Costly DRAM is Driving Up Graphics Card Prices

Are you planning to build a gaming PC for the summer? If so, you might want to get started early in order to get the most bang for your buck. Yesterday we told you that desktop DRAM pricing is on the rise as contract chip prices have already jumped 50 percent in 2013, spiking 20 percent in March alone, and now we’re hearing that graphics cards are getting more expensive.

Once again, you can blame memory chip makers. According to Digitimes and its sources within the graphics card business, several video card vendors have increased retail prices for products made with DDR3 memory in the DIY market. Prices are up 10-15 percent, the news and rumor site says.

Those same sources say it’s unlikely graphics card pricing will drop in the next six months, though it’s not all bad news. To help offset the rising retail costs, vendors are getting more aggressive in their promotions, some of which we’ve already seen. AMD, for example, has given away some sweet triple AAA titles as part of its ongoing Never Settle bundles. It’s been rumored that the next Never Settle bundle will include Battlefield 4.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Apple is doubling its built-to-order RAM configurations for new Mac minis, and likely iMacs

Apple will double its current built-to-order RAM configurations for the upcoming Mac minis, and perhaps the new iMacs according to sources familiar with the upcoming product releases. The current version of the iMac includes four RAM slots, and Apple’s top RAM configuration is four 4GB chips for a total of 16GB of RAM. The new iMac, however, will be sold with an options for 16GB of RAM across two chips (2 X 8GB) of RAM. Assuming that the new iMac retains 4 slots, users will be able to buy up to 32GB of iMac RAM from Apple. However, if not, it is still notable that Apple will be selling iMac RAM in pieces of 8GB chips for the first time. Up until this point, you could buy and use 8GB RAM chips from third parties for both the Mac mini and iMac.

[Source: 9to5Mac - Click here to read the full story]