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Question Is the cost of RAM going up everywhere?

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Well, they've apparently found the solution to the consumer memory and storage crises.


www.heise.de

Processor shortage to become acute in the coming months

AMD and Intel are apparently shifting their production to server CPUs. Price increases are looming for desktop PCs and notebooks.
www.heise.de www.heise.de

www.tomshardware.com

PC makers face shortages of Intel and AMD CPUs that stretch up to six months — lead time for orders jumps from just two weeks in the face of AI demand

AI demand for server CPUs is starting to affect the supply for consumer processors.
www.tomshardware.com www.tomshardware.com

After all, who needs memory when you can't buy a CPU?
 
Steltek said:
Well, they've apparently found the solution to the consumer memory and storage crises.


www.heise.de

Processor shortage to become acute in the coming months

AMD and Intel are apparently shifting their production to server CPUs. Price increases are looming for desktop PCs and notebooks.
www.heise.de www.heise.de

www.tomshardware.com

PC makers face shortages of Intel and AMD CPUs that stretch up to six months — lead time for orders jumps from just two weeks in the face of AI demand

AI demand for server CPUs is starting to affect the supply for consumer processors.
www.tomshardware.com www.tomshardware.com

After all, who needs memory when you can't buy a CPU?
Click to expand...
Soon... power supply, keyboard and mouse crisis incomming
 
Steltek said:
Don't forget the other all-important component -- wire mesh for dust screens. Not being able to get that will completely devastate the market.
Click to expand...
XD

now.. being serious, I fear that the war escalation in Iran, REALLY affects the prices of products in the mid and long term. If there is a time to buy something in discount or 2nd hand, might be now, by later will be too late due availabilty.
 
DZero said:
XD

now.. being serious, I fear that the war escalation in Iran, REALLY affects the prices of products in the mid and long term. If there is a time to buy something in discount or 2nd hand, might be now, by later will be too late due availabilty.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I totally agree. And this problem isn't going away even after the Iran war ends -- the CPU makers aren't going to shift resources back to producing consumer CPUs until the AI bubble finally bursts.
 
gdansk said:
Not necessarily. Making it more efficient often causes capital to invest even more in machines because the return on investment becomes even higher. I.e. in a market with high demand for slop, if the slop generated per bit of memory goes up, then memory becomes even more valuable for Google et al.
It's more likely than you think.
Click to expand...
Jevons paradox
 
I'm curious to see what will happen now that OpenAI has defaulted on buying those 900,000 DRAM wafers per month from Micron and Sk Hynix (i.e. the rest of the 40% of the DRAM market they were trying to totally corner).

It will be interesting to see if the big three memory manufacturers curtail their expansion plans to maintain current pricing levels if nobody else steps up to try to buy out that 40%.
 
Steltek said:
big three memory manufacturers curtail their expansion plans
Click to expand...
Sunken cost fallacy only partially applies here. In this case whoever doesn't cancel the new planned fabs will have more state-of-the-art fabs. I bet whoever takes the hit is the one with the worst HBM.
 
IF (big IF) prices start coming down...will consumers snatch up whatever is available so quickly that prices will stay elevated from where they were for a while?
 
Steltek said:
I'm curious to see what will happen now that OpenAI has defaulted on buying those 900,000 DRAM wafers per month from Micron and Sk Hynix (i.e. the rest of the 40% of the DRAM market they were trying to totally corner).
Click to expand...

Has that actually happened?
 
mikeymikec said:
Has that actually happened?
Click to expand...

There appears to be a lot of confusion surrounding exactly what has happened. I know there are several youtube videos related to it, and a significant number of business articles.

From what some articles I've read are saying, OpenAI had a DRAM purchase contract with Micron and SK Hynix that they broke. Others are indicating that OpenAI never had an actual contractual obligation for the DRAM but more something along the lines of a simple agreement in principle to purchase the DRAM and that Wall Street had mis-interpeted as a contract. Either way, it seem that on average around 900,000 DRAM wafers a month are affected by this which is a not-insignifcant supply.

Hopefully, more information will be forthcoming soon related to just what is going on and how it might affect the DRAM market.
 
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thilanliyan said:
IF (big IF) prices start coming down...will consumers snatch up whatever is available so quickly that prices will stay elevated from where they were for a while?
Click to expand...

I suspect that, rather than consumers, the PC OEM manufacturers will initially snap up as much excess supply as they can get their hands on. Many of them are literally in a life-or-death situation now due to lack of DRAM supplies. If this happens, it will continue to prop up the prices for a while longer until they are finally fully resupplied. At that point, consumer supplies will likely increase and prices might come down.

I also suspect that Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung will do everything they can to maintain the current inflated price structure as it is an absolute cash cow for them.
 
Steltek said:
I also suspect that Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung will do everything they can to maintain the current inflated price structure as it is an absolute cash cow for them.
Click to expand...
Very much agree. We need some more competition from the Chinese DRAM makers, although not sure how long they will hold out on charging more also.
 
1775844284720.jpeg

Get creative. This is the lowest system on the rung a zen 3600. It's sporting ddr4 2x4gb sodimms via adapters, a 4gb dimm, and an 8gb dimm for 20gb of frankenram that passes occt.
 
I found a check in the mail from Corsair's DRAM class action settlement.
Not really relevant but I thought it was funny. Memory that I bought for less than current prices has now become even cheaper, retroactively.
 
Samsung is talking about an 8-fold increase in profit for Q1 2026.
www.reuters.com

Samsung flags eightfold jump in quarterly profit as AI chip demand pumps prices

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday projected its first-quarter earnings would exceed its entire profit for last year, beating expectations as booming demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure stretched supply and drove chip prices higher.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
 
bba-tcg said:
Let's hope so. This was $239 in September. When I saw this today, I was like "B*tch, please". Lol.
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Yeah, kind of ridiculous.

Someone has posted a used one in excellent condition in the "For Sale" forum for $325, which is likely the best buy you'll find anywhere on one of these (used or otherwise).
 
Steltek said:
Yeah, kind of ridiculous.

Someone has posted a used one in excellent condition in the "For Sale" forum for $325, which is likely the best buy you'll find anywhere on one of these (used or otherwise).
Click to expand...
I'm not looking for one. The link to this was in my mailbox this morning, but you're right about the probable nonexistence of it, or anything else, at a decent price anywhere.

I'm just glad I went on a shopping spree last year.
 
bba-tcg said:
I'm not looking for one. The link to this was in my mailbox this morning, but you're right about the probable nonexistence of it, or anything else, at a decent price anywhere.

I'm just glad I went on a shopping spree last year.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I bought a few 2TB drives (two SN850x at Walmart, and a Samsung 9100 refurb at Best Buy) before things went totally nuts. Those should be sufficient to hold me over for a while.

If anything, I honestly wish I had picked up a couple more of those 14TB Ironwolf Pro hard drives back during the leadup to Black Friday last year. I could use like four more of them now to build a NAS, but I refuse to pay current prices for spinning rust.

Hindsight is 20/20, I guess.
 
Steltek said:
Yeah, I bought a few 2TB drives (two SN850x at Walmart, and a Samsung 9100 refurb at Best Buy) before things went totally nuts. Those should be sufficient to hold me over for a while.

If anything, I honestly wish I had picked up a couple more of those 14TB Ironwolf Pro hard drives back during the leadup to Black Friday last year. I could use like four more of them now to build a NAS, but I refuse to pay current prices for spinning rust.

Hindsight is 20/20, I guess.
Click to expand...
I've done a lot of retail (mainly in Q4 2025) and Facebook Marketplace wheeling and dealing (2026). Ended up breaking even money wise by putting together computers and selling them with some of the components I got deals on. Got one of my best friends a system put together for the cost of parts too.

Once the dust settled, I still have spare 2TB and 4TB SN850X WD drives, a 32GB DDR5 CL32 kit, and upgraded one of my computers from 32GB to 64GB. So I've got the backups and some future proofing I wanted to have in case I need to RMA anything, or if something dies out of warranty. I'm intending on riding out these crazy prices until Q1 2029, which is my prediction for the time frame when this gets better. The only thing I might buy in that time frame is a 6080 when they're released, but that totally depends on price and performance.
 
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