Getting a new PC next year could prove to be an expensive venture for consumers out there, as IDC estimates that the supply chain will witness a widespread "price hike" wave.
PC Shipments Could See a Drastic Decline in 2026, as the Memory Supercycle Is Set to Disrupt the Supply Chain
The memory supercycle is turning out to be a nightmare for PC gamers, especially those looking to build an entire system in current times. RAM prices have skyrocketed in the past few weeks, and at the same time, GPU manufacturers like AMD and NVIDIA are looking to raise prices of their respective products, following the rising costs of general-purpose DRAM. In their 2026 market analysis, IDC has provided an outlook on the future of PC gaming, and based on their comments, it appears that next year could be challenging for the PC gaming community.
The timing of the memory shortage creates a perfect storm for the PC industry, colliding with the Microsoft Windows 10 end-of-life refresh cycle and the AI PC marketing push.
PC vendors are signalling broad price increases as cost pressures intensify into H2 2026. Lenovo, Dell, HP, Acer and ASUS have warned clients of tougher conditions ahead, confirming 15-20% hikes and contract resets as an industry-wide response.
- IDC
IDC expects PC market shipments to decline by 4.9% moving into next year, with a disclaimer stating that this drop could increase if the memory situation worsens in the future. More importantly, another interesting point mentioned by IDC is that larger OEMs are expected to gain market share in the industry, compared to local vendors that often DIY systems, since they could offer pre-built systems with "attractive value", forcing gamers to ultimately adopt a complete system, instead of buying individual components. Hence, the custom PC venture could also become significantly more expensive next year.
To top it all, the 'AI PC' hype will also slow down next year, given that on-device AI features such as Copilot+ require having higher RAM configurations onboard, and the memory supply constraints will ultimately force manufacturers to take a step back with edge AI. We recently discussed how mid-tier laptops are projected to use 8 GB memory as the standard, given that memory shortages won't allow manufacturers to maintain pricing as well as higher RAM configurations onboard.
Judging by the reports in the past few months, 2026 could be one of the more 'troublesome' years to buy new PC components, and it could even surpass the COVID-19 and crypto-mining era troubles, in terms of the intensity of supply chain disruptions.
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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