It's not just the DIY market that is impacted, either. Recently, mini PC maker Minisforum announced price hikes on all of its models containing SSD and DRAM , citing a 'significant increase' in its overall costs.
Some RAM kits on Amazon are showing signs of a real supply crunch. For instance, the best RAM for gaming, per our testing —the G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 —is now only offered by third-party sellers on Amazon, with a 64GB kit that has been priced as low as $204.99 now commanding a $499 price tag. While this might reflect stock issues more than inflation, the result is the same.
Corsair's Dominator Titanium kits, which are still in stock and sold directly by Amazon, are another example. The premium 32GB DDR5 6000Mhz offering was listed at $159.99 in March, the lowest price recorded on that model. Amazon is now selling it for $255.99. The 64GB version, $309 in September, now costs an eye-watering $509 . The more mainstream, and theoretically cheaper Corsair Vengeance DDR5 64GB, is now listed by Amazon at $424.99 . In March, it was just $189, a 124% price increase.
With Phison's CEO recently claiming that an industry NAND shortage could last a decade, price increases like these and hardware horror stories could become all too familiar. With AI juggernauts like Nvidia putting pedal to the metal on data centers, buildouts, and colossal computing deals, things might get worse still before they ever get better.
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Stephen Warwick Social Links Navigation News Editor Stephen is Tom's Hardware's News Editor with almost a decade of industry experience covering technology, having worked at TechRadar, iMore, and even Apple over the years. He has covered the world of consumer tech from nearly every angle, including supply chain rumors, patents, and litigation, and more. When he's not at work, he loves reading about history and playing video games.
Alvar "Miles" Udell Sounds like a great reason not to upgrade my system for quite a while, unless my 128gb RAM turns into gold. Though I'm not sure calling anyone who looks at 32GB of RAM, really 64GB too considering the capacity of DDR5 modules, an "enthusiast" considering Windows and typical idle programs like Steam and Discord can eat up 20GB themselves leaving little for modern games to use without having to page things. Reply
Heat_Fan89 Yikes, no kidding. My 32GB of DDR 5 sticks from TeamGroup, that I purchased for $88 on Amazon are now listed at $288. That's what TeamGroup is directly selling them for. That's a little more than 200% over what I paid. Reply
Amdlova @Alvar "Miles" Udell I remove the hardware acelleration from discord or steam. To save some Mb from graphics card. Another Cheat is using the Intel graphics to remove another dedicated Vram from windows… Almost save 500Mb of Vram. Reply
TechieTwo We see this trend frequently when DRAM makers want to raise prices. This may be a legit supply-demand case due to AI but it won't last forever. Reply
ezst036 That "one weird trick" as the clickbait articles used to say, would be to save memory install Linux. These days now its said to be a "life hack". Either way cheating on memory hogging is quite easy to do. Reply
LordVile Alvar Miles Udell said: Sounds like a great reason not to upgrade my system for quite a while, unless my 128gb RAM turns into gold. Though I'm not sure calling anyone who looks at 32GB of RAM, really 64GB too considering the capacity of DDR5 modules, an "enthusiast" considering Windows and typical idle programs like Steam and Discord can eat up 20GB themselves leaving little for modern games to use without having to page things. I dunno I’ve never seen my RAM usage over 20GB while taking. Also “used” and “allocated” are different things. This has also happened before back with DDR4 Reply
LordVile ezst036 said: That "one weird trick" as the clickbait articles used to say, would be to save memory install Linux. These days now its said to be a "life hack". Either way cheating on memory hogging is quite easy to do. I mean making the system unusable until you complete the 2 year long correspondence course is a way to save RAM. Might have come back down in price by the time you’ve finished too. Reply
Heat_Fan89 LordVile said: I dunno I’ve never seen my RAM usage over 20GB while taking. Also “used” and “allocated” are different things. This has also happened before back with DDR4 I still think 32GB is the sweet spot for most users even, gamers. I was leaning on 32GB for my build but started reading how Microsoft Flight Simulator needs 64GB, even Microsoft said so in their optimal requirements. So I went with 64GB and I get nowhere near 64GB of RAM usage, let alone 20GB in total. Reply
hotaru251 Heat_Fan89 said: d but started reading how Microsoft Flight Simulator needs 64GB, even Microsoft said so in their optimal requirements. flight sim streams 90% of the data and is why the game itself is so tiny vs old version. that streaming needs ram to hold the data. Reply
Notton ezst036 said: That "one weird trick" as the clickbait articles used to say, would be to save memory install Linux. These days now its said to be a "life hack". Either way cheating on memory hogging is quite easy to do. Unless you're doing some heavy games or apps on Linux, in which case you'll still want 16GB minimum and 32GB preferably. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/bewildered-enthusiasts-decry-memory-price-increases-of-100-percent-or-more-the-ai-ram-squeeze-is-finally-starting-to-hit-pc-builders-where-it-hurts#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.