Question Is the cost of RAM going up everywhere?

[mikeymikec]

About 12 months ago, I bought Kingston Fury 8GB DDR4-3200 modules for £15 (UKP) a pop. Now it translates through to £33 (the 8GB module isn't available on its own from my normal supplier, so I divided the price of the 16GB pack by 2).

I've checked around other UK suppliers and there definitely seems to be a trend. There's talk about the demand for AI driving up prices of NAND (which I'm seeing too, just not as drastic), but I would have thought that DDR4 memory chips wouldn't have been affected by that. I checked DDR5 prices this morning in the hope that the rising DDR4 prices were a sign that it was time to move my baseline PC builds onto DDR5 tech, but no, they're higher still.

 

[zir_blazer]

Yes. Is on the news.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Prices keep climbing. Since the first mining boom, it has been one bubble after another screwing this hobby over. Get complacent and think prices can only go down or stay static and you take the L. That's why I stocked up on DDR4 when it was dirt cheap and I was getting primo 32GB kits of 4000MT/s and higher for $50 shipped in for sale forums.

However, if one of my CL30 6000 sticks fails I'll RMA and game on Zen 3 3D until it comes back, as I don't have backups of DDR5. But using a 5800X3D system as backup was the plan from the time I started eyeing the AM5 build.

 

[Golgatha]

About 12 months ago, I bought Kingston Fury 8GB DDR4-3200 modules for £15 (UKP) a pop. Now it translates through to £33 (the 8GB module isn't available on its own from my normal supplier, so I divided the price of the 16GB pack by 2).

I've checked around other UK suppliers and there definitely seems to be a trend. There's talk about the demand for AI driving up prices of NAND (which I'm seeing too, just not as drastic), but I would have thought that DDR4 memory chips would have been affected by that. I checked DDR5 prices this morning in the hope that the rises DDR4 prices were a sign that it was time to move my baseline PC builds onto DDR5 tech, but no, they're higher still.

DDR4 is going up mainly due to production cuts. DDR5 is going up because datacenters are hoovering up the supply and also because memory manufacturers cut production awhile back due to oversupply. NAND supply is getting hoovered up by datacenters as well. Expect prices to continue climbing and maybe level off. Best case scenario for us is the AI boom busts and all this hardware gets dumped on the secondary market for dirt cheap. That said, the DDR5 supply would likely only be registered ECC stuff, so no good for gaming rigs, and the NAND would likely be U.2 drives, so not easy to install in a gaming rig either (although for the right price I"ll buy some adapters and make it work).

 

[CakeMonster]

I was tempted by a 64GBx2 kit a few weeks ago, they're now like 50% more expensive. Same for 48x2 and and 32x2. Below that capacity prices aren't that crazy yet. Kind of regret that I did not go for it, who knows what the next 1-2-3 years might bring of global events.

 

[gdansk]

Who knows, usually a glut follows shortages. If you are at 64GB you can probably be "fine" until that cheap memory appears. But who knows, maybe AI is really setting a new normal where that'll never happen and memory pricing just gets worse and worse (seems like a business opportunity for the Chinese DRAM company, though).

 

[Soulkeeper]

I was looking at some ddr5 modules for $260-$280 each about 2 months ago, now they are $340+
These are rdimm ecc.
This with newer and better products already announced and coming to market soon.
This is enough to make me not purchase anything untill next year. I already couldn't really justify/afford things. I need to learn to be happy with what I already have and stop chasing the pc obsession hobby.

 

[Indus]

Who knows, usually a glut follows shortages. If you are at 64GB you can probably be "fine" until that cheap memory appears. But who knows, maybe AI is really setting a new normal where that'll never happen and memory pricing just gets worse and worse (seems like a business opportunity for the Chinese DRAM company, though).

I have 32GB RAM on 2 machines and my wife has 16 GB.

Not coming close to filling it up..

But I'm curious.. what needs 64 GB RAM these days besides 4k video editing? Are there any other usage scenarios?

 

[manly]

Pulled 2x8GB SO-DIMMs out of my laptop a few years back, old slow stuff (2133 MHz?). Maybe now is the time to sell it, but glancing at eBay it's probably not worth my time.

As OP mentioned, it's hard to justify a low-end AM4 new build right now (ironically I just ordered a new micro ATX AM4 motherboard, but I expect Amazon to cancel the backorder).

 

[dangerman1337]

In the UK at Scan UK, Corsair 48GB 8400MT/s kit has gone from £345ish to £60 to £405 now AFAIK.

It's going to be a terrible time buying anything computing related next year because memory prices are spiking more and more and memory manufacturers are making a killing. Feels like our only hope is the AI bubble bursting. Because we can't even plug our H100s into the grid yet we're buying up but we're gobbling up all the world's memory supply, don't worry investors we'll make all that money back... somehow.

This is enough to make me not purchase anything untill next year. I already couldn't really justify/afford things. I need to learn to be happy with what I already have and stop chasing the pc obsession hobby.

As I said, it's probably going to get worse in the coming year. AI Bubble + general economic crash (we're due one next year if that 18 year cycle holds) is probably our best bet.

 

[CP5670]

I noticed this lately too. I was looking to upgrade my 32gb to a 64 or 96 pack and the prices are twice as high as what I recall a year ago. I mostly only game on this pc so it would not make a big difference anyway.

This is a memory issue specifically, even GPU prices are coming down a bit compared to 6 months ago.

 

[Golgatha]

I have 32GB RAM on 2 machines and my wife has 16 GB.

Not coming close to filling it up..

But I'm curious.. what needs 64 GB RAM these days besides 4k video editing? Are there any other usage scenarios?

4k video and running DeepSeek locally where I can exceed 32GB.

 

[Golgatha]

I noticed this lately too. I was looking to upgrade my 32gb to a 64 or 96 pack and the prices are twice as high as what I recall a year ago. I mostly only game on this pc so it would not make a big difference anyway.

This is a memory issue specifically, even GPU prices are coming down a bit compared to 6 months ago.

They've doubled in price within the last 2 months. The 64GB kit is more than double what I paid ($165.99) back when I bought it.

Edit: $428.99 now vs $165.99 this summer for the same DDR5 kit. Yikes!!!

 

[manly]

It's still getting worse...

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/samsung-and-other-memory-manufacturers-reportedly-leave-ddr5-buyers-hanging-as-prices-expected-to-surge-30-50-percent-every-quarter-in-2026/

 

[CakeMonster]

It better go down again for Zen6 release, would be kind of a disaster if that platform has a sweet spot of 8000 and prices are even worse than today for 6000...

 

[CakeMonster]

[News] SanDisk: NAND Undersupply Extends Beyond 2026 as Customers Seek 2027 Supply

As hyperscalers shift from AI training to inference workloads, the need for high-capacity memory is surging. While HBM benefits, NAND is also in high demand. SanDisk reports an undersupplied NAND market through the end of 2026, with customer conversations now pointing to tight supply extending into 2027, according to Yahoo! Finance and IT Home.

According to the Yahoo! Finance earnings call transcript, CEO David Goeckeler said the undersupplied NAND market is driven by long-term demand trends, past capital investments, and industry-wide node transitions.

Notably, SanDisk remains bullish on the long-term data center market, highlighting a major NAND shift. According to the company’s remarks from the transcript, 2026 will likely mark the first time data centers overtake mobile as the largest NAND segment, driven by faster growth and a more diverse customer base.

 

[coercitiv]

But I'm curious.. what needs 64 GB RAM these days besides 4k video editing? Are there any other usage scenarios?

My current system assembled a few years ago was the first time I got 64GB and I kinda loved it even if it turned out to be overkill. My initial plan was to go mITX and I knew upgrades were not on the table after going with 32GB, so I found a good price for 64GB DDR4 and went along with it.

In the end I never did "need" 64GB because the software stack I use at work changed and became much lighter in resources (I completely stopped using Photoshop for example). At the same time I love how the system feels when it has memory to spare for a lot of caching. Right now I have 29GB cached

They've doubled in price within the last 2 months. The 64GB kit is more than double what I paid ($165.99) back when I bought it.

I kept track of price changes in the west and began seriously considering buying new hardware a few weeks ago. This weekend was Black Friday in my country and I was hoping to catch some deals and build a new machine. I was off by 3 days, as RAM prices (on the good deals) started going up before Friday. Not a disaster though, I got 64 GB of DDR5 6000 for ~$220. (VAT excluded) Prices are definitely about to explode here in Eastern Europe as well, as old inventory dries up. Many shops have already gone up massively.

 

[coercitiv]

Fun times

Japanese PC shops limit SSD, HDD, and RAM purchases to prevent hoarding as storage and memory shortage takes hold — buying a full PC unlocks higher purchase limits

Consumers are in for a shock.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[mikeymikec]

Fun times

Japanese PC shops limit SSD, HDD, and RAM purchases to prevent hoarding as storage and memory shortage takes hold — buying a full PC unlocks higher purchase limits

Consumers are in for a shock.

www.tomshardware.com

That's going to really suck for my business if DDR4 modules stop being produced somewhat earlier than expected thanks to demand for regurgitation machines and limited manufacturing capability. Even DDR3 production was stopped a bit early for my taste.