiculous, the RTX 5080 is also out of control, and even the RTX 5070 is now feeling the pricing pressure, with a 30% price increase compared to two months ago in the US (and a similar picture elsewhere).
So even small additional pressures won’t really help Nvidia’s GeForce GPUs here.
As for laptop price increases, this is a sign of RAM supply times, and XMG is following other manufacturers that have had to increase prices (like Dell, for example, which just increased the XPS 13 indirectly).
It’s a commendable level of transparency from XMG here, and the company makes it clear that it won’t make any additional profit from these laptop price increases. XMG also noted that other factors are at play with rising costs for laptop manufacturers, and that includes rising air freight costs (due to conflicts in the Middle East) and also difficulties with sea shipping.
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