HotGameNewsHOTGAMENEWS
Hardware

Why Your Next Gaming Gadget Costs More: TrendForce's Memory Forecast Explained

The price of DRAM and NAND is still rising in the third quarter, though more slowly. Here's the forecast and how it lines up with 2026's hardware price hikes.

September 4, 2026·Source: TrendForce

If it feels like every piece of gaming hardware got more expensive this year, there is a common thread: memory. Market analyst TrendForce published its third-quarter 2026 outlook on July 3, and it explains a lot about the year’s price hikes.

The forecast. TrendForce expects conventional DRAM contract prices to rise 13 to 18 percent quarter over quarter in 3Q26. NAND flash contract prices are forecast to rise 10 to 15 percent. Those are still increases, but the firm describes them as a slowdown from earlier quarters.

Why the slowdown. According to TrendForce, “Record-high contract prices mean customers from consumer markets, such as PCs and smartphones, are reaching their affordability limit.” In other words, high prices are starting to dampen demand for consumer products, even as AI server demand keeps supply tight. The firm says server DRAM remains undersupplied but that long-term supply agreements are moderating its price gains.

The gaming-specific details. For PCs, TrendForce says OEM inventory replenishment continues, with rising component costs expected to pressure shipment volumes. On graphics memory, it notes that Nvidia’s Blackwell has not generated the GDDR7 demand surge that had been anticipated, per TrendForce’s summary.

How it connects to hardware prices. Several companies have tied their own price moves to component costs:

  • Microsoft, announcing Xbox increases effective August 1, said “console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x” and that it expects “another doubling by the fall of 2027.” That is Microsoft’s own claim about its costs, not a TrendForce figure.
  • Valve said when it raised Steam Deck OLED prices in May that the new prices “reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole.”
  • Nintendo cited “various changes in market conditions, which are expected to extend over the medium to long term” for its Switch 2 increase.
  • Sony cited “continued pressures in the global economic landscape” when it raised PS5 prices in March. Sony did not name memory in the statement we retrieved.

What to watch. A slower rate of increase is not a price cut. Contract prices are still going up, just less steeply. Until memory supply loosens, expect hardware makers to keep pricing carefully, and expect fewer surprises to the upside only if demand really has hit its limit. TrendForce’s forecast covers one quarter; it does not predict when prices will come back down.