Singapore PC prices surge 40% amid memory and parts shortage due to AI infrastructure demand

With skyrocketing global AI demand, manufacturers are shifting computer memory production towards demand from businesses building AI infrastructure, said Ho. This is due to the much higher profit margins they can make from such sales as opposed to sales to PC vendors. And the shift has a knock-on effect on the prices of laptops and desktops that also need RAM.

Consumers upgrading or replacing just their computer’s RAM contend with sharp price spikes too.

Checks by The Straits Times at tech mall Sim Lim Square found that the average price of a 32GB dual-channel DDR5 RAM, a type of high-end computer memory, rose to almost fourfold from $195 in August 2025 to $763 about a year later.

Storage in general has also become more costly, partly because manufacturers prioritise enterprise and data centre demands over consumers, said Ho.

ST’s check found that, on average, a 1TB internal SSD used in computers more than doubled in price from $149 in August 2025 to $328 in August 2026. Meanwhile, a 4TB internal hard disk drive went from $205 to $336 on average over the same period, a 64 per cent jump.

ST also found that Nvidia’s 5060 series of graphics cards with 8GB of RAM went from $572 to $824 on average, a 44 per cent uptick. Graphics cards are used for rendering more intensive computer graphics.

A decline in the supply of a specialised computer memory used in graphics cards throughout the first half of 2026 has affected prices of graphics cards for consumers, said IDC.

“With major graphics card makers reportedly planning further price increases for their respective product lines in the last six months of 2026, this could push PC prices up further,” said Ho.

“Any meaningful easing on PC prices is more likely a story for 2028 and beyond rather than in the near term,” he added.

For now, soaring PC prices have given consumers another reason to tighten their belts. This comes amid broader economic jitters and global tensions that have already softened consumer spending, four retailers at Sim Lim Square told ST.

This has meant that PC sales are down 20 per cent to 80 per cent for them in 2026 compared with 2025.

John Soroya, owner of R Zech Laptop, whose sales of new and refurbished computers plummeted 80 per cent, said: “It’s very, very difficult. Sometimes we cannot cover our rent.”

A Fuwell sales representative, who said sales were affected by “quite a lot”, added that the store is relying on corporate clients and regular customers. Some die-hard enthusiasts who need the best and the latest will bite the bullet and buy computer parts even at their current elevated prices, he noted.

Other shoppers are taking a wait-and-see approach.

Bizgram sales assistant Bryan Fun said that two to three months ago, some customers still bought higher-priced computers, fearing they would get even more expensive.

But with prices at the highest they have ever been now, some are unsure where prices will go and are waiting, hoping that they will drop in 2027, he said.

There is more bad news. Fun received word from suppliers that the prices of motherboards – the main circuit board linking other PC components together – increased by about 10 per cent in September.

One consumer sitting on the fence is Bryan Ang, 38, who works in the IT industry. He was planning to buy a new PC, but after seeing how much prices have risen, he is undecided. “I’m not sure whether it’s actually a good time to buy now or if I should wait a bit to see whether prices will go down.”