Explained: Why you may have to pay more for laptops, desktops in 2022 – Times of India

The manufacturing costs are set to go up

Taiwan-based semiconductor TSMC has announced that the manufacturing costs for chips used in PCs, laptops is set to rise. What this means is that the hardware used in PCs will cost more, TSMC said that its 7nm and 5nm manufacturing processes will see an increase of about 10-20% in costs, according to a report by Digitimes. TSMC is a major supplier to the likes of AMD, Intel, Nvidia — the big companies behind the CPUs and GPUs found in personal computers.

Why are the costs expected to go up?

A multiple factors are behind the expected increase in prices. The material costs are set to go up whereas the pandemic has led to shortages on several fronts. The report says that TSMC expects logistics and freight charges also to go up in 2022.

Which companies will be affected the most?

AMD, Nvidia and Intel. The report by Digitimes reveals that AMD’s Zen 2 and Zen 3 processors will cost more whereas its 6000 GPU series will also cost more. Similarly, Nvidia’s next-gen RTX-40 GPU series will also cost more to manufacture. GPU prices have been on the rise for a while now and it looks like there’s no stopping the hike. Intel also relies on TSMC quite a lot so it is expected that the US-based tech giant will also be affected.

What does it mean for the consumers?

With manufacturing costs going up, companies like Intel, AMD, Nvidia are likely to pass it on to laptop brands and that means consumers will have to pay more. The Digitimes report expects a 20% hike in the cost of hardware, which means consumers might have to shell more for a new laptop or desktop than they did in 2021.