Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He\u2019s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he\u2019s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-24/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Jowi Morales Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
Hooda Thunkett So, building data centers to build ever more complex AI is now the big trend for billionaires. So much so that most industries and individuals that need the same parts can't afford them because demand is driving up the price. Nobody has figured out a way to monitize AI itself. At least not enough to actually break even. Is AI just some weird scheme to separate billionaires from their money and send it to Taiwan and South Korea? Reply
hwertz Unless you NEED need that RAM, hold fast! The memory cos run a cartel, they set the prices (and coordinate on restricting supply to justify them.) The one thing that gets a cartel's attention in this situation is if demand collapses, they realize they've overplayed their hand at that point and they must lower prices. Reply
Kindaian The price of memory is not important anymore after it reached the "over-my-budget" threshold. Be it more expensive is irrelevant. Can't wait for this DC crazy phase to pass. Reply
ezst036 Just install Linux and you won't need so much RAM anymore. Linux = $$$ savings directly in your pocket. The Windows Tax is getting taxier every moment this AI RAMpocalypse continues. –> –> –> You are paying unnecessary money for all of that bloat in the form of DRAM. <– <– <– Reply
jblosun Well ok, guess I will go ahead and buy RAM for a project I'm not going to get to until August. $250 for 32GB DDR4 3600, what a deal (I'm skipping AM5). I guess I should probably get that SSD too, ugh. Reply
hwertz ezst036 said: Just install Linux and you won't need so much RAM anymore. Linux = $$$ savings directly in your pocket. The Windows Tax is getting taxier every moment this AI RAMpocalypse continues. –> –> –> You are paying unnecessary money for all of that bloat in the form of DRAM. <– <– <– For real though. When I started using Linux in 1993, you were comparing to DOS & Windows 3.1, UNIX systems were more powerful but more RAM hungry and my Linux system was no exception. But Windows 95's requirements were considerably higher than 3.1. Present day you can run a 4GB Linux system and it's reasonable, about like 8GB in Windows; you "can" limp along on 2GB if you run one thing at a time (I did it with a physically nice but low-spec system for Steam Remote Play). 8GB in Linux is actually reasonably nice as long as you aren't planning to run memory-hungry virtual machines. Other nice thing is the driver support. I've NEVER had to retire a computer because driver support was dropped. They're FINALLY starting to drop drivers… for stuff I used back in the 1990s. They seem to have settled on a ~30 year support timeframe now that they finally started removing things. You want to keep running a Core 2 or a Athlon 64 system? You probably shouldn't, that sucker is pretty old, but you can pop Ubuntu on there and it's fully supported. 3D drivers are an amazing aspect of this… there's support now for 20 year old Intel GPUs and 20 year old ATI (and with recent patches 24 years)… not just "there's some old drivers that haven't been removed yet", these were ported within the last 6 or so years to the same Mesa Gallium 3D driver stack that brand new GPUs use, they are fully modern drivers for 20 year old hardware. THAT'S some dedication to getting the most out of your hardware! Reply
chaos215bar2 "Buy now or the price will go up!" Hmm… where have I heard that one before? Whether or not this rather self-serving proclamation is true, unless you absolutely need RAM now, the answer is still to wait. Prices will crash eventually. Reply
Dozi Ace What goes up. Must come down. And, when the bubble pops the price crash will be spectacular. And the Bubble will pop at some point. Question is will gamers and consumers remember and purposely buy Chinese memory while tje big three suffer. Reply
usertests Dozi Ace said: Question is will gamers and consumers remember and purposely buy Chinese memory while tje big three suffer. No, people will and should buy the cheap commodity. Which would be making less or no profit for the companies involved. Reply
dion_ Dozi Ace said: What goes up. Must come down. And, when the bubble pops the price crash will be spectacular. Assuming you mean consumer DDR5, why would prices crash? This shortage is structural, not speculative, meaning that fabs have retooled their production lines for datacenter HBM and RDIMMs, which directly cannibalizes the physical silicon wafer supply available for consumer memory. Even if the AI bubble pops tomorrow and floods the secondary enterprise market with cheap server hardware, it will have zero impact on desktop RAM because the physical standards are completely incompatible. Moreover, readjustment of the production lines will take some time. 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/lexar-regional-manager-says-that-ram-prices-are-expected-to-double-by-the-end-of-the-year-discounts-and-stabilized-prices-result-from-distributors-getting-rid-of-old-stock-or-sourcing-products-from-other-regions#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/subscription
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.