Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI are rumoured to be preparing for another round of price hikes, but this time for motherboards. Word of the increase first swirled about on the Chinese forum, Board Channels, which is known for carrying news and rumours surrounding PC parts.
An exact number has yet to be determined, but the forum says that board partners for Intel and AMD could raise the prices for all motherboards by as much as 50% come Q3 2026, at the very least. The reasons given for the price increase addressed the cost of components like copper, surface-mount capacitors, power components, and controller chips.
Another reason for the price increase is due to the weakening demand in the DIY PC space. Because of the ongoing memory shortage, as well as the ever-increasing price of said components brought about by the boom and demand of AI, many folks looking to build their own rigs were deterred from moving forward.
The price of CPUs GPUs aside, the cost of both memory kits and PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 SSDs now costs almost as much as the primary components themselves. And if no one wants to purchase these components, there is little reason for them to purchase a motherboard too, which is why Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI, may have no choice but to increase their prices.
It also doesn’t help that CPU makers haven’t been on the offensive, giving consumers little reason to upgrade or to build a new PC. It’s a waste, given that Intel’s Core Ultra 200S got a boost of sorts with the launch of its 200S Plus CPUs, the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and Core Ultra 5 250K Plus. Meanwhile, over at team AMD, the chipmaker has been all over the place, refreshing its Zen 4 architecture with the Ryzen 7 7700X3D, as well as releasing the Zen 5-based Ryzen 7 9850X3D, which honestly isn’t all that more powerful than the currently existing 9800X3D.
In any case, we’ll just have to wait till the third quarter of this year to hear from the three major motherboard brands about the alleged price hikes.
(Source: Board Channels via Videocardz)
