Question Is the cost of RAM going up everywhere?

[dr1337]

The more we talk about it, the more the scalpers will buy/charge.
It's just like the previous events. Had the community not noticed the army of scalpers might not have rushed in to get rich quick.

this is so far beyond scalping its not even funny

I have genuinely been struggling to find any historical reference for a movement like this. The internet bubble nor any other flood or shortage, even 2020 of all events, has slammed the market this hard before. Its not just PCs with this one, or enthusiasts, it's the entire stack. Even phones. Crypto is baby diapers compared to what is happening to RAM prices and GPU gouging was always major every time it reared its ugly head.

 

[marees]

Moore's Law is Dead reveals a purported Samsung leak, predicting a SATA SSD production halt. This impacts the storage market, potentially causing price hikes due to reduced supply. Explore the reasons behind this decision and its consequences on both consumers and the broader tech industry.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1999669507540025474

• 0:00 Samsung is Ending SATA SSD Production
• 1:44 Why Samsung’s done w/ SATA SSDs for the foreseeable future…
• 6:53 Micron Ending Crucial (Why Samsung’s Situation is WORSE)
• 10:22 Why this will Raise (all) SSD Prices...
• 12:00 When will Prices come back down?
• 16:04 BUY NOW – Q1 2026 will be BRUTAL!

 

[mikeymikec]

this is so far beyond scalping its not even funny

I have genuinely been struggling to find any historical reference for a movement like this. The internet bubble nor any other flood or shortage, even 2020 of all events, has slammed the market this hard before. Its not just PCs with this one, or enthusiasts, it's the entire stack. Even phones. Crypto is baby diapers compared to what is happening to RAM prices and GPU gouging was always major every time it reared its ugly head.

I think a few decades ago the likes of Sam Oldman would have thought twice before potentially becoming the posterboy of "this is why we can't have nice things this year", but end stage capitalism fuelled by reduced empathy and the increased income divide is bringing us this turd sandwich.

 

[dlerious]

One of the channels I watch used to recommend Silicon Power and Team Group RAM for budget builds since they were some of the lowest. A recent check on prices found those 2 were some of the highest now.

 

[aigomorla]

So i realized how AI will soon wreck us.
AI will start promoting ADS in results, or recommending products that companies will probably pay the AI to "suggest" when people ask about things.

And this is how our world will end.

RIP all of us..

I think the AI bubble is going to get reinforced before it gets poped.

 

[DZero]

If China somehow blocks rare earths now (due the US moves), the impact would be BRUTAL to say the least.

And even if China starts to produce RAM and SSDs for the world and become a monopoly, it won't be enough.

EDIT:

[Insights] Memory Spot Price Update: DDR4 Rally Builds on 16Gb Strength; DDR5, DDR3 See Mild Pullbacks

According to TrendForce's latest memory spot price trend report, regarding DRAM, DDR5 and DDR3 spot prices saw a mild pullback this week as the rapid ...

www.trendforce.com

even if DDR5 is lowering the prices, what happened with DDR3? Is gonna skyrocket?

 

[aigomorla]

If your still on DDR3, i dont think ram prices are gonna the first of your worries.

 

[DZero]

If your still on DDR3, i dont think ram prices are gonna the first of your worries.

The issue is that even DDR3 would end increasing the prices if people goes vintage with Linux or even Windows 10.

 

[Thunder 57]

If China somehow blocks rare earths now (due the US moves), the impact would be BRUTAL to say the least.

And even if China starts to produce RAM and SSDs for the world and become a monopoly, it won't be enough.

EDIT:

[Insights] Memory Spot Price Update: DDR4 Rally Builds on 16Gb Strength; DDR5, DDR3 See Mild Pullbacks

According to TrendForce's latest memory spot price trend report, regarding DRAM, DDR5 and DDR3 spot prices saw a mild pullback this week as the rapid ...

www.trendforce.com

even if DDR5 is lowering the prices, what happened with DDR3? Is gonna skyrocket?

Supply and demand.

 

[DZero]

Supply and demand.

The heck... I imagine if the DDR3 ends being used on AI, it would be funny to watch

 

[Schmide]

Ironically I bought a 32gb ddr3 kit this summer for $28.50.

I may stick some extra fans on my rams though. At least the good stuff.

 

[mikeymikec]

even if DDR5 is lowering the prices, what happened with DDR3? Is gonna skyrocket?

DDR3 has been almost been completely unavailable for about a couple of years now, at least for me in the UK.

I had Crucial screw me on a ("lifetime") warranty return on a module I bought in 2023, turned out faulty six months later, they had me send in the module then said that they couldn't replace it because they didn't have any DDR3 stocks left. They refused to refund me and instead offered me store credit. In hindsight I should have taken it but I was fairly outraged at their scam notion of a lifetime warranty and that they were denying me my statutory rights. I had planned to fight it but kept hesitating instead of sending off the letter and paperwork I was going to post them.

It's interesting that in Germany "lifetime" warranties aren't legal and as I understand it are usually converted to 10-year warranties.

 

[marees]

DDR3 has been almost been completely unavailable for about a couple of years now, at least for me in the UK.

I had Crucial screw me on a ("lifetime") warranty return on a module I bought in 2023, turned out faulty six months later, they had me send in the module then said that they couldn't replace it because they didn't have any DDR3 stocks left. They refused to refund me and instead offered me store credit. In hindsight I should have taken it but I was fairly outraged at their scam notion of a lifetime warranty and that they were denying me my statutory rights. I had planned to fight it but kept hesitating instead of sending off the letter and paperwork I was going to post them.

It's interesting that in Germany "lifetime" warranties aren't legal and as I understand it are usually converted to 10-year warranties.

The obvious limit on lifetime is the lifetime of the company manufacturing the product ...

 

[mikeymikec]

The obvious limit on lifetime is the lifetime of the company manufacturing the product ...

Logically though, for example a generation of memory is always going to have a finite production run and manufacturers should have sufficient stock for warranty replacements for whatever length of time is deemed appropriate, balancing supply and demand.

The literal ambiguity of the term aside, "lifetime warranty" suggests that if a product ever fails then it will be replaced under warranty. IMO if a manufacturer ever thinks of putting an asterisk next to a term to "clarify" it to mean something other than what the intuitive lingual explanation is, then they should re-think and come up with a term that is linguitively intuitive. In this case, a 3 or 5 year warranty more reasonable (assuming they intend to honour the warranty after the last production run), because it's easier to understand than saying e.g. "10 years of warranty, or 3 years after the end of production for that line", which also allows for a classic weasel tactic of ending production for say a line of memory every year and simply change the model numbers.

On the flipside, it does make me wonder how many components sit on shelves unused until their function as warranty stock expires, at which point they might well just get thrown out. I suppose these days the manufacturer could just sell their stock to an operation that claims to be selling second-hand warranty-less products.

 

[fastandfurious6]

this is so far beyond scalping its not even funny

I have genuinely been struggling to find any historical reference for a movement like this

because there isn't! it's 100% unprecedented. The conditions for it to happen never existed anytime before

- FOMOeconomics
- global widespread economic instability
- global market / web stores in whole globe
- Everyone Is 24/7 Online (mobile data)

to name a few

 

[aigomorla]

And i bet the government isnt going to do anything even tho it completely falls under market manipulation / monopoly.

Especially micron, that took in total 1.6 billion in funding to move fabs to US, only to be automated and not staff'd with real people.

 

[carrotmania]

I was going to buy 2x 96GB 6000MHZ CL36 DDR5 @ £180 each in September. But my kids birthday happened and I figured I'd wait for Black Friday to build my new 9950X3D PC. Each of those kits is now £899-1180, depending on stock.

Was gonna pair that with a 4TB 990 EVO, was £178, is now £364.

Guess I'm waiting for Zen6 or maybe even Zen7 to replace my 5950X.

But AMD will be too busy selling their CCDs for the same AI servers, so no chance of them putting any pressure on RAM makers.

I'm really worried this is the end of the "P" in PC. You'll rent CPU and RAM time for your home system like AWS. A decent spec machine, which shite latency no matter what they do, will cost £3000/yr rather than £3000 every 5 years.

After 30 years of being a computer enthusiast, I was 46 days too late. Inside, I haven't stopped crying for over a month.

 

[DZero]

I was going to buy 2x 96GB 6000MHZ CL36 DDR5 @ £180 each in September. But my kids birthday happened and I figured I'd wait for Black Friday to build my new 9950X3D PC. Each of those kits is now £899-1180, depending on stock.

Was gonna pair that with a 4TB 990 EVO, was £178, is now £364.

Guess I'm waiting for Zen6 or maybe even Zen7 to replace my 5950X.

But AMD will be too busy selling their CCDs for the same AI servers, so no chance of them putting any pressure on RAM makers.

I'm really worried this is the end of the "P" in PC. You'll rent CPU and RAM time for your home system like AWS. A decent spec machine, which shite latency no matter what they do, will cost £3000/yr rather than £3000 every 5 years.

After 30 years of being a computer enthusiast, I was 46 days too late. Inside, I haven't stopped crying for over a month.

Haha, no, people won't rent a computer if the Telecoms won't give their bandwith like that. It will be a very poor experience

 

[jamesdsimone]

I was paying 50 cents a gig 6 months ago for ECC DDR3 PC1866 and about a dollar a gig for DDR4 PC2400. I have a "bad" habit of grabbing way more than I need when I see stuff for super cheap so I have 200+ gigs of DDR3 probably the same DDR4 and a 32Gb PC3200 kit. I have about about 20 various SSD's 500Gb-2Gb too.

 

[DrMrLordX]

And i bet the government isnt going to do anything even tho it completely falls under market manipulation / monopoly.

There's only so much "the government" can do. South Korea won't attack their own chaebol, and the United States isn't going after Micron.

 

[Abwx]

That s robbery in day light and a disaster for DIY PCs, as for for AMD and Intel
if their retail sales tank then they can as well increase their prices by roughly 50% to compensate for the lower revenue, that would still be peanuts in the BOM compared
to the RAM + SSD, ultimately it s the consumers who will be plundered even more.

 

[dr1337]

And i bet the government isnt going to do anything even tho it completely falls under market manipulation / monopoly.

Especially micron, that took in total 1.6 billion in funding to move fabs to US, only to be automated and not staff'd with real people.

Is it really market manipulation if they had a few customers approach them and say: "We will pay 1.5x your normal prices for your entire inventory"?

As far as I can tell, between OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia, and every other industry partner building AI systems just got massively funded and apparently bought all production for themselves.

There is something to be said about not expanding when demand soars through the roof, but legally there no real preqresuite that any company has to expand at all. As far as supply and demand is concerned, we got out demanded.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Is it really market manipulation if they had a few customers approach them and say: "We will pay 1.5x your normal prices for your entire inventory"?

The only market manipulation (if you can call it that) is that modern memory production is handled by so few companies that no one can step in to take up the slack in DRAM production. But yes, buying out all known production capacity for HBM is not in-and-of-itself market manipulation.

 

[DZero]

The only market manipulation (if you can call it that) is that modern memory production is handled by so few companies that no one can step in to take up the slack in DRAM production. But yes, buying out all known production capacity for HBM is not in-and-of-itself market manipulation.

Also, if China decides to step up and screw the rest of makers limiting the rare earths export, it won't be market manipulation since they are moving the production for RAM production

 

[Abwx]

The only market manipulation (if you can call it that) is that modern memory production is handled by so few companies that no one can step in to take up the slack in DRAM production. But yes, buying out all known production capacity for HBM is not in-and-of-itself market manipulation.

Samsung has increase its price by 100%, they sell now 16GB DDR5 at 20$ and 16GB DDR4 at 18$, those numbers do not add up with the retail prices, so that s 100% market manipulation.

"No stock": Samsung raises DDR5 contract price by over 100%

Samsung has reportedly increased the contract price of DDR5 memory by over 100%. Claiming that there is no stock, the Korean Giant has pushed the contract price of DDR5 DRAM near $20. OEMs are likely to pass this price hike on to the consumers in 2026.

www.notebookcheck.net