- Samsung and Kingston are increasing SSD prices according to a report from China
- We’re told there will be a “price increase of at least 10% for solid state drives”
- On top of that, AMD Ryzen CPUs have apparently gone up in price in Japan
SSD prices are reportedly set for another increase, and we’re hearing news about CPUs increasing as well.
Wccftech uncovered a report from Chinese tech site IT Home stating that Samsung and Kingston “have notified their distribution channels of a price increase of at least 10% for solid state drives.”
We’re told this comes from a source in the supply chain, and Samsung has apparently notified three major national distributors about this price increase which takes effect now.
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As Wccftech makes clear, we’ve already seen price increases on high-end SSDs from Samsung and Western Digital earlier this month, applied as stealth increases that amount to doubling the cost for some models (the really big drives).
Wccftech also noted significant price increases for AMD Ryzen processors in the Japanese market, as stated in a report by PC Watch.
The current-gen Zen 5 lineup has been hit by price increases of between 40% and 50% in some cases, with the biggest increases affecting the Ryzen 7 9700X (up 57%) and Ryzen 9 9900X (up 37%).
Several Ryzen 9000 models have received increases of around 20% in Japan, including the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which is a popular choice for PC gamers (and is up 22%).
These price increases also extend to older AMD processors, with some Ryzen 7000 models rising significantly, led by the 7800X3D, the predecessor of the 9800X3D, subject to a 41% increase.
Analysis: a broader sign of things to come
Those are some seriously nasty CPU price increases, make no mistake, but it’s no surprise that processors are getting more expensive. This has been going on for a while, although the increases have been relatively timid compared to RAM and storage.
However, this is the first time really worrying increases have been seen in CPUs, and while it’s limited to the Japanese market, there’s a chance we’ll see a similar trajectory with prices elsewhere. Let’s put it this way: I wouldn’t bet against this being a broader sign of bad things to come, although it could still prove to be a more localized problem for Japanese retailers.
As for SSDs, assuming the supply chain sourcing is correct (and of course we should properly season all of these reports), SSDs will likely continue to become more expensive around the world, not just in Asia. This is supported by a recent forecast from analyst firm TrendForce, which believes that NAND flash storage could see a price increase of around 75% quarter-on-quarter.
The outlook for SSD prices is suitably bleak, there’s no way around it, and the same goes for RAM, where TrendForce predicts increases of around 60%.
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