The RAM Crisis Is Getting So Bad, AMD Is Bringing Back 4GB Graphics Cards
· IGN
It's no secret that memory prices have exploded in the last year, and it's causing everything using the stuff to go up in price. But now, seemingly to combat the rising prices and give people an option they can actually afford, AMD has launched a new graphics card, the Radeon RX 9050.
There are two versions of the RX 9050, an 8GB model launching at $279, that you can find on store shelves soon, and a 4GB model that'll be exclusive to OEM partners, according to Tom's Hardware. That means that the 4GB model will only be available in low-end pre-built gaming PCs. The 4GB version will also have a slower 64-bit memory bus, with memory bandwidth at just 288GB/s. So, not only is there not a lot of memory, it'll be quite slow too, which means more demanding PC games are going to struggle.
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But it's likely that most games are going to struggle on either version of the graphics card. Both versions of the Radeon RX 9050 have the same GPU, with 1,024 shading cores spread out across 16 Compute Units. For comparison's sake the Radeon RX 9060 XT has 32 compute units, and the Steam Machine has 28. No matter what, this will likely be limited to 1080p gaming, and even then you're going to have to settle for medium settings.
I've spotted several aftermarket variants of the Radeon RX 9050 from the likes of Powercolor, ASRock and Sapphire, but none of them are available to purchase quite yet. However, they'll likely make their way to Newegg or Amazon within a week. You can buy a pre-built gaming PC with the 4GB 9050, though. CyberpowerPC has a rig with the new card, paired with a Ryzen 5 5500 processor and 8GB of DDR4 for $889 at Best Buy.
However dire that looks, the RAM crisis probably isn't going to end any time soon. Even Valve spoke up earlier this month, claiming that the prices we see on store shelves is lagging behind supplier prices by a few months. And it's not just gaming PCs feeling the heat, the Xbox Series X is about to get its second price increase in less than a year thanks to AI data center demand, and Xbox CEO Asha Sharma expects things to get even worse.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra