DigiTimes reports that the RAMs used in graphics cards have risen to US$8.50, up by 30.8% from US$6.50 in July. Both Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have allocated part of their VGA RAM production capacities to producing memories for servers and handsets.

Sources from the upstream supply chain expect the pricing to go even higher in September and the shortages will pose a great challenge to graphics card and gaming notebook players over their abilities to handle component inventory.

Currently, Samsung supplies around 55% of worldwide VGA RAM shipments, followed by SK Hynix at 35% and Micron Technology at 10%.

Gaming notebook models in the price range of US$799-899 are usually equipped with Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1050 GPU, which uses four RAMs, while models priced between US$999-1,099 are mostly equipped with a GTX 1060 GPU, which uses six RAMs, and a GTX 1070 GPU needs eight. The higher-end the models, the higher costs they command.

  VGA RAM prices hike over 30% in August