CES 2026 proved the PC trade is hosed this yr

Dell’s XPS 14 now prices over $2,000. An AMD govt predicts that PC builders will possible make piecemeal upgrades this yr, as an alternative of constructing completely new methods. And new AI supercomputers from NVIDIA and AMD are gobbling up the RAM market. At CES 2026, it was exhausting to not discover the dire yr forward for the computing trade, one that may possible result in increased costs and extra restricted availability for shopper items throughout the board.

Actually, although, the present simply confirmed what was obvious since RAM prices skyrocketed over the last few months, pushed by demand from AI datacenters. As Samsung’s advertising chief, Wonjin Lee, told Bloomberg at CES: “There’s going to be points round semiconductor provides, and it’ll have an effect on everybody. Costs are going up at the same time as we converse.”

Dell’s new XPS 14 and XPS 16 are among the many earliest methods hit by these calls for. Final yr’s fashions began at $1,699 and $1,899, respectively, and we have been initially informed the brand new fashions would truly are available cheaper at $1,650 and $1,850. However Dell later introduced a stunning value soar: The XPS 14 now begins at $2,050, whereas the XPS 16 is $2,200.

Whereas it did not take a lot to configure the sooner fashions upwards of $2,000, it is genuinely wild to me that the entry-level fashions are already beginning there. And in the meantime, Apple nonetheless hasn’t budged its $1,599 MacBook Professional 14-inch pricing. At the very least Dell nonetheless is available in cheaper than the $2,499 MacBook Professional 16-inch.

On the desktop entrance, AMD’s David McAfee, Company Vice President and GM of Consumer Channel Enterprise, famous that the longevity of the corporate’s AM4 and AM5 platforms may be a boon for players, since they’ll improve their CPUs with out shopping for new RAM kits and motherboards. That enables for a pathway to raised efficiency with out paying out the nostril for over-priced RAM.

“I feel that might be doubtlessly a pattern that we see in 2026 with extra part upgrades, versus full system swap outs and, and altogether rebuilds,” he mentioned in a gaggle interview with Engadget and different shops. “A few of the hottest CPUs which might be nonetheless operating in players’ platforms are elements just like the 2600 again to the Pinnacle Ridge days, or 3000 sequence… Stepping even from there into a little bit bit extra fashionable 5,000 sequence processors in an AM4 socket and motherboard, there’s a reasonably large enhance there.”

McAfee added that round 30 to 40 % of AMD’s enterprise nonetheless revolves across the AM4 platform, even with out the specter of a wild reminiscence market.

“There isn’t any product that has reminiscence in it that is proof against a few of these forces round DRAM pricing and, and what it is doing to the market,” he mentioned, when requested about potential GPU value will increase. “I feel the, the reality is the volatility that we have seen over the previous two months or so has actually been unprecedented.”

Trying forward, he mentioned he expects costs to settle throughout the first three to 6 months of the yr, however he did not focus on his reasoning additional. As an apart, he additionally famous that AMD’s X3D chips, which function 3D V-cache, truly do not see a lot of a success from slower RAM. Their excessive quantities of onboard L2 and L3 cache make up for much less ultimate reminiscence switch speeds, McAfee mentioned.

That McAfee commented in any respect in regards to the state of RAM is noteworthy. Each PC maker I’ve requested, together with Dell and Acer, refused to touch upon the unstable state of the reminiscence trade forward of CES. Maybe they have been hoping issues would settle down earlier than they needed to value their new methods. In the end, they’re beholden to an more and more restricted provide of RAM.

And the place is all that reminiscence going? At CES, NVIDIA introduced its new Vera Rubin AI supercomputer, which helps as much as 54TB of RAM throughout 36 Vera CPUs and 20.7TB of reminiscence throughout 72 GPUs. AMD, as nicely, introduced its new Helios AI rack, which helps as much as 31TB of reminiscence throughout 72 AMD Intuition MI455X GPUs. Given the countless urge for food for computing to energy AI mannequin constructing and inferencing, there’s possible going to be a big demand for these beastly methods.

Put merely: Our world provide of reminiscence is being sacrificed to appease the AI trade. That’s excellent news for the likes of OpenAI, Microsoft and NVIDIA, however dangerous information for anybody who cares about PCs and the buyer merchandise we use daily. Prepare for a yr of value hikes.