- Asus RX 9070 XT GPUs have been hit with a sudden price hike in the US
- Framework has warned that while memory costs have stabilized in some areas, this is likely just a temporary reprieve
- The laptop maker predicts that "We'll continue to see volatility and cost increases through the rest of 2026."
There's been a fresh round of price rises for PC components, and that includes price hikes for certain Radeon GPUs, as well as more RAM and storage-related unpleasantness.
We'll start with the graphics cards. VideoCardz noticed that Asus RX 9070 XT models have become more expensive at the firm's US store.
For example, the Asus Prime 9070 XT OC was previously $799.99 and has now been jacked up to $939.99, which represents a hefty increase of 17.5%. The newer white model of this graphics card has gone up by 7% and will now set you back $959.99.
The Asus TUF overclocked take on the 9070 XT is up by 16.5%, meaning the GPU now tips the scales at $989.99, very nearly a grand.
There's been no official announcement from Asus regarding any rising prices, and these hikes have been applied overnight, worryingly.
On top of that, modular laptop and PC manufacturer Framework has announced more RAM and SSD price increases (hat tip to Tom's Hardware), albeit these are not as painful as we've previously witnessed.
The Framework Laptop has seen a price increase for the prebuilt model with 64GB of DDR5 RAM, although there is some more positive news with lower CPU pricing (this is down to its original level for some configurations).
With the Framework Desktop PC, the company notes that it has absorbed RAM cost increases save for the 128GB model, which has had a price hike.
On the storage front, it says new SSDs the company is buying have "substantially higher costs" and to begin with, this means the 4TB version of the WD SN850X is more expensive – and other drives are likely to be soon.
Framework adds: "Our advice here is still that if you need high capacity storage, you should configure a system with it now while we still have inventory at the older, lower cost basis."
Analysis: a temporary reprieve?
Despite the fact that some cost increases have been absorbed, and the latest round of hikes is relatively limited, Framework cautions against getting comfortable with any notion that things might be calming down with regard to the memory crisis. The manufacturer warns: "We have seen costs stabilize in some areas, but all indications are that this is a temporary reprieve and that we'll continue to see volatility and cost increases through the rest of 2026."
There have been glimmers of hope regarding a RAM reprieve elsewhere of late, too — albeit mainly based on the cost of memory getting so high that consumer demand is seriously flagging — but those hints have been weighed down with similar caveats.
The Asus GPU price hikes are more alarming here, though, as they represent some swiftly applied increases, pushing the Radeon 9070 XT graphics card up over the $900 mark for a basic model. That said, this isn't representative of the overall market for AMD's 9070 XT in the US, as you can still get this GPU (at the entry level) for not much more than $700 (at least for some models).
However, is this an early signal that we might see other board makers also increase their 9070 XT asking prices? Possibly — that is very much the worry here, and we shouldn't forget that a few months ago, back at the start of the year in the US, you could still get these AMD GPUs for around the $600 mark, which certainly isn't the case now.
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