Acer Chairman and CEO Jason Chen warns that PC prices could rise 5% to 20% in Q4 2026, with average selling prices peaking around mid-2027. While DDR4 and DDR5 memory are no longer in short supply, Memory and SSD costs remain high, meaning systems with more RAM or storage will see bigger increases. Chen notes suppliers continue pushing through price increases he considers hard to justify, and he does not expect the shortage to last until 2030 as some industry analysts claim.

Chinese giants CXMT and YMTC are expanding production, but capacity is still ramping up. Buyers should expect a rough near term regardless, with Trend Force forecasting DRAM contract prices to rise 13% to 18% in Q3 2026 and NAND by 10% to 15%. AMD is also reportedly planning a 10% increase on GPUs and chipsets.

If Chen is right, cheaper PCs are probably more than a year away. With these comments in mind, if you were planning a new system or upgrade, buying before Q4 pricing kicks in is probably the safer bet.