AMD may raise the price of graphics memory used in its Radeon graphics cards, according to market speculation. The industry is focusing on the possibility that higher component prices due to a memory supply shortage could also affect prices of graphics cards and gaming PCs.

TechRadar reported on July 1 local time that AMD is said to be considering raising prices for graphics memory kits for Radeon GPUs by about 10 percent as early as July.

The information surfaced after VideoCardz cited a post uploaded to Board Channels, a Chinese hardware community board.

According to the post, AMD plans to raise prices for graphics memory kits installed in Radeon graphics cards, and add-in-board manufacturing partners such as Sapphire and Asus may end up absorbing higher component costs. That could also lead to higher retail prices for consumers, the post said.

The post cited a shortage of graphics memory supply as the reason for the increase. It said global supply of graphics memory chips is currently tight and market prices are continuing to rise. That suggests rising memory prices could lift GPU production costs and affect overall graphics card prices. AMD has not officially confirmed the matter so far.

The industry is also noting that the move is not limited to AMD. Recent memory price increases are a phenomenon across the broader PC hardware market, affecting prices of various components including graphics cards.

The market is already facing a heavy burden from graphics card prices. Nvidia's RTX series is maintaining demand on the back of DLSS upscaling and ray tracing performance despite high prices, and there are also assessments that AMD Radeon products are no longer as price-competitive as they used to be.

If memory prices rise as well, consumers' upgrade burden could grow further. TechRadar said AMD's price increase has not been decided yet, but consumers considering a GPU purchase need to closely watch changes in market pricing.

By contrast, the prebuilt PC market could become relatively more competitive. Some retailers are aggressively discounting gaming PCs through offers such as Independence Day discounts. Best Buy is selling iBUYPOWER's Slate Intel Arc B570 gaming PC for $899.99.

The product was introduced as offering performance sufficient to run games smoothly at 1080p and 1440p resolutions with 16GB of DDR5 memory and an Intel Arc B570 GPU. With Intel's XeSS upscaling technology also continuing to improve performance, some analysis suggests that if standalone GPU prices keep rising, prebuilt PCs could become a relatively attractive option.

Ultimately, the industry sees the key variable as how long the graphics memory supply crunch will last, rather than AMD's price increase itself.

If the memory shortage persists, it could lead to higher prices across the graphics card market as a whole, including Nvidia as well as AMD. That has led to expectations that consumers will need to watch AMD's official announcements along with price changes across major retail channels.