This could be another disappointing year for consumers who are planning to get gaming laptops, PCs. TSMC, the semiconductor maker is reportedly raising prices for its silicon which means CPUs and GPUs will be more expensive.
According to DigiTimes, TSMC has informed its biggest customers, including NVIDIA and AMD, that the price of their chips will be increased by up to 20 percent. The report states that the price of the processor will increase significantly due to ‘increased foundry cost’. The price hike is said to have a serious impact on chipsets built on sub-7nm process nodes. Obviously, the company is affected by a number of factors, including the chipset shortage plague, material costs, and freight and logistics.
Tom’s Hardware explains that the prices of products from tech giants AMD, Intel and NVIDIA will be affected. The outlet states that the 7nm and 5nm transistors that AMD uses from TSMC for its Zen 2-4 architecture will “inevitably be affected” because of the price hike.
NVIDIA is said to have already paid the company to secure its 5nm capacity that will be used to make its RTX 40 series cards. The company has reportedly called off its partnership with Samsung for silicon. Talking about Intel, it is said that the company is building new chip fab sites which will cost billions of dollars. According to Tom’s Hardware, some of its chips are already manufactured by TSMC.
Even Apple, TSMC’s biggest and long-term customer, has agreed to hike prices. The iPhone maker is said to have agreed to the terms of ‘Secure Wafer Starts’ for its next-gen A16 chipset. According to reports, the company has ordered 150,000 4nm chips for its new SoC.
While global chip shortages and supply chain issues are already having an impact on product prices, TSMC’s new plan is likely to push the price up further. 2021 hasn’t been good for PC gaming, and a hike in the price of CPUs and GPUs will only exacerbate the situation this year.
Buying your next gaming laptop, PC will be expensive
