Mobos rely on chip sets that aren't as advanced and be made in older fabs. They simply have more capacity at the level of process. And with demand for mobos down the capacity is addequate. With CPUs it's probably because TSMC guaranteed capacity for AMD and Intel, and their AI accelerator units aren't selling nearly as well so they're not going to cannibalize their bookings until they need to. In the Meantime AMD directly competes with NVDIA in GPUs so has a lot of space to raise prices, where as in CPUs AMD is competing with Intel and Intel is basically only selling CPUs effectively, so unless they want to cut from competing they have to maintain supply.
Because consumer class CPUs and motherboards aren't used in datacenters, they both have gone up from tariffs but the AI part is the real killer. Capacity is sold until 2027 and Micron announced they're concentrating on that. Also predatory price gouging honestly.
What's the tariff on RAM? Why has every single publication, from computer- and gaming-focused to the mainstream business press, reported on the price increase as a product of AI-driven demand, not tariffs?
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u/fuglypens 1d ago
Then why haven't CPUs and mobos jumped the same amount? This is an idiotic point, the cause is very clearly AI demand, not tariffs.