When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works .
The figures on display are rather shocking when converted to today's dollars, with 8 MB of RAM going for $399, or $874 in today's money, and a 64 MB stick ringing in at $3,900, or $8,540 in 2026. The Apple Power Macintosh mentioned in the PR had 12 slots, so it could fit in as much as 1.5 GB of RAM, and although the pricing for 128 MB DIMMs wasn't mentioned, those would be around $8,000 a pop, so "only" 1 GB of RAM would come in at $64,000 — enough for a house back then in the more affordable areas of the U.S. By the way, that amount would be $140,000 today.
In 1995, memory technology was transitioning from SIMMs to the spankin' new DIMMs, and Command and Conquer , MechWarrior 2 , and the original Need for Speed were coming out. 16 MB of RAM was generally accepted as a decent amount of memory for a build, roughly matching the 16 GB of today. Some quick math says those 16 MB of the new technology were about $800, or in today's money, the princely sum of $1,751.
As of today, 16 GB of DDR5 will set you back $200 to $250, but the price of memory has been extremely volatile, to say the least. Plus, not only is supply rumored to drop , server RAM contract prices are expected to rise , and the few crumbs left for the consumer market are still rising in price .
SK hynix chairman Chey Tae-won even suggested that DRAM wafer shortages could last until 2030 at least. The fact that all the major RAM makers are shifting their production lines to HBM for AI accelerators is only making the problem worse. Yes, $200 is still a long way from $1,750, but with things keeping in this direction, there's a non-zero chance this very article will be linked to in the near future.
One year into the AI-induced RAM apocalypse
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/one-gigabyte-of-ram-cost-as-much-as-a-house-back-in-1995-pcs-were-brutally-expensive-back-then-and-were-heading-back-in-that-direction#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
- Hot Chips 2026: Micron warns HBM wafer penalty is widening with every generation — AI memory uses 3x more silicon than DDR5, company says memory wall is 'gettin
- Save $500 on this 1440p-ready gaming PC with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 right now — MSI Codex R2 pre-built drops below $1,500 with a 20-core Intel CPU, 16GB DDR
- Hot Chips 2026: High Bandwidth Flash promises massive bandwidth and capacity, but its usability is extremely limited — new memory format strikes a balance betwe
- Rockstar releases statement after a week of GTA VI leaks, avoids mentioning leaker's demands — says that gameplay leaks have been ‘heartbreaking for our team’
- Crypto bro faces 280 years in prison for defrauding investors with promises of an 'AI supercomputer' for mining — jury convicts businessman of running $24-milli
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.