RAM is certainly one of the least sexy components in your computer, but if you don’t have enough of it, or if it isn’t fast enough, it will hold back every other component in your computer. Every computer of any kind needs RAM, so when the price of memory suddenly shoots up, it’s going to affect more than the price of gaming desktops, and right now RAM prices are skyrocketing.
This is something I’ve decided to call the “RAM-pocalypse”, but ironically the truth is that it’s not the end of the world quite yet. To understand why, we have to understand why this is happening, and what that means for you and your technology going ahead.
RAM prices have exploded—again
Part of the missing context for the current massive increase in RAM prices is that memory’s been pretty cheap for years now. That makes the increases seem particularly brutal when we’re all used to slapping as much RAM as we want into our computers for very little money.
Now, however, DDR5 memory kits have doubled in price since mid-2024, rising faster than the value of gold (as per Tom’s Hardware) and it’s not just RAM either. The flash memory used in SSDs for every conceivable device these days is also experiencing upward pressure on pricing. As OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) scramble to secure their slice of the supply, a bidding war ensues (as per TrendForce News), pushing the pricing of these components through the roof.
From oversupply to shortage in one brutal swing
One of the main reasons that RAM was pretty cheap is that there was more supply than demand. It’s simple economics, from that point of view. So in 2023, for example, there’d be plenty of RAM to go around for everyone who needed it, and DRAM manufacturers had to price things accordingly to keep the lights on. Now supply has dried up as demand increases, mainly from data centers. In fact, it’s likely that there will be a DRAM shortage in 2026 as no amount of price increase will result in more actual memory chips in the short term.
Memory manufacturers have to increase supply to meet this sudden increase in demand, and you can’t just spin up new facilities overnight.
AI and data centers are eating all the memory
As you probably suspect, the main culprit here is AI, which is gobbling up the supply of GPUs, CPU, RAM, and SSDs. Of course, you may point out that these data centers aren’t using the same RAM modules you buy for your laptop or desktop PC, but it’s the diversion of existing manufacturing capacity to make enterprise memory that’s at play here. Since the best profits and most demand come from these massive AI services flush with investment cash, it makes sense to sell memory to those outfits instead.
The end result is that much less consumer-grade memory is made, pushing prices up because of constrained demand.
DDR5’s growing pains are making things worse
There’s another wrinkle here which gets lost a bit in the conversation about AI data centers. We’re still in the transition phase between DDR4 and DDR5, which has been strangely slow when it comes to adoption. The truth is that DDR4 is still more than fast enough for most people, and it’s really only those buying or building the latest systems that have this new memory by default.
DDR5 is more complex and expensive to produce than DDR4, and production hasn’t scaled up enough to really improve pricing on DDR5 kits even before this crunch. Yields on new, smaller processes aren’t as good either (as per DarkFlash). One unintended long-term benefit of this current boom in demand is that it might paradoxically lead to cheaper DDR5, since there’s now big demand for the latest and fastest memory, which doesn’t really exist in the consumer market to any real extent.
In the short term, it hurts and, ironically, DDR4 is also getting more expensive because production has been slowly winding down, so we can’t even take refuge in the older memory standard. That said, there’s still a price gap between DDR4 and DDR5, making it a better buy in a pinch if you already have a DDR4 system.
How to survive the RAM-pocalypse
So, there’s no sugar-coating it—this is a bad time to need RAM. Even worse, the problem will probably persist for a few years until either the demand from AI and other data center services abate or new production capacity has come online and there’s enough supply for everyone again.
However, don’t panic-buy RAM!
Right now that sort of behavior is exactly what’s causing extreme volatility in RAM prices. This is basically like people making a run on their bank, but instead of money they’re trying to get as much RAM as they can because they think it will run out. It’s the pandemic toilet-paper crisis all over again, in other words.
Unless you have a mission-critical need for RAM right this minute, it’s better to simply wait until prices stabilize and more production capacity should start rolling out within a year or two as manufacturers adjust. If you’re currently running a DDR4 system, well, that’s still just fine for work or gaming. For non-professional use cases 32GB of RAM is still more than you need and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
If you do need RAM soon, it’s best to track sales, look for bundles, or clearance deals. Anything to get some relief from peak pricing. Also, if you’re building a system now, RAM is so expensive that it makes more sense to buy a motherboard with at least four RAM slots, and populate just two of them with what you can afford now. This will save you some hassle and money if you need to upgrade the capacity later, because you won’t waste the RAM you already bought.
The best time to buy RAM was unfortunately more than a year ago as of this writing, and since we don’t have time machines, that means weathering this storm and making do with what you have by getting Chrome to use less RAM or reducing settings in games that eat more memory. However, chances are you already have all the RAM you really need, so batten down the hatches and wait out the bad weather.