- MSI’s CEO called 2026 “the most challenging year since the company was founded.”
- The RAM crisis is hitting the laptop maker hard, and it’s cutting production of low-end laptops by 30%.
- There’s better news elsewhere as DDR5 RAM prices appear to be falling in Europe – but not as much
The RAM crisis is once again putting unwanted pressure on the broader PC market, although slightly more optimistic news comes to us regarding memory prices in Europe.
The dose of pessimism comes from MSI, which will increase the prices of its “gaming products” by around 15 to 30% this year. That’s what Chief Executive Officer Huang Jinqing said during a recent earnings call, according to a report from Taiwan’s United Daily News (via Tom’s Hardware).
The increases are due to the RAM shortage, as well as GPU supply issues from Nvidia – we’re told there’s a 20% shortfall in securing stocks of the latter.
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The result is that MSI will cut its low-end gaming laptops by 30%, so it can focus more on mid-range and high-end PCs. The simple equation for maintaining revenue is to sell fewer devices at higher prices.
Huang said that the PC industry is facing serious challenges and that: “This year is the most difficult year since the company was founded” (text translated from Chinese).
In addition to changing laptop priorities, MSI is changing its motherboards to favor models that support DDR4 memory. While previously four times as many DDR5 motherboards were shipped as DDR4, this situation has completely reversed, so that the old standard is now rolling off production lines in four times the quantities of DDR5 cards. It’s a pretty remarkable turnaround.
Analysis: difficult times despite some glimmers of hope
As noted at the start, VideoCardz noticed another update from German tech site 3D Center, which monitors RAM prices in Germany, and observes that the price of DDR5 memory fell about 7% in March compared to February.
So this seems quite positive, and this also echoes other observations from the European market last month. However, lest we get carried away, let’s remember that DDR5 RAM still costs quadruple its price compared to the September 2025 price, according to 3D Center’s price monitoring. It’s just that it has declined slightly, after plateauing from January to February this year.
Obviously, it’s good to see any sort of downward correction – or even just to see the price of RAM not increasing – but there is, of course, a limit to how much prices can rise before most consumers throw their hands up in the air and (rightly) simply refuse to buy. Unless they have absolutely no choice.
And elsewhere, we’re hearing darker news about RAM increases, and as MSI makes clear, all of this – and supply issues related to video memory for GPUs – is making life very difficult for PC makers (or even those building a new computer themselves). We’ve heard as much before from HP and other major laptop makers, of course.
However, calling 2026 the “hardest year” is quite a statement, given that the 2020 pandemic was a very difficult time for the market (and this isn’t the first time we’ve heard this sentiment in the tech industry this year).
Huang predicts a 10% to 20% decline in PC sales this year, while analyst firms are predicting a 10% decline for 2026. That’s the best-case scenario for MSI’s CEO, which is troubling to say the least, as is the fact that the budget side of the PC market is going to be hit the hardest.
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