Crisler's comments, while calming, stand out in contrast to a similar interview given by Kingston's Datacenter SSD Business Manager Cameron Crandall, who told The Full Nerd Network this week that prices are continuing to rise and warned enthusiasts that anyone looking to upgrade their system should " do it now and not wait ," stating that prices "are going to continue to go up." Naturally, Crisler's advice probably applies more to anyone not considering making an upgrade to their PC in the next 12 months.
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Hassam Nasir Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
Jabberwocky79 Yeah, I think both prognostications can live in the same world – If your system is old and you were thinking about upgrading, then by all means, get it while you still can. But if you're setting pretty with your current hardware, don't freak out. Reply
thestryker I will say there is a big difference between video cards that utilize GDDR6 which isn't in high demand (it will be capacity limited, but AI isn't taking the end product) and storage which is just starting to rise in cost. The writing has been on the wall for all forms of memory for a while, but I don't think anyone saw the DRAM explosion coming like it did. HDDs and NAND devices will likely see a slower rise but it's going to just keep going. Reply
usertests Even if they "stabilize" at a higher price, consumer DRAM pricing is eventually going to drop back down to $2-2.50/GB, and below. That's the pattern: price spikes, then declines, repeats, but over time it trends downward as density improves. Reply
Giroro This year isn't any more special than any other year the memory industry has pulled this stunt. They do it every 3 years. If it wasn't "AI" causing demand for (admit it) completely unrelated products which are built at different sites and on different processes than DDR5, then they would be blaming the production cuts on a fire at a competitor's factory, or a minor earthquake in a different country, or a 12 second power outage. It's routine. Mundane. Just start the inevitable criminal investigation, and the brazen collusion and price fixing will stop real fast. The market will collapse, and next year we'll be at record low pricing, again. The tick-tock of the clock is painful. All is sane and logical. This year is the EU's turn to kick things off. So hurry up. The sooner we start calling out the memory cartel on their obvious BS, the sooner we can move on to the next steps. 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/dram/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/sapphire-rep-predicts-dram-prices-will-begin-to-stabilize-in-the-next-6-8-months-but-warns-it-may-not-be-the-prices-we-want-gpu-vendor-says-memory-crisis-is-similar-to-tariff-uncertainty#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.