It's not just graphics cards that have become a luxury item—now the entire PC market is starting to show signs of strain. This is according to figures from Amazon in the U.S., which indicate that processor sales have plummeted by a full 47% compared to the same period last year, in what can best be described as the beginning of a collapse for the PC industry.
The report states that:
"In fact, over the past three months, Amazon US has sold 47% of processors—slightly less than half—compared to the same period last year. Even though Amazon's statistics haven't been tracked for very long and were somewhat inconsistent, especially at the beginning, this discrepancy is now quite evident"
The culprit is the skyrocketing prices of RAM and NAND, which in many places have increased by several hundred percent. A completely unsustainable situation for those looking to build computers, where memory and storage now cost several times more than other components. It's therefore not surprising that people are holding on tighter to what they already have, looking at older components, or simply ignoring upgrades altogether.
In short, budget builds have become the new norm, a trend reflected in the fact that many older processors have become the most popular in stores worldwide. In other words, the AI boom continues to stifle the consumer hardware market, and according to several analysts, this situation will unfortunately persist, and may even worsen.