CES 2026 proved the PC business is hosed this yr

Dell’s XPS 14 currently costs over $2,000. An AMD govt predicts that PC builders will seemingly make piecemeal upgrades this yr, as a substitute of constructing completely new techniques. 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 business, one that may seemingly result in greater costs and extra restricted availability for client 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 should have an effect on everybody. Costs are going up at the same time as we communicate.”

At first, it appeared that Dell’s new XPS 14 and XPS 16 had been among the many earliest techniques hit by these calls for. Final yr’s fashions began at $1,699 and $1,899, respectively, and we had been initially advised the brand new fashions would really are available in cheaper at $1,650 and $1,850. For the time being, the XPS 14 begins at $2,050, whereas the XPS 16 is $2,200. A Dell consultant tells us these aren’t entry-level configurations, as a substitute we are able to count on to see cheaper techniques under $2,000 in February. Whereas these costs haven’t been finalized, the reps say it needs to be just like the sooner figures we got.

It’s additionally price noting that it did not take a lot to configure the sooner fashions upwards of $2,000. It’s simply unlucky that Dell doesn’t have cheaper configurations obtainable for the launch if its new techniques, particularly since they give the impression of being so compelling. In the meantime, Apple nonetheless hasn’t budged its $1,599 MacBook Professional 14-inch pricing. Not less than 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 could be a boon for avid gamers, since they will improve their CPUs with out shopping for new RAM kits and motherboards. That enables for a pathway to higher efficiency with out paying out the nostril for over-priced RAM.

“I believe that can be doubtlessly a development 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 retailers. “A number of the hottest CPUs which can be nonetheless operating in avid gamers’ platforms are elements just like the 2600 again to the Pinnacle Ridge days, or 3000 collection… Stepping even from there into slightly bit extra fashionable 5,000 collection 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 is not 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 worth will increase. “I believe 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 characteristic 3D V-cache, really 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 concerning 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 business forward of CES. Maybe they had been hoping issues would settle down earlier than they needed to worth their new techniques. Finally, 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 effectively, introduced its new Helios AI rack, which helps as much as 31TB of reminiscence throughout 72 AMD Intuition MI455X GPUs. Given the limitless urge for food for computing to energy AI mannequin constructing and inferencing, there’s seemingly going to be a major demand for these beastly techniques.

Put merely: Our international provide of reminiscence is being sacrificed to appease the AI business. That’s excellent news for the likes of OpenAI, Microsoft and NVIDIA, however unhealthy information for anybody who cares about PCs and the buyer merchandise we use day-after-day. Prepare for a yr of worth hikes.

Replace 1/12, 3:00p: Added a point out of decrease entry-level configurations coming finally.